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Common Special Education Terms and Acronym's encountered. It's a lengthy list of terms to help you understand what people and/or documents are talking about.

ABNORMAL MOTOR ACTIVITY - Refers to a person who is overactive, fidgets, jumps from one activity to another, may talk in disorganized torrents, or may be unusually slow in moving and acting. 

ACADEMIC - Refers to subjects like reading, writing, math, social studies, and science.

ACCOMMODATION - The ocular focusing adjustment for vision at varying distances which enables us to see objects clearly at varying distances.

ACHIEVEMENT TESTS - A test measuring what a student has already learned.

ADNOSIA - Inability to interpret sensory impressions.

ADVENTITIOUS - In education, refers to a condition developing after birth; not a congenital condition.

AFFECTIVE  - Pertains to feelings or emotions.

AGE NORM - Indicates the average performance of persons of each age on a given task.

AGRAPHIA - Inability to write words (see dysgraphia too)

ALEXIA - Loss of ability to read written or printed language despite un-impairment of vision or intelligence.  Word blindness. 

AMBIDEXTERITY - Complete efficiency in both right and left hands.

AMPUTATION - Removal by surgery of a limb because of infection, disease, or accident. 

APHASIA - A weakening or loss of the ability to send and/or receive verbal and/or written messages not connected with diseases of the vocal cords, eyes or ears.  Loss or impairment of the ability to use language because of lesions in the brain.  Aphasia may be sensory (inability to understand words; word blindness; or word deafness) or motor (inability to speak, or to speak the words intended; anarthria).  Individuals with aphasia have difficulties in communicating, that is, they want to say something, know what they want to say, but can’t say it. 

APRAXIA - Inability to carry out a complex or skilled movement; not due to paralysis or impaired comprehension.

APTITUDE TEST - A test measuring someone’s capacity, capability, or talent for learning something.

ARTICULATION - The pronouncing of words.  This may be done correctly or incorrectly. 

ASTEREOGNOSIS - Form of agnosia in which there is a loss of power to recognize objects or to understand their form by touch. 

ATTENTION SPAN - The extent to which a person can concentrate (through vision, hearing, or both) on tasks. 

AUDIOMGRAM - A graph showing the range of hearing.  Hearing sensitivity for air and bone conducted sounds may be shown on the graph.

AUDIOLOGIST - A person who measures and identifies hearing disorders and helps in the rehabilitation of those hearing problems.  The ESA certified Audiologist supervises and coordinates hearing screening programs, and provides audiological services including hearing assessments. 

AUDIOMETRY - The science of measuring and evaluating the sense of hearing.  The evaluation is called an audiometric evaluation. 

AUDITORY - Of or pertaining to hearing.

AUDITORY BLENDING - Fusion of heard parts of words into whole words.

AUDITORY CLOSURE - The ability to identify a word or sound from an incomplete version of the word, such as “tel - -one” for telephone.

AUDITORY COMPREHENSION - The ability to understand what one hears.

AUDITORY CONCEPTUALIZATION - The ability to recognize the sequence of sounds in a word and where sounds may be changed to make other words, such as “cat” and then “bat.”

AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION - Refers to the ability to differentiate among similar sounds or among words that contain similar sounds, such as “tap”-“cap” or “cap”-“cop”.  Difficulty with this usually results in a reduction in ability to understand spoken verbal material.

AUDITORY DYSLEXIA - Refers to a child who has learned and can recall what letters look like but has not learned their sounds. 

AUDITORY FIGURE GROUND - The ability to attend to one sound against a background of sound, such as hearing a person’s voice over the other sounds in the room.

AUDITORY MEMORY - The ability to remember what is heard (words, numbers, stories).  This includes both short-term and long-term memory.

AUDITORY PERCEPTION - The ability to receive sounds accurately and to understand what they mean.

AUDITORY RETENTION SPAN - Refers to the ability to immediately remember units of material presented auditorily.

AUDITORY SEQUENTIAL MEMORY - The ability to reproduce from memory, and in correct order, what is heard. 

AUDITORY SOUND BLENDING - The ability to blend the sounds heard into meaningful words.

AUTONOMIC - Self-controlling; functionally independent. 

BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION - A systematic structured approach used to strengthen certain behaviors and diminish or eliminate other behaviors through positive and negative consequences (reinforcers) of these behaviors.   It is a procedure based on the belief that all behavior is learned and therefore can be unlearned.  It can be applied with either individuals or groups, and is used in both educational and clinical settings.

BILATERAL - Use of both sides of the body in a simultaneous and parallel fashion. 

BINOCULAR COORDINATION - Ability of the eyes to move together.

BINOCULAR VISION - Use of both eyes to move together. 

BODY IMAGE - Complete awareness of one’s own body; the relationship of the body parts to each other and to the outside environment; and its possibilities of movement and performance.

BODY SCHEMA - Overall pattern of one’s direct or sensory awareness of one’s own body; the characteristic way in which a person is aware of his/her own body.  The body image is an actual experience; the body schema is a patterns;  an acquired structure that co-determines the body image in a given structure. 

CENTRAL VISUAL ACUITY - Visual faculty of perceiving the shape or form of objects in the direct line of vision.

CEPHALO-CAUDAL PRINCIPAL - Development begins in the head-neck region and proceeds down through the lower limbs. 

CLOSURE (CLOZE) - Special type of assimilation, closely related to receptive functions.  It involves making “whole” from parts. 

COGNITION - Comprehension or understanding memory retention and recall of informal convergent thinking; bring together of known facts, divergent thinking, use of knowledge in new ways, creative thinking, evaluation; critical thinking.  Term for a process whereby an individual becomes aware or obtains knowledge of an object.  This includes perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, judging, and reasoning. 

COGNITIVE - The act or process of knowing.  Analytical or logical thinking.

COMMUNICATION DISORDER - One of the disabilities as defined by law.  Individuals may have one or more of the following conditions which adversely affects their educational performance:  stuttering, voice disorder, language impairment, and/or impaired articulation.

COMPREHENSION - Understanding

CONCEPTUAL DISORDERS - Disturbances of thinking, reasoning, generalizing, memorizing.

CONGENITAL - Present from birth; originating before, at, or immediately following birth. 

CONVERGENCE - Movement of the eyes such that light from a single source falls on the two foveas; the action of the eyes whereby they turn inward when viewing binocularly an object moving in toward the face from a distance. 

CONVERGENT THINKING - Thinking that approaches or is directed toward one common center or single point such as an answer, one correct answer, a solution. 

COORDINATION - Harmonious action of muscle groups in performing complex movements.  (See also, Fine Motor Coordination, Gross Motor Coordination, and Visual Motor Coordination.)

CRITERION REFERENCED TEST - A test assigned to measure specific knowledge or content a child has learned or not learned.

CROSS-LATERAL COORDINATION - The combination of working together, or parts on either side of the body in relation to each other.

CROSS-LATERAL MOVEMENT - Movements requiring the simultaneous use of different limbs on opposite limbs (as both arms) simultaneously but in opposite directions.

CROSSING THE MIDLINE - The movement of the eyes, a hand and forearm, or foot and leg across the midsection of the body without involving any other part of the body, such as without the head turning, trunk twisting or swaying, or without intervention of the opposite limb.

CYSTIC FIBROSIS - Cystic fibrosis is a hereditary condition which affects the secretions of the sweat, mucous, and salivary glands.  This problem, prevalent in Caucasians, can be mild with no symptoms, to severe with little mobility and early death.  In the past, individuals did not live up to school age.  Severity of the condition, and intelligence and motivation of the individual, determines longevity and treatment options.  Most individuals with cystic febrosis survive best in dust and fume-free environments.  Extreme temperatures, heavy physical activity, and exposure to respiratory infections should be avoided.

DEAF - A hearing impairment so severe the student is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing with or without amplification; the condition generally adversely affects educational performance.

DEAF/BLIND - A combination of hearing and visual impairments cuasing communication, developmental and educational problems which cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for deaf or blind children.

DECODING - Refers to intake of verbal symbols through auditory and/or verbal pathways.  Ability to change sounds or symbols into ideas.

