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Special Education Key Terms and Definitions. Disability an inability to do something; a diminished capacity to perform in a specific way. Handicap a disadvantage imposed on an individual. Prevalence the percentage of a population or number of individuals who have a particular exceptionality. Special Education specially designed instruction that meets the unusual needs of an exceptional student. Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) a legal term referring to the fact that exceptional children must be educated in as normal an environment as possible. Regular Education Initiative a philosophy that maintains that general education, rather than special education, should be primarily responsible for the education of students with disabilities. Inclusive Schools Movement a reform movement designed to restructure general education schools and classrooms so they better accommodate all students including those with disabilities. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) civil rights legislation for persons with disabilities that ensures nondiscrimination in a broad range of activities.
Individualized Education Plan (IEP) a plan for each exceptional child that includes the present level of performance, instructional goals, educational services, and criteria and procedures for determining that objectives are being met. 0. Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) a plan to provide services for young children with disabilities and the families of those children that includes assessment and statement of goals, needed services, plans for implementation, family involvement, coordination of services, and transition into preschool. . Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) a federal law stating that to receive funds under the act, every school system in the nation must provide free, appropriate public education for every child between the ages of three and twenty-one, regardless of how or how seriously he or she may be disabled. 0. Normalization a philosophical belief in special education that every individual, even the most disabled, should have an educational and living environment as close to normal as possible. 0.
Deinstitutionalization a social movement of the 1960s and 1970s whereby large numbers of persons with mental retardation and/or mental illness were moved from large mental institutions into smaller community homes or into the homes of their; recognized as a major catalyst for integrating persons with disabilities into society. 0. Full inclusion all students with disabilities are placed in their neighborhood schools in general education classrooms for the entire day. 0. Continuum of alternative placements the full range of alternative placements, from those assumed to be least restrictive to those considered most restrictive 0.
Disability rights movement a loosely organized effort to advocate for the rights of people with disabilities through lobbying legislators and other activities. 0. Handicapism a term used by activists who fault the unequal treatment of individuals with disabilities. 0. Mainstreaming the placement of students with disabilities in general education classes for all or part of the day and for all or only a few classes. 0. Cooperative learning a teaching approach in which the teacher places students with heterogeneous abilities (for example, some might have disabilities) together to work on assignments. 0.
Peer-mediated instruction the deliberate use of a student’s classroom peer(s) to assist in teaching an academic or social skill 0. Peer tutoring a method that can be used to integrate students with disabilities in general education classrooms, based on the notion that students can effectively tutor one another. 0. Universal design the design of new buildings, tools, and instructional programs to make them useable by the widest possible population of potential users. 0. Manifestation determination a procedure in which school officials determine whether a student’s behavior is or is not a caused by his or her disability. . Developmental delay a term often used to encompass a variety of disabilities of infants or young children indicating that they are significantly behind the norm for development in one or more areas. 0. Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) evaluation that consists of finding out the consequences, antecedents, and setting events that maintain inappropriate behaviors. 0. Multicultural education aims to change educational institutions and curricula so they will provide equal educational opportunities to students regardless of their gender, social class, ethnicity, race, disability, or other cultural identity. . Macroculture a nation or other large social entity with a shared culture. 0. Microculture a smaller group that exists within a larger cultural group and has unique values, style, language, dialect, ways of communicating non-verbally, awareness, frame of reference, and identification. 0. Sociocultural theory belief that the individual, interpersonal or social experiences, and community or institution are all important and inseparable causes of human behavior and that language ties all of these aspects of development together. 0.
Native-language emphasis students are taught most of the day in their native languages and later make a transition to English. 0. Sheltered-English approach students receive instruction in English for most of the school day from the beginning of their schooling. 0. Down Syndrome a condition that results from an abnormality in the twenty-first pair of chromosomes. 0. Williams Syndrome a condition that results from deletion of material in the seventh pair of chromosomes. 0. Fragile X a condition in which the bottom of the x chromosome in the twenty-third pair of chromosomes is pinched off. . Prader Willi Syndrome A condition caused by inheriting from one’s father a lack of genetic material on the fifteenth pair of chromosomes, resulting in genetic obesity. 0. Working memory The ability to remember information while also performing other cognitive operations. 0. Self-regulation refers generally to a person’s ability to regulate his or her own behavior. 0. Metacognition a person’s awareness of the strategies necessary to perform a task and the ability to use self-regulation strategies. 0. Readiness skills are skills deemed necessary before academics can be learned. . Functional academics practical skills, rather than academic learning skills. 0. Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) the practice of determining the consequences, antecedents, and setting events of inappropriate behavior. 0. Positive Behavioral Support Systematic use of the science of behavior to find ways of supporting the desirable behavior of an individual rather than punishing the undesirable behavior. 0. Competitive employment A workplace that provides employment that pays at least minimum wage and in which most workers are nondisabled. 0.
