An approximate age-level at which a student is expected to perform most tasks as determined by psychological testing; a student with a normal ability level is expected to complete tasks as well as other students his same age; a student with low ability level is expected to complete tasks as well as a student younger than himself would perform.

Thinking at a level that is not dependent on the presence of exact facts (literal); students with poor abstraction skills often misunderstand jokes, puns, riddles, and idioms because information is implied rather than especially provided. For example, “it’s raining cats and dogs,” means that it is raining heavily (abstract), not that cats and dogs are pouring from the sky (literal).

The basic skills (reading, math) and content areas (social studies, science) that a student is taught.

A special employee assigned to meet certain needs of identified students, such as sign-language interpreter for a hearing impaired student, a personal attendant for a physically handicapped student, etc.

At least once a year, a student’s placement in special education must be reviewed by a team made up of at least a parent, teacher, and administrator. This team reviews the student’s progress within the special education program and decides if any program changes might be necessary in order for the student to meet his goals. The team also discusses specific goals and objectives that should be accomplished in order for the student to be successful in his educational setting.

Partial or complete loss of the ability to speak or understand language due to injury, disease, or brain damage.

The manner in which speech sounds are produced; many errors self-correct as the child gets older; this is because the student gains better control over the muscles involved in speech as he matures. Articulation errors can be (but not always are) caused by poor listening skills (often due to middle ear infections), dental problems, a general delay in maturation, or specific physical problems that affect the student’s ability to move his lips and tongue efficiently.

An evaluation that allows people working with a student to estimate his skills and ability level by comparing his test results with those of other students his same age. This testing is designed to help the team define the student’s actual strengths and weaknesses, in a variety of areas, including but limited to: articulation, language, fluency, voice and oral motor.

Equipment that allows the student to function independently within the classroom. These may include modifications to furniture, pencil grips, tape recorders, communication boards, etc.

Being able to focus on information that you see or hear.

A problem in which the student has difficulty choosing what information to pay attention to (distractibility), doesn’t seem to stop and think before acting (impulsivity), and appears to be in constant motion (hyperactivity). This diagnosis is usually made by a physician and educator together, based on gathered history and observations.

A test designed to measure how well one hears.

A person who is trained to give hearing tests in the areas of acuity and perception.

The ability to mentally fill-in-the-blank when part of a word or sentence is missing auditorily.

Hearing the differences between sounds

The ability to separate what one wishes to hear (the figure) from its surrounding environment (the ground); a student with an auditory figure-ground problem may not be able to separate the teacher’s voice from the background noise of the classroom.

The ability to remember information that one has heard, both immediately (short-term) and after some delay (long-term).

Being able to understand and remember information that one hears.

The series of actions necessary to understand and remember information including, attention, memory, discrimination, sequencing, and conceptualization (making a mental image).

The ability to match spoken sounds and words with their visual symbols.

Vocabulary that relates to simple characteristics that describe spatial relations (over/under), quantitative relations (more, many), temporal relations (before/after), etc.

The skills that a student must use repeatedly to complete a more complex task, including elementary reading, mathematics, and communicative competencies.

A reading skill in which the reader is able to isolate individual phonemes (sounds) and then cluster them together in order to say the word; for example c-a-t is cat.

The process of thought which allows one to gain knowledge; it includes the acts of thinking, understanding, remembering, recognizing, abstracting, and applying the new knowledge to other situations (generalizing).

The sending and receiving of messages; in humans, communication is generally either visual (reading, writing, sign language), auditory (listening, speaking), or tactile (Braille).

The ability to understand an idea and apply the information learned to new situations.

Thinking at a descriptive level (literal).

Any letter of the English alphabet, except a, e, i, o, and u.

A cluster of two or more consonants in a word, each of which keeps its individual sound.

The part of a sentence or longer work that provides the specific meaning.

A test that compares a student’s behavior to a performance standard, not a numerical score.

Problem solving skills that are used to complete tasks that require solutions; being able to apply knowledge learned to new situations.

The sounding out and blending of letters into meaningful words.

A lacking of some specific ability that keeps the learner from succeeding in reading, spelling, writing, or mathematics.

Measuring skills in the chronological order that they should be mastered.

A combination of two written letters that represent a single speech sound (ch, th, sh).

A combination of two written letters that represent a single speech sound (ch, th, sh).

The degree to which a student cannot filter unnecessary outside input.

A difficulty understanding visual symbols; this term is currently used to describe a reading problem whose origin may be due to maturational lag, attention deficit disorder, and/or language difficulties.

The ability to communicate words verbally (speech) or visually (writing).

Not literal; imaginative language or speech (abstract).

Simple motor tasks that are completed using small muscle control, such as speaking, writing, buttoning, cutting, etc.

The ability to learn a skill under one set of conditions and use it under a different set of conditions; some students find it difficult to apply what is learned in a pull-out program to what is being taught in the regular classroom.