DEPENDENCY/DELINQUENCY - A dependent student is one who is under the age of 18 and who has no home, or means of subsistence, or proper guardianship.  Such an individual has needs not being met in the traditional family home setting, and is dependent on some outside resource (often the state) to meet those needs.  The state law defining dependency often includes individuals who are “delinquent”, such as those who are incorrigible, are beyond the control of parents or guardians, or have committed “status offenses” (truancy, consumption of alcohol, violation of curfew, etc.) which are violations of the law because of the individual’s status as a minor.

DEVELOPMENT - Interaction between maturational processes and environmental influences. 

DEVELOPMENTAL - Successive changes during the process of natural growth.

DEVELOPMENTALLY DELAYED - Refers to children birth to three years old who have a 25% delay in one or more of the following areas:  cognitive (thinking skills), communication, fine motor, or gross motor.  Children three to six years of age must have a delay in those same areas or, in addition, social emotional development.  Tests administered by the MDT determine the extent of the child’s delay and whether the delay is enough below average to qualify the child for services.

DEVELOPMENTAL PERIOD - Refers to the years from birth through adolescence during which time human physical development takes place.  Referred to as the period during which many learned skills and behaviors develop in a majority of non-handicapped individuals.

DEVELOPMENTAL SCALES - These scales assess the child’s level of development.  They are especially useful with younger or more severely handicapped children, pinpointing both strengths and weaknesses. 

DIFFERENTIATION - The ability to sort out and use independently different parts of the body and in a specific and controlled manner.  For example, the ability to innervate the muscles of one arm without innervating in a similar fashion the muscles of the other arm. 

DIRECTIONALITY - Projection of laterality outside the individual which has developed inside the individual. Being aware of both sides of the body and the ability to identify them as left and right.

DISINHIBITION - Reduction of previous restraint.

DISTRACTABILITY - Characteristic of a person whose attention is easily drawn to extraneous stimuli, the inability to hold one’s attention fixed on a given task for more than a few seconds. 

DIVERGENT THINKING - Thinking activity and patterns which move in different directions (away) from a common point.  Thought which is characterized by imagination, variety, development of alternative methods or means of solutions to problems.

DYKINESIA - Impairment of the power of voluntary movement resulting in fragmentary or incomplete movements; poor coordination.

DYSACUIS - Hearing impairment which involves distortion of loudness or pitch or both, rather than loss of sensitivity.

DYSARTHRIA - Articulatory disorder reflecting central nervous system dysfunction of the motor musculature of speech.

DYSCALCULIA - Inability to do simple arithmetic calculations.

DYSDIADOCHOKINESIA - Clumsiness of fine movements; impaired ability to draw geometric figures.

DYSGRAPHIA - Specific disability in which handwriting is disorganized, illegible for age/grade level.

DYSRHYTHMIA - Abnormal speech fluency, usually characterized by defective stress breath control and intonation.

EDUCATIONAL AGE - Indicates the average educational performance of persons of a given age.  This is often used with commercially prepared achievement tests which cover most school subjects.

EKG - Electrocardiogram

ELABORATION - Embellishment by the addition of associated ideas or movements.

ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM - Graphic record of the wavelike changes in the electric potential observed when electrodes are placed on the skull.  Also known as brain wave tracing.  Used in neurological testing.

EMOTIONALLY DISABLED - Individuals who are unable to maintain their emotional equilibrium and independence under minor or major stress because of disturbances in their emotional development (See also Severely Behaviorally Disabled.)

EMOTIONALLY HIGHSTRUNG - Individuals are often irritable, overly sensitive, quick tempered, explosive, moody hard to live with.  They flash between tantrums and remorse, may panic easily, and has a low tolerance for frustration. 

ENCODING - refers to output of verbal symbols through motor (speech, gestural, and/or written) pathways.  Changing ideas to words or written symbols.

EPILEPSY - Characterized through the primary diagnosis of seizures, which are stimulated by an abnormal discharge of cells within the brain.  The seizures are only a symptom caused by one or more basic problems.  The following describe how some forms of seizures may manifest themselves:

Petit Mal - A small seizure that results in wandering vision and persistent blinking of the eyes.  The student is often mistakenly thought to be daydreaming or to be inattentive in the classroom.

