GLOSSARY OF TERMS 

Academic Language Therapist
Academic Language Therapists hold baccalaureate degrees or higher and have completed extensive post-graduate education in the theories and methods of remedial written-language treatment as well as the use of multisensory, structured, phonetic, language-based curricula.

Accommodation (For Students With Disabilities)
Techniques and materials that allow individuals with learning disabilities to complete school or work tasks with greater ease and effectiveness. Examples include expanded time for completing assignments, use of a calculator, etc.

Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
A  behavioral disorder diagnosed in children but often persisting into adulthood  characterized by symptoms that include poor concentration, an inability to focus on tasks, difficulty in paying attention, and impulsivity. A person can be predominantly inattentive (often referred to as ADD), predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, or a combination of these two.

Decoding
The ability to translate a word from print to speech, usually by employing knowledge of sound-symbol correspondences. It is also the act of deciphering a new word by sounding it out.

Dysgraphia
A severe difficulty in producing handwriting that is legible and written at an age-appropriate speed.

Dyslexia
A specific type of reading disability characterized by difficulties with the utilization of phonics.  A language-based disability which reflects problems with phonological awareness and rapid naming.

Executive Function
The ability to organize cognitive processes. This includes the ability to plan ahead, prioritize, stop and start activities, shift from one activity to another activity, and to monitor one's own behavior.

Expressive Language
The aspect of spoken language that includes speaking and the aspect of written language that includes composing or writing.

Graphic Organizers
Text, diagram or other pictorial device that summarizes and illustrates interrelationships among concepts in a text. Graphic organizers are often known as maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames, or clusters.

Individualized Education Program (IEP)
A plan outlining special education and related services specifically designed to meet the unique educational needs of a student with a disability.

Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is the law that guarantees all children with disabilities access to a free and appropriate public education.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
A measure of someone's intelligence as indicated by an intelligence test, where an average score is 100. An IQ score is the ratio of a person's mental age to his chronological age multiplied by 100.

Learning Disability (LD)
A disorder that affects people's ability to either interpret what they see and hear or to link information from different parts of the brain. It may also be referred to as a learning disorder or a learning difference.

Listening Comprehension
Understanding speech. Listening comprehension, as with reading comprehension, can be described in "levels" – lower levels of listening comprehension would include understanding only the facts explicitly stated in a spoken passage that has very simple syntax and uncomplicated vocabulary. Advanced levels of listening comprehension would include implicit understanding and drawing inferences from spoken passages that feature more complicated syntax and more advanced vocabulary.

Neurodevelopmental functions
Term used to describe innate functions of the brain that affect the ways a student learns as well as performs in school – functions such as memory, language, attention, motor functions, social cognition, and higher order cognition (the ability to solve problems, or think critically).

Other Health Impairments (OHI)
A category of special education services for students with limited strength, vitality or alertness, due to chronic or acute health problems (such as asthma, ADHD, diabetes, or a heart condition).

Phonemic Awareness
The ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. An example of how beginning readers show us they have phonemic awareness is combining or blending the separate sounds of a word to say the word (/c/ /a/ /t/ – cat.)

Phonics
Phonics is a form of instruction to cultivate the understanding and use of the alphabetic principle. It emphasizes the predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds in spoken language) and graphemes (the letters that represent those sounds in written language) and shows how this information can be used to read or decode words.

Phonological Awareness
A range of understandings related to the sounds of words and word parts, including identifying and manipulating larger parts of spoken language such as words, syllables, and onset and rime.
 
Receptive Language
The aspect of spoken language that includes listening, and the aspect of written language that includes reading.

Response To Intervention (RTI)
Response to Intervention is a process whereby schools document a child's response to research-based intervention using a tiered approach. RTI provides early intervention for students experiencing difficulty learning to read. RTI was authorized for use in December 2004 as part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Scaffolding
A way of teaching in which the teacher provides support in the form of modeling, prompts, direct explanations, and targeted questions — offering a teacher-guided approach at first. As students begin to acquire mastery of targeted objectives, direct supports are reduced and the learning becomes more student-guided.

Self-Monitoring
The ability to observe yourself and know when you are doing an activity act according to a standard. For example, knowing if you do or do not understand what you are reading. Or whether your voice tone is appropriate for the circumstances or too loud or too soft.

Semantic Maps
A semantic map is a strategy for graphically representing concepts. As a strategy, semantic maps involve expanding a student's vocabulary by encouraging new links to familiar concepts. Instructionally, semantic maps can be used as a prereading activity for charting what is known about a concept, theme, or individual word. They can also be used during reading as a way to assimilate new information learned from the text.

Semantic Organizers Graphic organizers that look somewhat like a spider web where lines connect a central concept to a variety of related ideas and events.
Special Education (SPED)

Services offered to children who possess one or more of the following disabilities: specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, multiple disabilities, hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments, visual impairments, autism, combined deafness and blindness, traumatic brain injury, and other health impairments.

Working Memory
The ability to store and manage information or thoughts in memory temporarily while solving a problem or performing a task.  It is generally divided into verbal working memory and visual spatial working memory.