Supported competitive employment A workplace where adults who are disabled earn at least minimum wage and receive ongoing assistance from a specialist or job coach; the majority of the workers in the workplace are nondisabled. 0. IQ-Achievement discrepancy Academic performance lower than would be expected based on a student’s intellectual ability 0. Authentic assessment A method that evaluates a student’s critical thinking and problem-solving ability in real-life situations. 0. Curriculum-based assessment A formative evaluation method designed to evaluate performance in the particular curriculum to which students are exposed. . Error analysis An informal method or teacher assessment that involves the teacher noting the particular kinds of errors a student makes when doing academic work. 0. Informal reading inventory (IRI) a method of assessing reading in which the teacher has the student read progressively more difficult series of passages or word lists. 0. Portfolios a collection of student’s work done over time. 0. Direct Instruction a method of teaching academics that emphasizes drill and practice and immediate feedback. 0.
Mneumonic strategy cognitive training strategies used to help children with memory problems remember content. 0. Scaffolded instruction a cognitive approach to instruction in which the teacher provides temporary structure or support while students are learning a task. 0. Phonological awareness the understanding that the speech flow can be broken into smaller sound units such as syllables and phonemes. 0. Conduct disorder a disorder characterized by overt, aggressive, disruptive behavior or covert antisocial acts. 0. Perseveration tendency to repeat behaviors over and over again. . Strauss syndrome behaviors of distractibility, forced responsiveness to stimuli, and hyperactivity. 0. Cerebral palsy A condition characterized by paralysis, weakness, incoordination, and/or other motor dysfunction because of damage to the brain before it has matured. 0. Minimal brain injury A term used to refer to children who exhibit inattention, impulsivity, and/or hyperactivity, popular in the 1950’s and 1960’s. 0. Hyperactive child syndrome A term used to refer to children who exhibit inattention, impulsivity, and/or hyperactivity, popular in the 1960’s and 70’s. 0.
Behavioral inhibition the ability to stop an intended response, to stop an ongoing response, to guard an ongoing response from interruption, and to refrain from responding immediately. 0. Executive functions the ability to regulate one’s behavior through working memory, inner speech, control of emotions and arousal levels, and analysis of problems and communication of problem solutions to others. 0. Conduct disorder term originally used by IDEA to indicate a behavioral or emotional disorder. 0. Affective disorder a disorder of mood or emotional tone characterized by depression or elation. 0.
Anxiety disorder a disorder of mood or emotional tone characterized by depression or elation. 0. Externalizing acting-out behavior; aggressive or disruptive behavior that is observable as behavior directed toward others. 0. Internalizing acting-in behavior; anxiety, fearfulness, withdrawal, and other indications of an individual’s mood or internal state. 0. Comorbidity co-occurrence of two or more conditions in the same individual. 0. Schizophrenia A disorder characterized by psychotic behavior manifested by loss of contact with reality, distorted thought processes, and abnormal perceptions. . Autism A pervasive developmental disability characterized by extreme withdrawal, cognitive deficits, language disorders, self-stimulation, and onset before the age of thirty months. 0. Tourette’s Syndrome (TS) A neurological disorder that begins in childhood in which stereotyped motor movements are accompanied by multiple vocal outbursts or socially inappropriate words or statements. 0. Aggression behavior that intentionally causes others harm or that elicits escape or avoidance responses from others. 0. Enuresis Urinary incontinence; wetting oneself. . Encopresis Bowel incontinence; soiling oneself. 0. Stuttering speech characterized by abnormal hesitations, prolongations, and repetitions. 0. Communication disorders Impairments in the ability to use speech or language to communicate. 0. Language An arbitrary code or system of symbols to communicate meaning. 0. Speech the formation and sequencing of oral language sounds during communication. 0. Augmentative or alternative communication (AAC) alternative forms of communication that do not use the oral sounds of speech. 0.