Grand Mal - This seizure is the easiest to recognize.  It is a seizure where the individual becomes unconscious, the body rigid, and there is violent jerking of the arms and legs.  Some frothing of the mouth and biting of the tongue may also be prevalent.

Psychomotor - A difficult seizure to recognize, there are abnormal movements from lip smacking to various body movements.  The individual is awake and may run or wander aimlessly across the room.  In such cases, it is important to handle the individual calmly in order to prevent a series of seizures. 

ETIOLOGY - Source or origin of a symptom or disease.

EXPERIMENTATION - The ability, desire and willingness of the individual to try to test a newly learned movement or task to see how many different ways it can be used by itself or in correlation with other movements or tasks.

EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE SKILLS - Skills required to produce language for communication with other people.  Speaking and writing are expressive language skills.

EYE-HAND COORDINATION - The ability to relate vision with movements of the body or parts of the body. 

EYE-VOICE SPAN - Distance between the point being read orally and the point at the right where the eyes are directed.

FEEDBACK - In an organism, the sensory report of the somatic results of behavior.

FIELD OF VISION - Entire area which can be seen without shifting the gaze.

FIGURE-GROUND DISCRIMINATION  - Ability to sort out important features, figures, and characteristics.

FINE MOTOR ACTIVITIES -  Activities or output in which precision in delicate muscle systems is required.  Development and control of small muscle groups, such as those needed to write, cut, hold a pencil, etc.  These skills are usually developed by the professional known as an Occupational Therapist.

FORM CONSTANCY - The ability to see that a square is a square no matter what size or color, and that an “a” is an “a” whether printed lowercase, uppercase, in writing, in italics, etc. 

FORM PERCEPTION - The ability to conceive form in all its parts, put together as a whole unit then break it down again into individual parts.

FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION - A manner of treating data in which the scores are tallied and arranged in graphic form in order of quantity from lowest to highest scores.

FRUSTRATION LEVEL - That level at which the student is not capable of performing at a given time.

FUNCTIONAL LEVEL - The level at which the child currently performs on a given task.

GENERALIZED MOVEMENTS - A wave of movements that sweeps through the whole body.  Parts such as arms and legs are moved, not in relationship to their function but only as an adjunct of the total movement.

GRADE NORM - Indicates the average performance of students in each grade.

GRAPHEME - Written form of a sound unit.

GROSS MOTOR ACTIVITY - Activities or output in which groups of large muscles are used and the factor of strength if primary.

GROSS MOTOR COORDINATION - The development and awareness of large muscle activity.  Coordination of large muscles in a purposeful manner such as walking, jumping, and running.  These skills are usually developed by the professional known as a Physical Therapist.

Bilateral - ability to move both sides of the body at the same time (e.g. jumping);

Unilateral - ability to move one side of the body without moving the other (e.g., hopping

Cross Lateral - ability to move different parts of the opposite sides of the body together or in different sequences (e.g. , skipping).  

HANDEDNESS - The choice of hand or side that is to lead in all activities.  True handedness grows out of one’s body and the ability to call from the one needed for a prescribed task.  False handedness is merely a naming of sides and this is often done by linking one side to an external object such as a ring, etc.

HEMIPLEGIA - Partial or complete paralysis of one lateral half of the body caused by an injury to the motor center of the brain.

HYPERACTIVITE - Abnormally active, characterized by excessive mobility or motor restlessness.

HYPERKENESIS - Term used by physicians for hyperactivity.

HYPERVENTILATION - Abnormally active, characterized by excessive mobility or motor restlessness.

HYPOACTIVE - Characterized by abnormally decreased activity.

IDEATIONAL AGRAPHIA - Inability to recall letter shapes.

IMPULSIVENESS - A behavior characteristic whereby the person acts unpredictably and is often unmanageable.  Acting and speaking without reflection provoked by small stimuli, compulsive touching of persons and objects is characteristic. 

INTEGRATION - The pulling together and organizing of all of the stimuli which are impinging on the organism at a given movement.  It also involves tying together distinct variables from past activities with the present stimulation experience.  The organizing of many individual moments into a complex response.

INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT  - A relative measure of a person’s intelligence with an I.Q. of 80-120 representing the performance of an average person.  An I.Q. of 100 is the median score.

