Special Needs Terms: Quick Reference Guide

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If you are new to the online special needs community, the amount of abbreviations used can become overwhelming. I figured it would be easier, we could gather them up and put them in one centralized location. I hope you find use in this list.

***These definitions are combined from various accredited websites such as; Google, Wikipedia, About, WebMD, Autism Speaks, Bing, & More. As well as, personal opinions combined from several others who have gained knowledge through personal experiences. Feel free to add to them in the comment section at the bottom of this post.***

ADD/ADHD – Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder-is a common condition that affects children and adolescents. Those challenged, generally have problems paying attention or concentrating. They can’t seem to follow directions and are easily bored or frustrated with tasks. They also tend to move constantly and are impulsive, not stopping to think before they act

ABA- Applied behavior analysis is the use of techniques and principles to address socially important problems, and to bring about meaningful behavior change.

AS – Asperger syndrome-or Asperger disorder, is an autism spectrum disorder that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development

ASD – Autism spectrum disorder-Autism spectrum disorder and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors. They include autistic disorder, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger Syndrome.

AT – Assistive technology- can be defined as any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.

AYP – Adequate yearly progress-is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing academically according to results on standardized tests.

BIP – Behavior intervention plan-takes the observations made in a Functional Behavioral Assessment and turns them into a concrete plan of action for managing a student’s behavior. A BIP may include ways to change the environment to keep behavior from starting in the first place, provide positive reinforcement to promote good behavior, employ planned ignoring to avoid reinforcing bad behavior, and provide supports needed so that the student will not be driven to act out due to frustration or fatigue.

CBI – Community based instruction-performance based instruction using an Individual Education Plan (IEP) with goals and objectives that involvesa series of small group activities, where students apply independent living skills from the classroom into the community.

CD – Cognitive disability-a person with a cognitive disability has greater difficulty with one or more types of mental tasks than the average person. There are too many types of cognitive disabilities. A person with profound cognitive disabilities will need assistance with nearly every aspect of daily living. Someone with a minor learning disability may be able to function adequately despite the disability, perhaps even to the extent that the disability is never discovered or diagnosed.

CREATE – Culturally responsive education for all: Training and enhancement- is a framework that recognizes the importance of including students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning.

DS – Down syndrome- characterized by the presence of an extra copy of genetic material on the 21st chromosome. Often Down syndrome is associated with some impairment of cognitive ability and physical growth, and a particular set of facial characteristics. Individuals with Down syndrome usually have low intelligence, ranging from mild to moderate disabilities. Many children with Down syndrome who have received family support, enrichment therapies, and tutoring have been known to graduate from high school and college, and enjoy employment in the work force.

EBD – Emotional behavioral disturbance- is a broad category which is used commonly in educational settings, to group a range of more specific perceived difficulties of children and adolescents.

ED – Emotional disturbance- a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

ER – Evaluation Report- A detailed report given following an evaluation or many evaluations.

Epilepsy is characterized by a long term risk of recurrent seizures. These seizures may present in a number of different ways.

EEG- A procedure where they attach tons of wires to your scalp with a sticky substance to chech your brain. ———Medical Definition: Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain. , EEG refers to the recording of the brain’s spontaneous electrical activity over a short period of time, usually 20–40 minutes, as recorded from multiple electrodes placed on the scalp.

FAPE – Free appropriate public education -is an educational right of children with disabilities in the United States.

FBA – Functional behavioral assessment is a variation on procedures originally developed to ascertain the purpose or reason for behaviors displayed by individuals with severe cognitive or communication disabilities (e.g., individuals with mental retardation or autism). Because these individuals were unable to fully explain why they were displaying certain inappropriate behaviors, methods were developed to determine why they demonstrated such actions.

FERPA – Family Education Rights and Privacy Act is a United States federal law.It gives students access to their education records, an opportunity to seek to have the records amended, and some control over the disclosure of information from the records. With several exceptions, schools must have a student’s consent prior to the disclosure of education records.

