Download Terms A-C - Wyckoff School District

TERMS A-C
ACCOMMODATION: Generally, an adaptation or modification that enables a
student with a disability to participate in educational programming.
ACHIEVEMENT TEST: A test that measures what a student has learned in
school.
ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR: A sort of "practical intelligence." It is usually
measured by scales that identify how well a person manages within his or her own
environment.
ADVOCATE: An individual, either a parent or professional with special
knowledge or training concerning the problems of children with disabilities, who
represents parents and children in due process hearings and other nonjudicial
proceedings seeking enforcement of the education rights of students with a
disability.
AFFECTIVE: Having to do with emotions, feelings or attitudes.
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITES ACT OF 1990 (ADA): Legislation
enacted to prohibit discrimination based on disability.
AMPLIFICATION DEVICE: Any device that increases the volume of sound.
ANNUAL GOAL: A general statement of the intention to overcome a deficit in a
specific area. It is based on a need identified through an evaluation process.
APHASIA: A receptive (taking in information) language disorder or, more
commonly, expressive (speaking/writing) language disorder in children who do
not demonstrate the ability to acquire meaningful spoken language usually
resulting from damage or disease to the brain.
APPEAL: Procedure in which a party seeks to reverse or modify a judgment or
final order of a lower court or administrative agency, usually on grounds that
lower court misinterpreted or misapplied the law, rather than on the grounds that it
made an incorrect finding of fact.
ARTICULATION: The production of distinct language sounds by the vocal
chords.
ASSESSMENT: Specific features used to gather information and can include
formal and informal tests; student records; work products; and observations of
students in the classroom, other school environments, and the community.
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY DEVICE: 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 functional capabilities of
individuals with disabilities.
ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD): A
psychiatric classification used to describe individuals who exhibit poor attention,
distractibility, impulsivity, and hyperactivity.
ATTENTION SPAN: The extent to which a person can purposely focus his
attention on things or activities.
AUDIOLOGY: Related service; includes identification, determination of hearing
loss, and referral for habilitation of hearing.
AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION: The ability to identify the differences
between sounds.
AUDITORY IMPAIRED: Corresponds to “auditorily handicapped” and further
corresponds to the Federal eligibility categories of deafness or hearing
impairment. “Auditorily impaired” means an inability to hear within normal limits
due to physical impairment or dysfunction of auditory mechanisms characterized
by “i or ii” below. An audiological evaluation by a specialist qualified in the field
of audiology and a speech and language evaluation by a certified speech-language
specialist are required.
• “Deafness” – The auditory impairment is so severe that the student is impaired
in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without
amplification and the student’s educational performance is adversely
affected.
• “Hearing impairment” – An impairment in hearing, whether permanent or
fluctuating which adversely affects the student’s educational performance.
AUTISM (AI): Means a pervasive developmental disability which significantly
impacts verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction that adversely
affects a student’s educational performance. Onset is generally evident before age
three. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in
repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental
change or change in daily routine, unusual responses to sensory experiences and
lack of responsiveness to others. The term does not apply if the student’s adverse
educational performance is due to emotional disturbance as defined in the New
Jersey Administrative Code Title 6A, Chapter 14. A child who manifests the
characteristics of autism after age three may be classified as autistic if the criteria
in this paragraph are met. An assessment by a certified speech-language specialist
and an assessment by a physician trained in neurodevelopmental assessment are
required.
BASELINE DATA: Data that reflects the level and frequency of behavior prior to
beginning an intervention.
BASIC SKILLS: Skills in subjects like reading, writing, spelling, and
mathematics.
BEHAVIOR INTERVENTION PLAN: Integrating strategies for teaching and
maintaining adaptive behavior and reducing or eliminating problem behaviors.
BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION: The shaping of behavior through a planned
method of principles of learning in a controlled learning environment to minimize
or eliminate negative behavior and emphasize and reinforce positive behavior.
CATEGORICAL PLACEMENT: Special education programs in which students
are grouped on the basis of their IDEA eligibility category.
CEREBRAL PALSY: Nerve and muscle dysfunction resulting from a defect,
injury or disease of the tissues of the central nervous system which alters a
person’s movement or motor functions.
CHILD FIND: Requirement that states ensure that all children with disabilities
are identified, located and evaluated, and determine which children are receiving
special education and related services.
CHRONOLOGICAL AGE (CA): Age determined in years and months by birth
date at a specific time such as time of the evaluation or grade placement.