IQ - Intelligence Quotient

KINESTHETIC METHOD - A method of treating reading disability by having the student trace the outlines of words.

KINESTHESIS - Sensory knowledge of one’s body movements.

LANGUAGE DISORDERS - Possible speech irregularities.

LANGUAGE, EXPRESSIVE - Speaking and writing

LANGUAGE, RECEPTIVE - Listening and reading

LATENT - Hidden, not apparent at the moment but potentially able to develop.

LATERALITY - Complete awareness of the two sides of the body and the ability to use each separately or both sides together as the task demands. 

LEFT-RIGHT DISCRIMINATION - Involves knowing the difference between left and right inside the body before projection is made outside the body.

LONG-RANGE GOALS - Statements describing the educational performance to be achieved by the end of the year under the child’s Individual Education Plan.  Also known as annual goals.

MANDATORY - Containing or of the nature of a mandate or command; obligatory.

MATURATIONAL LAG - A slowness in certain specialized aspects of neurological development.

MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY -

            Mode - The most frequently appearing score

            Median - the middle-most score, the 50^th percentile

Mean - The mathematical average obtained from the sum of all scores divided by the total number of scores.  This is the most commonly used measure of central tendency represented by a formula.

MEMORY - Recall of visual, auditory, and/or tactile, kinesthetic stimuli.

MENTAL AGE - Refers to the comparison of a student’s intelligence test scores with comparative age norm scores.

MENTAL RETARDATION - Significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period which adversely affects a child’s educational performance.  The three levels of mental retardation are:  mild, moderate, and severe. 

MIDLINE - The imaginary line from the tip of the head to the feet which separates the body into halves (front view) serving as a zero point of origin.  Unless a person has a well-defined midline as the result of well developed laterality, his/her structure will not be stabilized and (s)he may have difficulty orienting him/herself to surroundings.

MIXED CEREBRAL DOMINANCE - Term suggesting that right or left dominance has not been completely established.

MODALITY - A way of acquiring sensation:  visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory a common sense modalities.  The pathways through which an individual receives information and thereby learns, such as vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch.

MONOCULAR - The use of one eye while the other eye is shut or covered.

MOVEMENT PATTERNS - The organization of single movements into complex wholes.  The movement patterns allow a child to concentrate on the purpose of the movement rather than on how the movement can be made. 

NEUROLOGICAL EXAMINATION - Examination or evaluation to determine decrease of, or damage to, the nervous sytem.

NORM - An average or typical score against which individual scores can be compared.

NORMAL DISTRIBUTION - The bell-shaped curve characterized by a concentration of scores near the average and the symmetrical tapering toward each extreme.  This distribution was discovered with games of chance such as the frequency of tossing a coin and the occurrence of “heads and tails”.  This is also sometimes referred to as chance distribution.

NORM GROUP - The standardizing group that provided the scores for computation for norm tables.

OCR - Office of Civil Right (United States Government)

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST  (OT)- Assesses and treats individuals or groups of students in the development of purposeful action in performance skills.  Assess “fine motor” skills which are important for how a child uses his/her hands for self-feeding, dressing, playing with toys, etc.

OCULAR - Having to do with the eyes

OCULOMOTOR  - Eye movement behavior

OPERATIONS - Processes involved in thinking. 

            Cognition - comprehension or understanding

            Memory - retention and recall of information

            Convergent Thinking - use of knowledge in new ways or creative thinking

            Evaluation - critical thinking

OPTHALMOLOGIST - A physician specializing in the structure, functions and diseases of the eye.  Also prescribes lenses for correction of refractive errors.

OPTOMETRIST - A person with a doctorate degree (but not a licensed physician) who specializes in examining the eyes for refractive errors and prescribing lenses to correct these errors.

ORGANICITY - Refers to the organic basis or causes of thinking and behavior difficulty or defects; suggests neurological deficits.

ORIENTATION - The person’s ability to adjust or adapt to the environment or situation.

ORTHOPEDIST - A physician specializing in evaluation and treatment of bone problems in children and adults.

OSERS - Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (United State Department of Education).

PEDIATRICIAN - A physician specializing in the treatment of children.