G Tube- A feeding tube is a medical device used to provide nutrition to patients who cannot obtain nutrition by swallowing. The state of being fed by a feeding tube is called gavage, enteral feeding or tube feeding. Placement may be temporary for the treatment of acute conditions or lifelong in the case of chronic disabilities.

HI – Hearing impaired -is a disability wherein the ability to detect certain frequencies of sound is completely or partially impaired.

IDEA – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act- is a United States federal law that governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services to children with disabilities. It addresses the educational needs of children with disabilities from birth to age 18 or 21.

IEP – Individualized education program- An IEP is designed to meet the unique educational needs of one child, who may have a disability, as defined by federal regulations. The IEP is intended to help children reach educational goals more easily than they otherwise would. 34 CFR 300.320 In all cases the IEP must be tailored to the individual student’s needs as identified by the IEP evaluation process, and must especially help teachers and related service providers (such as paraprofessional educators) understand the student’s disability and how the disability affects the learning process.

LD – Learning disability (disabled)-a classification including several disorders in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner, usually caused by an unknown factor or factors. The unknown factor is the disorder that affects the brain’s ability to receive and process information. This disorder can make it problematic for a person to learn as quickly or in the same way as someone who is not affected by a learning disability. People with a learning disability have trouble performing specific types of skills or completing tasks if left to figure things out by themselves or if taught in conventional ways.

LRE – Least restrictive environment-By law, schools are required to provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment that is appropriate to the individual student’s needs. “Least restrictive environment” means that a student who has a disability should have the opportunity to be educated with non-disabled peers, to the greatest extent appropriate.

MRI-magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) A medical procedure used to view internal parts of your body. Expect to be put inside a large machine. It is painless but can be frightening to young children or those with a fear of small places. Medical Definition:is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures. Especially useful in imaging the brain, muscles, the heart, and cancers.

NCLB – No Child Left Behind- is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools. NCLB supports standards-based education reform, which is based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education.

NOREP – Notice of Recommended Educational Placement- form filled out by the school district or other educational entity which describes a child recommended placement. In theory, it reviews the learner’s needs and strengths, describes other settings that were considered, and explains why other options were rejected.

NVLD – Nonverbal learning disability - condition characterized by a significant discrepancy between higher verbal and lower motor, visuo-spatial, and social skills on an IQ test. NLD involves deficits in perception, coordination, socialisation, non-verbal problem-solving and understanding of humour, along with well-developed rote memory.

OCD – Obsessive compulsive disorder-is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions. Symptoms of the disorder include excessive washing or cleaning; repeated checking; extreme hoarding; preoccupation with sexual, violent or religious thoughts; aversion to particular numbers; and nervous rituals, such as opening and closing a door a certain number of times before entering or leaving a room.

OT – Occupational therapy (therapist)- is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments that develop, recover, or maintain clients’ activities of daily living. The therapist helps clients not only to improve their basic motor functions and reasoning abilities, but also to compensate for permanent loss of function.

PBS – Positive behavioral support -strives to use a system to understand what maintains an individual’s challenging behavior. Students’ inappropriate behaviors are difficult to change because they are functional; they serve a purpose for the child. These behaviors are supported by reinforcement in the environment. The positive behavior support process involves goal identification, information gathering, hypothesis development, support plan design, implementation and monitoring

PDD-NOS – Pervasive development disorder, not otherwise specified -Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) is one of theautism spectrum disorders and is used to describe individuals who do not fully meet the criteria for autistic disorder or Asperger syndrome.

Pierre Robin Malformation, is a congenital condition of facial abnormalities in humans. PRS is characterized by an unusually small mandible posterior displacement or retraction of the tongue (glossoptosis), and upper airway obstruction.

Pica is characterized by an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive (such as clay or chalk).[1] For these actions to be considered pica, they must persist for more than one month at an age where eating such objects is considered developmentallyinappropriate.