Speech disorders oral communication that involves abnormal use of the vocal apparatus, is unintelligible, or is so inferior that it draws attention to itself and causes anxiety. 0. Articulation The movements the vocal tract makes during production of speech sounds. 0. Fluency The flow with which oral language is processed. 0. Language disorders oral communication that involves a lag in the ability to understand and express ideas, putting linguistic skill behind an individual’s development in other areas, such as motor, cognitive, or social development. 0. Phonology the study of how individual sounds make up words. . Morphology the study within psycholinguistics of word formation; how adding or deleting parts of words changes their meaning. 0. Syntax the way words are joined together to structure meaningful sentences; grammar. 0. Pragmatics the study within psycholinguistics of how one uses language in social situations. 0. Semantics the study of the meaning attached to words and sentences. 0. Specific language disorder (SLI) a language disorder with no identifiable cause, not attributable to hearing impairment, mental retardation, brain dysfunction, or other plausible cause. 0.
Early expressive language delay (EELD) A significant lag in the development of expressive language that is apparent by age two. 0. Milieu teaching a naturalistic approach to language intervention in which the goal is to teach functional language skills in a natural environment. 0. Resonance the quality of the sound imparted by the size, shape, and texture of the organs in the vocal tract. 0. Dysarthria A condition in which brain damage causes impaired control of the muscles used in articulation. 0. Apraxia the inability to move the muscles involved in speech or other voluntary acts. . Decibels Units of relative loudness of sounds. 0. Congenitally deaf Deafness that is present at birth. 0. Adventitiously deaf Deafness that occurs through illness or accident in an individual who was born with normal hearing. 0. Prelingual deafness Deafness that occurs before the development of spoken language, usually at birth. 0. Postlingual deafness Deafness occurring after the development of speech and language. 0. Pure-tone audiometry A test whereby tones of various intensities and frequencies are presented to determine a person’s hearing loss. 0.
Audiometric zero The lowest level at which people with normal hearing can hear. 0. Ossicles Three tiny bones that together make possible an efficient transfer of sound waves from the eardrum to the oval window, which connects the middle ear to the inner ear. 0. Tympanometry A method of measuring the middle ear’s response to pressure and sound. 0. Speech audiometry A technique that tests a person’s detection and understanding of speech. 0. Evoked-response audiometry A technique that involves electroencephalograph measurement of changes in brain-wave activity in response to sounds. 0.
Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) He decibel level at which a person can understand speech reflex audiometry. 0. Conductive hearing loss Hearing loss, usually mild, that results from malfunctioning along the conductive pathway of the ear. 0. Sensorineural hearing loss Hearing loss, usually severe, that results from malfunctioning of the inner ear. 0. Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) The most frequently occurring viral infection in newborns; can result in a variety of disabilities. 0. Cornea A transparent cover in front of the iris and pupil in the eye; responsible for most of the refraction of light rays in focusing on an object. . Aqueous humor A watery substance between the cornea and lens of the eye. 0. Vitreous humor A transparent, gelatinous substance that fills the eyeball between the retina and the lens of the eye. 0. Retina The back portion of the eye, that contains nerve fibers connected to the optic nerve. 0. Visual efficiency Term used to refer to how well an individual uses his or her vision, including control of eye movements, attention to visual detail, and discrimination of figure from background. 0. Hyperopia Farsightedness; vision for near objects is affected. 0.
Myopia Nearsightedness; affects vision for distant objects. 0. Astigmatism Blurred vision caused by an irregular cornea or lens. 0. Glaucoma A condition of excessive pressure in the eyeball; if untreated, causes blindness. 0. Cortical visual impairment Poorly understood childhood condition that apparently involves dysfunction in the visual cortex. 0. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) a condition that results from administration of an excessive concentration of oxygen at birth. 0. Diabetic Retinopathy a condition that results from interference with the blood supply to the retina. 0.
Strabismus a condition in which the eyes are directed inward or outward. 0. Nystagmus a condition in which there are rapid involuntary movements of the eyes; sometimes indicates a brain malfunction and/or inner ear problems. 0. Cognitive mapping a nonsequential way of conceptualizing the spatial environment that allows a person who is visually impaired to know where several points in the environment are simultaneously. 0. Orientation and mobility skills The ability to have a sense of where one is in relation to other people, objects, and landmarks and to move through the environment. 0.
Autism A pervasive developmental disability characterized by extreme withdrawal, cognitive deficits, language disorders, self-stimulation, and onset before the age of thirty months. 0. Pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) A severe developmental disorder characterized by abnormal social relations, including bizarre mannerisms, inappropriate social behavior, and unusual or delayed speech and language. 0. Asperger syndrome A developmental disability in which language and cognitive development are normal but the child may show a lag in motor development and impairment in emotional and social development. . Rett’s disorder Apparently normal development through at least age five months, followed by deceleration of head growth between ages five months and forty-eight months, loss of psychomotor skills, and severe impairment of expressive and receptive language, usually associated with severe mental retardation. 0. Childhood disintegrative disorder Normal development followed by significant loss, after age two but before age ten, of previously acquired social, language, self-care, or play skills with qualitative impairment in social interaction or communication and stereotyped behavior. 0.