PEERS - Individuals in the same social, economic, and educational setting or age group.

PERCENTILE NORMS - Percentile equivalents translated from raw scores.  They indicate how the student stands in the relation to peers in educational endeavors.

PERCEPTION - An experience or sensation combined or integrated with previous experiences which give it added meaning.  Perception is controlled by stimuli received, memory, and motivation input.  The process of interpreting sensory information.  The accurate mental association of present stimuli with memories of past experiences.

PERCEPTUAL DISABILITIES - These can involve the visual, auditory, or kinesthetic and tactile senses, so that a person does not see what others see, or hear what they hear, or have the same sense of space and size relationships, although there is nothing wrong with the eyes, ears, or other senses.

PERIPHERAL VISION - Visual sensations arising from the visual sense cells lying outside the central (foveal) area of the retina.

PERSEVERATION - Continuing to behave or respond in a certain way when it is no longer appropriate.  Difficulty in shifting from one task to another.

PHONETICS - Study of all speech sounds in language and how sounds are produced.

PHONEME - Sound of a unit of writing or speech.

PHONICS - Use of phonetics in teaching reading.  Relating the sound (phoneme) of the language with the equivalent written symbol.

PHYSICAL THERAPIST(PT) - Works with gross motor functioning, that is, muscle activities and movement patterns needed for basic skills such as rolling over, walking, crawling, and running.  Treats bones, joints, muscles and nerves under a physician’s supervision.  The practice of a registered physical therapist is directed toward preventing disability; relieving pain, developing, improving and /or restoring motor function; and maintaining maximum performance within the student’s capabilities.

POOR COORDINATION - Characterized by clumsiness; trouble making eyes and hands function together; difficulty with fine muscle activity such as buttoning, drawing, and writing; and/or gross muscle activity such as walking, running, etc.

PROXIMODISTAL - The direction from the center outward.  Movements of large muscle groups lying toward the center develop before the independent movement of parts lying at the extremities.  Thus, movements of the total arm precede those of the wrist and fingers.

PSYCHIATRIST - A physician (medical doctor) who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of emotional, behavioral, and/or psychiatric problems.

PSYCHOLOGIST -  A person with a Master’s Degree or Ph.D. who specializes in testing and/or treatment of behavioral disorders.  ( See School Psychologist). 

PSYCHOMETRIST - A person with a Master’s Degree who specialized in administering and evaluating psychological tests including intelligence, aptitutde, and interest tests.

PSYCHOMOTOR - Muscle responses including development of fine motor muscles (e.g. cutting) and large muscles (e.g. walking).

P.I. - Teacher of the Physically Impaired

PT - Physical Therapist or Physical Therapy

RANGE - A measure of variability obtained by subtracting the lowest score from the highest score.  The range includes the highest and lowest scores.

RAW SCORES - Numerical reports of a person’s performance on a test.  A raw score can indicate nothing of generalized significance unless a comparison is made with some standard.

READINESS - Physical, mental, and emotional preparedness for a given learning activity.

READINESS SKILLS - Those skills which the student is expected to develop one way or another before entering first grade or before performing a new task.

READING COMPREHENSION - The ability to understand what one has read.

RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE - Receiving and understanding spoken or written communication.  The receptive language skills are listening and reading.

REDUNDANCY  - The act of simultaneously appealing to as many of the senses as possible in a given task.  Example:  tracing a square on sand paper with the finger.  The student sees the square, hears the movement of his finger across the rough surface, feels the tactual contact of his finger with the paper, and also feels the kinesthetic or muscular movements in his hand and arm. 

RELIABILITY COEFFICIENT - The repeatability of a set of scores of a given test if it was repeatedly given and the set of scores averaged.

RESOURCE TEACHER - Instructor of a part-time or full-time special class in an area of exceptionality.  Resource teachers may be located at one site or may be itinerant traveling to and serving several schools.

REVERSALS - In reading and writing, reversal of single letters (e.g. “b” and “d”), or the order of letters within a word (e.g. “pat” for “tap”), or the order of a whole line.

RIGIDITY - The act of clinging to certain acts, perceptions, or periods of inaction even though they cease to be appropriate.  These acts of rigidity are often used to exclude or avoid more appropriate and productive acts.