PT – Physical therapy (therapist) is concerned with identifying and maximizing quality of life and movement potential within the spheres of promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment/intervention,and rehabilitation. This encompasses physical, psychological, emotional, and social well being.

REACh – Responsive Education for All Children Initiative- REACh helps schools establish the ability to make system-wide improvements to reduce barriers to learning and allow all students to experience success, including students with disabilities. The REACh framework components focus on collaborative problem solving using data-based decision making to implement evidence-based practices at all levels in a school system.

SDD – Significant developmental delay - refers to a delay in a child’s development in adaptive behavior, cognition, communication, motor development or emotional development to the extent that, if not provided with special intervention, the delay may adversely affect a child’s educational performance in age-appropriate activities.

SLD – Specific learning disability - is a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or to do mathematical calculations. This includes conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia and developmental aphasia.

SPD – Sensory processing disorder - a Neurological disorder causing difficulties with taking in, processing and responding to sensory information about the environment and from within the own body (visual, auditory, tactile, olfaction, gustatory, vestibular and proprioception).

ST — -Speech Therapy focuses on receptive language, or the ability to understand words spoken to you, and expressive language, or the ability to use words to express yourself. It also deals with the mechanics of producing words, such as articulation, pitch, fluency, and volume.

Stim/Stimming-is a repetitive body movement that self-stimulates one or more senses in a regulated manner. Stimming is known in psychiatry as a “stereotypy”, a continuous, purposeless movement. Common forms of stimming among people with autism include hand flapping, body spinning or rocking, lining up or spinning toys or other objects, echolalia, perseveration, and repeating rote phrases.

TBI – Traumatic brain injury -TBI can cause a host of physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral effects, and outcome can range from complete recovery to permanent disability or death.

V.A.T.E.R. syndrome - refers to five different areas in which a child may have abnormalities: Vertebrae, Anus, Trachea, Esophagus, and Renal (kidneys). There may also be cardiac and limb conditions, which changes the acronym to V.A.C.T.E.R.L. A child diagnosed with one of these syndromes will not necessarily have a problem in every area, but a constellation of birth defects involving many of the areas.

VI – Visual impairment-is vision loss (of a person) to such a degree as to qualify as an additional support need through a significant limitation of visual capability resulting from either disease, trauma, or congenital or degenerative conditions.

Weighted Blankets, Vest and Lap pillows- A weighted blanket is a safe and effective way to apply weight and deep pressure.

Pre-Verbal-Having not yet learned to speak.

Non-verbal-is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless (mostly visual) messages between people. Messages can be communicated through gestures and touch, by body language or posture, by facial expression and eye contact. Nonverbal messages could also be communicated through material exponential; meaning, objects or artifacts(such as clothing, hairstyles or architecture).

ASL American Sign Language is a complete, complex language that employs signs made by moving the hands combined with facial expressions and postures of the body. It is the primary language of many North Americans who are deaf and is one of several communication options used by people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Meltdown- is a common autistic characteristic. Not to be confused with a temper tantrum. It is every known form of manipulation, anger, and loss of control that a person can muster up to display. It is loud, frustrating, and exhausting. The best definition is a total loss of behavioral control. A child in the middle of a meltdown does not consider their own or others safety.

Sensory Overload- a condition of receiving too much information or stimulation via visual or audio sources; overstimulation of one or more senses. In sensory overload, it becomes difficult to focus on the task at han and often leads the person to shut down. Often leads to meltdown or tantrums.

Neurotypical (or NT) is a term for people who are not on the autism spectrum. Specifically, neurotypical people have neurological development and states that are consistent with what most people would perceive as normal.

Chiari Malformation- a malformation of the brain that causes swelling to the brain stem. Symptoms can range from headaches to paralysis. Get educated by following a blog from a real mother who is affected by Chiari Malformation

I will be adding more, so be sure to bookmark this post, and check back often!

Feel Free to add to these definitions in a comment below, as well as any other special needs terms that may not be listed. I will add them to the list as I receive comments.

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