Movement that involves balance, coordination, and large muscle activity, such as walking, skipping, jumping, etc

An impairment in the function of the ear, the nerves which send the messages to the brain, or the brain itself, which affect the way sound is processed.

Words having the same pronunciation but different spelling and/or meaning (flower/flour).

Individualized Education Program designed for a student who qualifies for special services under PL94-142. This document controls the special education program and contains a complete outline of the student’s school-based program.

When a student reacts without thinking and does not seem to learn behavior changes from experience.

A language/reading skill in which the student must be able to draw conclusions about what he is reading by reasoning from the known facts and applying that information to the unknown.

The language of thinking necessary to give meaning to one’s experiences (self-talk).

Pitch variations; the melody of pitch in connected speech.

Intelligence quotient, This score can only be determined by a licensed psychologist and is figured by attaching a number to various skills that the student has completed on a standardized test. This score reflects one’s comparison to a standardized group of the same age. Average intelligence is generally considered to be a score from 90 to 110.

Verbs whose past tense is formed in other ways than adding –ed (see/saw; run/ran).

The use of words or phrases that have specific meaning only to a select few.

Awareness of one’s body-in-space; a sense of one’s own body movements.

The understanding and usage of verbal symbols to convey thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.

The act of receiving and understanding verbal symbols; visual processing is reading and auditory processing is listening.

The act of formulating verbal symbols into thoughts and ideas to be expressed; visual production is writing and auditory production is speaking.

An analysis of the words and structures used by a student in his everyday speech; the speech-language pathologist records all conversation produced by a student, and then analyzes the sample for quality of content in terms of grammar, vocabulary, or meaning intent.

Understanding what one hears.

The practice of allowing a student with a disability to participate with typically developing children whenever the activity will allow a measure of success for the special education student. This interaction allows for improved social, emotional, and educational growth of the special education student.

Materials that involve the learner in a motor act, such as: working with blocks, clay, etc.

Being able to recall information as long as you are paying attention to it (short-term recall); being able to retrieve stored information by thinking about it (long-term recall).

The way information is received or expressed; it may be through sound (auditory) through sight (visual), through touch (tactile/kinesthetic), through smell (olfactory), or though taste (gustatory).

The arrangement of sounds into words or other parts which carry meaning.

Using many modalities or avenues of input simultaneously in teaching.

Story-telling form; a narrative may be spoken or written.

Meaning given to physical gestures and facial expressions.

An evaluation that compares a student’s test results to the scores earned by a sampling of other students.

The small steps that must be reached in order to achieve the final goals defined for the special education student.

A specialist specifically trained to help students develop better fine muscle control and perceptual motor skills.

Being able to put pieces of information together into a whole picture; students with organizational problems can answer short questions, but cannot combine the information into an essay-type answer.

Meaningful awareness of objects, events or relationships; awareness may occur through any modality.

The student continues to repeat an act when it is no longer appropriate.

A speech sound

A method of teaching beginning readers to read by learning the sound representations of individual letters and groups of letters, rather than teaching them to memorize whole words (sight reading).

The sound system of a language; different language have different sound systems within them; students with articulations disorders have difficulty mastering the sound system of their language.

The social appropriateness of one’s language; being able to use language in a functional way.

Understanding what one has read.

Repeating what one has heard either in a low voice or totally within one’s mind.

The ability to apply meaning to information that one hears, sees, or touches.

The ability to recall information previously learned.

The ability to remember, in order, what has been heard, seen, or felt. Problems in sequencing could include the student who might see “23” but write “32,” the student who has spelling errors, the student who, if asked to generate some rote material, such as “What day comes after Wednesday?” must begin with “Sunday” and work his way through the series before discovering the answer.

Relating to the meaning of words.

Words that a student should recognized automatically without needing to sound-them out.

A professional employed by a school district or local agency who is concerned with the overall well-being of the student in all settings, not just educationally.

The special services that are necessary within the educational system to help a student grow and develop in the most normal setting possible. These services are only offered when the regular program, after attempts at modifying the instruction, has been found to not meet the educational needs of the child.

The auditory expressive mode of language; speech is affected by articulation, fluency, and vocal quality.

A specialist trained in the assessment and remediation of any disabilities in the areas of speech and language production as well as swallowing.

A learned activity that can help a student deal with a specific situation or problem.

A word part containing a single sounding of the voice, usually having one vowel sound and one or more consonant sounds.

Words that have the same meaning (big/large).

The arrangement of words in a sentence to convey meaning.

A swallowing pattern in which the student pushes his tongue forward while swallowing.

The ability to coordinate the eyes with movements of the hand; used in fine motor tasks.

A problem in one of the three characteristics of voice production: poor quality (hoarse, nasal); pitch; or intensity (loudness).

The following letters in the English language: a, e, i, o, u.

The reading practice where the student is exposed to books and stories before phonics and sight words, in the belief that reading has more meaning if overall language skills are better developed before word drills are used