SCHOOL COUNSELOR - The Certified Counselor helps plan and develop the guidance program and the curriculum based on the student’s needs, and coordinates the use of services available outside of the school environment. 

SCHOOL NURSE - The Certified Nurse uses knowledge of health and behavioral sciences to identify student’s physical, social, and emotional problems.

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST - The Certified School Psychologist is a specialist in the learning process and is qualified to implement general principles of learning.  School Psychologists may perform the following general functions:  measure the intellectual, social and emotional development of children and interpret the results of psychological  studies; diagnose educational disabilities and plan education and therapeutic programs; identify exceptional students and collaborate in the planning of appropriate educational/social placements and programs; develop ways to facilitate learning and adjustment of students; help teachers and administrators understand student behavior, intellectual and personality differences as they apply to individual students and classes; serve as a consultant in curriculum planning; consult with individual students and/or families; and encourage and initiate research to improve education. 

SCHOOL SOCIAL WORKER - This Certified staff person provides services to students who are temporarily or permanently impaired in the normal educational process by reason of behavioral or emotional maladjustment, mental, physical, learning/language disabilities, or other handicapping conditions.  Social workers can be the facilitator in identification and assessment, intervention planning, direct intervention, and assessment, reassessment, and accountability. 

SCORE POINTS - All the possible numerical values on the test continuum.

SCREENING - Means collecting information about the child from people who know the child and who know the problems that the child is having.  This information helps the team to decide whether or not to conduct an individual assessment of the child.

SELF-CONCEPT - A person’s idea of himself.

SENSATION - Data a person receives through the stimulation of sensory nerve endings.

SENSORY-MOTOR - Refers to evaluations and activities involving the integration of sensory perception and motor performance.

SEQUELAE - Any infection following and caused by a previous disease.

SEVERELY BEHAVIORALLY DISABLED - A condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree, which adversely affects educational performance: (These are generally the inhabitants of the EBD Classroom I talk about here and there)

1.     An inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory or health factors;

2.     An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers;

3.     Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;

4.     A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; and/or

5.     A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

The term includes individuals who are schizophrenic or autistic.  The term does not include students who are socially maladjusted, or who have minor behavior problems.

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN - The individual with a short attention span has difficulty in concentrating on any one thing, is easily distracted, and/or is prone to repeating inappropriate behaviors needlessly unless helped to stop.

SKEWED DISTRIBUTION - A distribution of scores in which the resulting curve is very high at either extreme of the graph.

SOCIAL - One’s self-concept or idea about self; ability to deal with peers or adults.

SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE - The ability to get along with one’s peers (friends). 

SOCIAL MATURITY - The ability to assume personal and social responsibility expected of persons of similar age.

SOFT NEUROLOGICAL SIGNS - Neurological abnormalities that are mild or slight and difficult to detect, as contrasted with the gross or obvious neurological abnormalities.

SOUND SYMBOL - Relationship of the sound and printed form of letters and words.

SPACE - The area in which the student exists and moves; the immediate surroundings as well as those at a distance.  Note:  spatial relationships and spatial directions develop first in relation to the student.  Thus, early in development the student locates two objectives, each independently in relation to self (subjective space).  Later, a student is able to conceive of one object to the right or left of another without the intervening step of locating each object with relation to self (objective space). 

SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS - The ability to judge size, distance, right and left, and the relation of one object to another.

SPEECH THERAPY - The process for remediation of speech disorders such as stuttering, lisping, misarticulation.  Conducted by a qualified speech pathologist (communication disorders specialist) on a one-to-one or small group basis.

SPLINTER SKILLS - A restricted motor approach to a specific problem that exists in isolation, “splintered off” from the remainder of the individual’s motor activity.  Its usefulness is limited, being adequate for only one type of activity.  This isolated response also confuses the individual since he is required to live with two basic sets of motor approaches between which there is little or no connection. 

STANDARD DEVIATION - A numerical index indicating the degree of dispersion of data.  The most useful and commonly used measure of variability.

