Working in Special Education requires knowledge of many different terms and abbreviations, and we can often feel overwhelmed or as if we are swimming in jargon. This quick reference page, while not by any means a complete list, serves as a quick reference point for use while completing paperwork, or for use by paraprofessionals and others who may be unfamiliar with the terms.

Included are: common terms, abbreviations, disability terms, and assessments/tests

Disability: Physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.

Inclusion: Term used to describe services that place students with disabilities in general education classrooms with appropriate support services.

Accommodations: Changes in how material is taught or a test is administered but does not substantially alter what the test measures; includes changes in presentation format, response format, test setting or test timing

Acuity: Keenness or sharpness of sight, hearing or touch...how much a child can see or hear.

Advocate: an individual who may not be an attorney, who assists parents and children to work in collaboration with their school district, regarding their children’s special education programs

Annual Goals: a required component of an IEP. Measurable annual goals are goals that are written for an individual student, to identify what the IEP team has determined the student can reasonably be expected to accomplish within a one year period of time

Articulation: Speaking; most often referring to the clarity or understandability of a student’s speech

Assistive Technology Device: equipment used to maintain or improve the capabilities of a child with a disability;

Attention: the ability to focus (attend) with eyes and/or ears for a period of time without losing the meaning of what is being said

Auditory Discrimination: ability to discern likenesses or differences in sound

Baseline Measurement: counting and recording how often a certain behavior occurs

Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP):a plan of positive behavioral interventions in the IEP of a child whose behaviors interfere with his/her learning or that of others; based on data gathered through a functional behavioral assessment.

Coordination: Ability to use one part of the body in combination with one or more other parts to accomplish a single purpose.

Discrimination: the cognitive process whereby two or more stimuli are distinguished

Executive Functioning: the ability to manage or regulate cognitive processes, including initiating, planning, organizing, and following through on a task.

Expressive language: Ability to communicate by using words, writing or gestures.

Extended School Year: A provision for special education students to receive instruction during ordinary school “vacation” periods, or at any time when school is not typically in session. ESY services or programming may focus on all, or only some, of a child’s needs that are addressed during the regular school year, depending on the needs of the child.

Fine Motor: functions that require tiny muscle movements. For example: writing or typing

Gross motor: functions that require large muscle movements. For example walking, jumping.

Hyperactivity: habitually unusual and inappropriate amounts of movement in a child when compared to other children of the same age and in the same setting.

Independent Level: A way of expressing a child’s level of mastery of basic academic skills. At this level, the learner works easily and doesn’t have to be under constant direction of the instructor.

Mental Age: (MA) - refers to the score a person receives on an intelligence test. Compares scores to the results achieved by other children give the same test at the same age

Occupational Therapy: A special education related service which is usually focused upon the development of a student’s fine motor skills and/or the identification of adapted ways of accomplishing activities of daily living

On-Task Behavior: expected behavior at that moment on that particular task

Orientation and mobility services: services provided to blind or visually impaired children by qualified personnel to enable those students to attain systematic orientation to and safe movement within their environments

Paraprofessional: individual who provides direct support to a child, teacher, or other school professional and who works only under the direct supervision of qualified personnel.

Percentile rank: Refers to a point in a distribution of scores. Example: if a child scores in the 80th percentile, it means that 80 percent of all children taking that test scored below that level.

Placement: the setting in which the special education service is delivered to the student. It must be derived from the student’s IEP

Present level of academic achievement and functional performance: A statement on the IEP that describes what the child knows and can do at this time. It includes how the child’s disability affects the child’s involvement and progress in the general education curriculum

Procedural Safeguards Notice: are the rights provided to parents and school districts in the special education process. Include: written prior notice, mediation, written parental consent, and due process.

Raw score: The simple number of points or items correct on a test.

Receptive Language: ability to attach meanings to words, gestures, based on experience; understanding what another person is saying.

Referral: notice to a school district that a child may be in need of special education. A referral sets certain timelines into place, and may be made by a parent, school personnel or others.

Screening: Brief testing, observation or both that gives preliminary information on how a child learns and whether or not more testing is needed.

Social-Emotional: self-concept and social skills...smiling at familiar faces, expressing feelings, making friends

Title I: provides federal funding for schools to help students who are behind academically or “at-risk” of falling behind. Funding is based on the number of low-income children in that school, generally, those eligible for free lunch.

Transition Plans: must be included in the IEP beginning by the first IEP when the student turns 14. Transition plans describe how the school will help students prepare for life after high school, in college, employment and/or independent living. Students have a right under IDEA to be a part of this plan.

Visual-Motor: ability to coordinate the eyes with the movement of the hands and the process to thinking

Written Prior Notice: The document that describes an IEP team’s proposal or refusal or an action, or requested action. The WPN must be provided to the parents when school proposes to initiate or change, or refuses to initiate or change, the identification, evaluation or placement of a child. It is to be given after the decision is made, but before the change is put into effect.