Definitions
Advocate
One who pleads another's cause or in support of an individual. A special
needs advocate primary responsibility is to represent the best interests of
the student in the educational process.
Accommodation
A term correctly used in the context of public accommodations and facilities;
an individual with a disability may not be excluded, denied services, segregated
or otherwise treated differently than other individuals by a public accommodation
or commercial facility; (term is not to be confused with "reasonable
accommodation").
Annual
Review
An evaluation is conducted at least annually by the Committee on Special Education
(CSE) for the purpose of recommending the continuation, modification or termination
of the special education programs or services to the student with disabilities.
Assistive
Technology Device
Any item, piece of equipment, or product system used to increase, maintain,
improve functional capabilities of the student with a disability.
Committee
on Special Education (CSE)
Every district has a Committee on Special Education (CSE) responsible
for children with disabilities ages 5-21. Some districts also have Subcommittees
on Special Education. Members of the CSE are people who have a broad range
of experiences planning for and/or working with students with disabilities.
The CSE members are a multidisciplinary team, including the parents or guardian
of the disabled child, who work to develop the child's Individual Educational
Plans (IEP) and needs in accordance with special education laws.
Committee
on Preschool Special Education (CPSE)
The Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE) is responsible for
children with disabilities ages 3-5.
Causes people to have problems doing arithmetic and grasping mathematical
concepts. While many
people have problems with math, a person with dyscalculia has a much more
difficult time solving basic math
problems than his or her peers.
Dysgraphia
A writing disorder that causes people to have difficulty forming letters or
writing within a defined space.
People with this disorder need extra time and effort to write neatly. Despite
their efforts, their handwriting may be
almost illegible.
Dyslexia
Is a specific and severe form of a learning disability. It is a reading
disability typified by problems in expressive or receptive, oral or written
language. Problems may emerge in reading, spelling, writing, speaking,
or listening. (People with dyslexia often show talent in areas that
require visual, spatial, and motor integration.)
Dyspraxia
Problems with new motor skills and activites. They are often viewed
as clumsy and awkward. Is a problem with the body's system of motion
that interferes with a person's ability to make a controlled or coordinated
physical response in a given situation. Some behaviors that can be observed
are: very poor fine motor skills such as handwriting, very poor gross motor
skills such as kicking, catching, throwing balls, difficulty imitating movements
such as "
A term used in the elementary and secondary school context; refers to the
provision of regular or special education and related aids and services that
are designed to meet individual educational needs of students with disabilities
as adequately as the needs of students without disabilities are met and is
based upon adherence to procedures that satisfy the Section 504 requirements
pertaining to educational setting, evaluation and placement, and procedural
safeguards
A process, through observation, of identifying problem behaviors and why a
student engages in behaviors that impede or interfere with learning, and understanding
the behavior in the context in which it is observed, and how the behavior
relates to the environment guiding the development of Positive Behavioral
Interventions that are relevant, effective, and efficient.
Independent
Educational Evaluation (IEE)
An Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) of your child means a procedure,
test or assessment done by a qualified examiner who does not work for the
school district or other public agency responsible for the child's education.
You may get an IEE at district expense if you disagree with the evaluation
arranged for by the school district. "At district expense" means
that the school district pays for all of the tests.
Individual
Education Plan (IEP)
A written statement, developed, reviewed and revised in accordance with regulations
200.4 to meet the unique educational needs of a student with a disability.
If your child is eligible for special education services and/or programs,
the CSE, of which you are a member, must meet to develop a plan to meet your
child's unique needs. This plan is called an Individualized Education Program
(IEP).
Learning
Disability
A person with this disability exhibits unexpected discrepancy between potential
and actual achievement. Performs poorly because of difficulty in one
or more of the following areas: listening, speaking, reading, written expression,
mathematics, and reasoning. Has an average to above average intelligence.
Local Education Agency (LEA)
The school district.
Least Restrictive Environment
Your child's education must be in the least restrictive environment or "LRE"
which means that placement of students with disabilities in special education
classes, special classes, separate schools or other removal from the regular
educational environment occurs only when the nature of the severity of the
disability is such that, even with the use of supplementary aids and services,
education cannot be satisfactorily achieved.