STANDARD ERROR OF MEASUREMENT - Refers to an amount by which a test score may vary but still be considered to have the same relative value.  For example, if one standard error of measurement for a test equals 5 points, and the test score if 90, any scores between 85 and 95 are considered to have the same relative value (for purposes of clarification).

STANDARDIZED TEST - Refers to tests for which norms (average scores or responses), have been established; tests are designed to show where an individual stands in comparison to an average or norm.  Standardized tests yield results that give the same information about similar test takers; equal scores reflect relatively equal abilities or aptitudes, or interests, or levels of achievement.

STANDARD SCORE - A method often used in expressing norms.  The data is presented in this form so the test user, knowing the score of an individual, can determine how (s)he compared to the standard group.

STANINE SCORE - A standard based score on a nine-point scale with scores of 4, 5 and 6 indicating the average.

STEREOGNOSIS - Perceptions of objects or forms by touch.

STIMULATION LEVEL - The level of activity that demands just enough effort on the student’s part to keep him interested and to encourage him to experiment further.

STRABISMUS - Lack of coordination of, or weakness in, the eye muscles so that the two eyes are not directed at the same point, or “wander”.  When the eyes converge (wander in) the condition is called cross-eyed or esotropia; when they diverge (wander out), walleyed (extropia).  Early detection and correction are important to maximize visual functioning. 

STRUCTURING - The act of arranging an activity in a way that is understandable to the individual and conclusive to performance or, in other words, arranging the task in such a way that the individual will be aware of what is expected of him.

SYMBOLIZATION - The process in which spoken or written symbols take on meaning, that is, are understood by the individual and in turn are used for a verbal or written expression.

SYNDROME - A set of symptoms which occur together.

TACTILE - Sense of touch

TACTUAL - Having to do with the sense of touch.  We use it to express both the student’s application of his sense of touch to a given object or task and the use of tactual clues applied to the student by the instructor.

TACTUAL-KINESTHETIC - A combination of the sense of touch and the sense of muscle movement.

T-SCORE - A type of standard score which is adjusted to have a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10.  A score of 70 would indicate two standard deviations (20) above the mean.

TRUE SCORE - A hypothetical term used if perfectly reliable tests were administered to people and with no chance factors involved.

UNILATERAL - One sided; the individual who is unilateral uses one side of his body and ignores the other.

VAKT - Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic-Tactual method of word study.

VALIDITY - The degree to which we know what a test actually measures or predicts.

VERGICLA IMBALANCE - Tendency of one eye to deviate upward

VERTICALITY - Feeling of “up” and “down”.

VISUAL ASSOCIATION - The ability to form relationships from an incomplete presentation.

VISUAL CLOSURE - The ability to identify an object from an incomplete presentation.

VISUAL DISCRIMINATION - Adeptness at seeing likenesses and differences in geometrical figures, pictures, and word elements.  Using the eyes to discriminate letters and words.

VISUAL FIGURE GROUND - The ability to see the differences in form as “b” and “d”, or a square and a rectangle, etc.

VISUAL MOTOR COORDINATION - The ability to relate vision with movements of the body or parts of the body.

VISUAL PERCEPTION - The identification, organization, and interpretation of data received through the eye.

VISUAL-PERCEPTUAL PROBLEM - Inability to get meaning from visual symbols such as letters, words, pictures, etc.

VISUAL PURSUIT - The act of following or pursuing a target with the eyes.

VISUAL RECEPTION - The ability  to get meaning from visual symbols such as letters, words, pictures, etc.

VISUAL SEQUENTIAL MEMORY - The ability to remember sequences of visually presented figures, as in the order of letters which make up words.

VOCALIZATION - Movement o flips, tongue, or vocal apparatus.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING - Special preparation for a trade, profession, occupation, or career.

WORD ANALYSIS - Analysis of an unfamiliar word into known elements for the purpose of identification.

WORD ATTACK SKILLS - Refers to a student’s ability to analyze words by syllable and phonetic elements in order to arrive at pronunciation and meaning. 

WORD CALLING - Reading of words but with little or no understanding of the ideas they represent.

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Now remember these terms/Acronym's are provided FYI - no one is selling them and if you use them credit goes to ISD 196/MN S.E.A.C. for their generosity and hard work for all of us. Thanks!

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