Echolalia The parroting repetition of words or phrases either immediately after they are heard or later; usually observed in individuals with autistic spectrum disorder. 0. Cerebral palsy (CP) A condition characterized by paralysis, weakness, incoordination, and/or other motor dysfunction; caused by damage to the brain before it has matured. 0. Neuroleptics Anitpsychotic drugs; drugs that suppress or prevent symptoms of psychosis; major tranquilizers. 0. Psychostimulants Medications that activate dopamine levels in the frontal and prefrontal areas of the brain that control behavior. 0.
Acquired aphasia Loss or impairment of the ability to understand or formulate language because of accident or illness. 0. CHARGE syndrome A genetic syndrome resulting in deaf-blindness; characterized by physical anomalies, often including coloboma, cranial nerves, heart defects, atresia of the chonae, retardation in growth and mental development, genital abnormalities, ear malformation and/or hearing loss. 0. Usher syndrome An inherited syndrome resulting in hearing loss and retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive condition characterized by problems in seeing low light and tunnel vision. 0.
Down Syndrome A condition that results from an abnormality in the twenty-first pair of chromosomes; characterized by mental retardation and such physical signs as slanted-appearing eyes, hypotonia, a single palmar crease, shortness, and a tendency toward obesity. 0. Atresia Absence or closure of a part of the body that is normally open. 0. Choanae Air passages from the nose to the throat. 0. Congenital anomaly An irregularity present at birth; may or may not be due to genetic factors. 0. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) Injury to the brain resulting in total or partial disability or psychosocial maladjustment that ffects educational performance. 0. Cerebral palsy A condition characterized by paralysis, weakness, incoordiantion, and/or other motor dysfunction caused by damage to the brain before it has matured. 0. Quadriplegia A condition in which all four limbs are paralyzed. 0. Diplegia A condition in which the legs are paralyzed to a greater extent than the arms. 0. Hemiplegia A condition in which one half (right or left side) of the body is paralyzed. 0. Paraplegia A condition in which both legs are paralyzed. 0. Spasticity Characterized by muscle stiffness and problems in voluntary movement. . Choreoathetoid Characterized by involuntary movements and difficulty with balance. 0. Epilepsy A pattern of repeated seizures. 0. Seuzure A sudden alteration of consciousness, usually accompanied by motor activity and/or sensory phenomena. 0. Spinal bifida A congenital midline defect resulting from failure of the bony spinal column to close completely during fetal development. 0. Catheterization The insertion of a tube into the urethra to drain the bladder. 0. Muscular dystrophy A hereditary disease characterized by progressive weakness caused by degeneration of muscle fiber. 0.
Hypotonic A term describing low muscle tone that sometimes occurs as a result of cerebral palsy. 0. Precocity Remarkable early development. 0. Insight The ability to separate and/or combine various pieces of information in new, creative, and useful ways. 0. Genius A word used to indicated particular aptitude or capacity in any area; rare intellectual powers. 0. Creativity the ability to express novel and useful ideas, to sense and elucidate new and important relationships, and to ask previously unthought-of but crucial questions. 0. Talent A special ability, aptitude or accomplishment. 0.
Giftedness refers to cognitive superiority, creativity, and motivation of sufficient magnitude to set the child apart from the vast majority of age-mates and make it possible for him or her to contribute something of particular value to society. 0. Enrichment An approach in which additional learning experiences are provided for students with special gifts or talents while they remain in the grade levels appropriate for their chronological ages. 0. Acceleration an approach in which students with special gifts or talents are placed in grade levels ahead of their age peers in one or more academic subjects. . Eugenics movement A popular movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that supported the selective breeding of humans. 0. Individualized Family service Plan (IFSP) A plan for services for young children with disabilities (under three years of age) and their families. 0. Sibshops workshops for siblings of children with disabilities; designed to help siblings answer questions about the disability and learn to adjust to having a sister or brother with a disability. 0.
Family-centered model a type of early intervention program that is consumer-driven in that professionals are viewed as working for families; views family members as the most important decision-makers. 0. Family systems theory Stresses that the individual’s behavior is best understood in the context of the family and the family’s behavior is best understood in the context of other social systems. 0. Guardianship A legal term that gives a person the authority to make decisions for another person. 0. Social support Emotional, informational, or material aid provided to a person or family.