Occupational Therapies help with handwriting issues, and sensory experiences
including touch, movement, body awareness, sight, sound, and the pull of gravity.
Occupational
Therapy (OT)
Activities focusing on fine motor skills, visual motor integration, visual
processing, visual memory, visual perceptual abilities that assist in improving
physical, and social development and sensory integration (SI).
Phonological
Awareness
Involves the explicit awareness of sound structure of language at the word,
syllable and sound levels and the ability to manipulate (segment, blend, play
with) that sound structure.
Phonemic
Awareness
Involves the explicit awareness of the individual phonemes (sounds) and the
manipulation of these sounds. It involves such task as rhyming, segmenting
sounds, blending sounds, and manipulating sounds (deleting and substituting
sounds). It's metalinguistic. Children learn how to think about
the sound structure of language and are given strategies to both process and
manipulate the sound structure in order to learn to read and spell.
Phonemes
Are letter or letter compmenation of sounds
Phonics
worksheets
Worksheets about vowels, constants and blends, that can be completed
by the student where or not they understanding the sound relationship
to letters.
A term used in the elementary and secondary school context; refers to regular
and/or special educational program in which a student receives educational
and/or related services.
Processing
Disability
Describes problems people have in understanding or remembering words or sounds
because their brains fail to understand language correctly. This can often
be mistaken by parents and doctors as a hearing problem but, in fact, an individual
with this disability is not able to process or memorize information (Auditory
Processing or Memory Processing).
A term used in the employment context to refer to modifications or adjustments
employers make to a job application process, the work environment, the manner
or circumstances under which the position held or desired is customarily performed,
or that enable a covered entity's employee with a disability to enjoy equal
benefits and privileges of employment; this term is sometimes used incorrectly
to refer to related aids and services in the elementary and secondary school
context or to refer to academic adjustments and auxiliary aids and services
in the postsecondary school context.
A term used in the elementary and secondary school context to refer to developmental,
corrective, and other supportive services, including psychological, counseling
and medical diagnostic services and transportation.
Sensory
Avoiding - Children who are overly responsive to sensation. They
have nervous systems that feel sensation too easily or too much. Some
behaviors that can be observed are: responding to being touched with aggression
or withdrawal, afraid of, or becomes sick with movement and heights,
very cautious and unwilling to take risks or try new things, uncomfortable
in loud or busy environments such as sports, events, malls or very picky eater
and/or overly sensitive to food smells.
Sensory
Integration (SI) - Sensory Integration develops in the course of ordinary
childhood activities. Motor planning ability is a natural outcome of the process,
as is the ability to adapt to incoming sensations. But for some children,
sensory integration does not develop as efficiently as it should. When the
process is disordered, a number of problems in learning, development, or behavior
may become evident.
Sensory
Integration Dysfunction (DSI) - Is a problem in processing sensations
which causes difficulties in daily life. It is a neurological disorder,
manifested by difficulty detecting, modulating, discriminating or integrating
sensation adaptively. Children with this issue can be seen two ways,
either process sensation from the environment or from their bodies in an inaccurate
way, resulting in "sensory seeking" or "sensory avoiding"
patterns or 'Dyspraxia," a motor planning problem.
Sensory
Seeking - Children who seek out more intense or longer duration sensory
experiences. They have nervous systems that do not always process that
sensory input is "coming in" to the brain. They are under-responsive
to sensation. Some behaviors that can be observed are: Hyper-activity
as they seek more and more movement input, Unawareness of touch or pain,
or touching others too often or too hard (may seem aggressive), engaging
in unsafe behaviors, such as climbing too high, enjoying sounds that are too
loud, such as TV or radio volume.
Team
or IEP Team - Individual Education Plan Team is a group of people, that
include school staff, parents, and others that either the school staff or
parents choose to include, who have knowledge about the child.
|
Last
updated December 30, 2002
By Bonnie Marshall |