COGNITION: The understanding of information in the brain: involves mental
activities such as paying attention, perceiving, learning, making decisions,
problem solving and memory.
COGNITIVE: A term which refers to reasoning or intellectual capacity.
COGNITIVE IMPAIRED: Corresponds to “mentally retarded” and means a
disability that is characterized by significantly below average general cognitive
functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior; manifested
during the developmental period that adversely affects a student’s educational
performance and is characterized by one of the following:
• “Mild cognitive impairment” corresponds to “educable” and means a level of
cognitive development and adaptive behavior in home, school and
community settings that are mildly below age expectations with respect to
all of the following:
• the quality and rate of learning;
• the use of symbols for the interpretation of information and the solution of
problems; and
• performance on an individually administered test of intelligence that falls within
a range of two to three standard deviations below the mean.
• “Moderate cognitive impairment” corresponds to “trainable” and means a level
of cognitive development and adaptive behavior that is moderately below
age expectations with respect to the following:
• the ability to use symbols in the solution of problems of low complexity;
• the ability to function socially without direct and close supervision in home,
school and community settings; and
• performance on an individually administered test of intelligence that falls three
standard deviations or more below the mean.
• “Severe cognitive impairment” corresponds to “eligible for day training” and
means a level of functioning severely below age expectations whereby in a
consistent basis the student is incapable of giving evidence of
understanding and responding in a positive manner to simple directions
expressed in the child’s primary mode of communication and cannot in
some manner express basic wants and needs.
COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION: A series of tests and observations; formal
and informal, conducted for the purpose of determining eligibility for special
education and related services, and for determining the current level of educational
performance.
COMMUNICATION IMPAIRED: Corresponds to “communication
handicapped” and means a language disorder in the areas of morphology, syntax,
semantics and/or pragmatics/discourse which adversely affects a student’s
education performance and is not due primarily to an auditory impairment. The
problem shall be demonstrated through functional assessment of language in other
than a testing situation and performance below 1.5 standard deviations, or the 10th
percentile on at least two standardized language tests, where such tests are
appropriate one of which shall be a comprehensive test of both receptive and
expressive language. When the area of suspected disability is language,
assessment by a certified speech-language specialist and assessment to establish
the educational impact are required. The speech-language specialist shall be
considered a child study team member.
• When it is determined that the student meets the eligibility criteria according to
the definition above, but requires instruction by a speech-language
specialist only, the student shall be classified as eligible for speechlanguage services.
• When the area of suspected disability is a disorder of articulation, voice or
fluency, the student shall be evaluated according to N.J.A.C. 6A:14-3(g)
and, if eligible, classified as eligible for speech-language services according
to N.J.A.C. 6A:14-3.6(a).
CONCRETE THINKING: Understanding of language which is limited
specifically to an object, person or occurrence, connected with an inability to
generalize beyond specific object or circumstance being thought about or
perceived: considered lower level of thinking when compared to abstract thinking.
CONDUCT DISORDER: A repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which
the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms are violated
through observable behavior.
CONGENITAL: Existing at birth.
CONSENT: A written agreement to carry out an activity after being fully
informed in one’s native language of all information related to the activity.
CONTINUUM OF ALTERNATIVE PLACEMENTS: The range of placements
in which students with a disability may receive some or all of their individualized
education program (IEP); these range from least restrictive to more restrictive:
regular classroom, regular classroom with resource room, regular classroom with
special class (self-contained), full-time special class, day school, residential
treatment facility, and homebound instruction.
COUNSELING SERVICES: Related service; includes services provided by
social workers, psychologists, guidance counselors, or other qualified personnel.
CRITERION-REFERENCED TEST: Determine whether a student has
mastered a particular skill. They compare a student to a standard of master.
Criterion referenced tests assess how well a student performs on a test of a
particular skill. They help determine a student’s educational needs and special
education programming and placement.
CUMULATIVE FILE: General file maintained by the school; parent has right to
inspect the file and have copies of any information contained in it.
CUMULATIVE RECORD: The complete record of a student’s educational
experience over time that is kept by the school attended. General file maintained
by the school; parent has right to inspect the file and have copies of any
information contained in it.
CURRICULUM: Series of courses offered and/or required in a school. The
curriculum for students with a disability detailing what students should learn,
when they should learn it and how they should be taught is part of the IEP.
CURRICULUM-BASED ASSESSMENT: A methodology of increasing
importance in special education in which a child's progress in the curriculum is
measured at frequent intervals.