Glossary of Terms: A Brain Owner's Guide to Learning
by Jill Smith and Patrica Evans, M.D.
acalculia: a lack of ability to understand or use
arithmetic symbols or functions (see dyscalculia).
A.D.D.: (see attention deficit disorder)
ADHD: (see attention deficit
disorder)
agnosia: the inability to recognize objects and/or
events through the senses. With auditory agnosia, one does not recognize
nonverbal sounds such as the bark of a dog or the ring of the telephone.
With auditory verbal agnosia, one is unable to understand spoken words.
With tactile agnosia, one cannot recognize objects by feeling them.
Someone with visual or optic agnosia cannot recognize people, places, or
objects by sight. There are some very specific kinds of visual agnosia.
When one is unable to recognize familiar faces, one is suffering from
prosopagnosia.
agraphia: the inability to write because of
inefficiency of the motor skills, the visual perception skills, and/or the
coordination of visual and motor skills necessary for writing; also refers
to a loss of pre-existing ability to write (see kinesthetic,
fine motor, eye hand coordination, and
dysgraphia).
alexia: the inability to read in spite of normal
vision, exposure to reading instruction and normal intelligence; also the
loss of the ability to grasp the meaning of written words (see
dyslexia and word blindness).
amphetamines: a class of drugs which stimulate the
brain. Amphetamine intervention is sometimes used to offset hyperactivity
and problems with attention.
anomia: an inability to recall names of people,
places, or things. Often seen with long term auditory memory problems (see
naming fluency and nominal recall).
aphasia: the inability to produce meaningful speech,
either in content or in sound production.
apraxia: the inability to perform purposeful motor
acts, particularly those actions involving a sequence of movements.
Apraxic issues may involve social, language, or motor tasks, and are
typically regarded as processing errors.
aprosodia: the inability to either recognize or to
produce melodic speech patterns. Receptive aprosodia makes understanding
nonverbal content of conversation very difficult. Expressive aprosodia is
a monotonic speech pattern. Prosody also involves a combination of rhythm,
pitch and stress.
Asperger's Syndrome: a form of pervasive
developmental disorder, in which language is preserved, but social
development is profoundly deficient.
ataxia: difficulty in or loss of coordination of
muscle movements.
attention: the ability to focus thinking, sensory
input, and/or memory processes in a way that is selective, concentrating
on the important things and at the appropriate times; being ready to
perceive; the ability to control or direct one's attention.
attention deficit disorder: difficulty in focusing on
the things that are important at the appropriate times; the lack of
ability to control or direct one's attention. Some of the people with this
disorder have trouble focusing on one thing (being distracted by many
others). Some people have trouble breaking their focus from a task when it
is no longer appropriate to remain focused (see learning
disability). The term ADD is no longer standard terminology for
attention deficit-related problems. Instead, the DSM-IV uses the term
"ADHD."
attention span: a span of time an individual can
concentrate or focus attention on a task without being distracted or
losing interest.
auditory agnosia: (see agnosia).
auditory blending: (see blending phonemic elements
into known words)
auditory discrimination: the ability to perceive
similarities and differences in sounds. For example, to recognize the
difference in sounds between the th in thin and the f in fin (see
auditory perception).
auditory memory: the ability to retrieve or recognize
information one has heard and carried forward in time (both words and
nonverbal information, like a dog barking or a telephone ringing)(see
auditory sequential memory in which the order of the heard
information to be remembered is critical).
auditory perception: the ability to interpret and
understand separate sounds one hears (in the presence of adequate hearing
or auditory acuity) (see auditory reception and auditory
discrimination).
auditory processing: (see auditory
discrimination).
auditory reception: (see auditory
discrimination).
auditory sequential memory: remembering heard
information in its particular order (see auditory memory).
autism: the abnormal development of language, social,
and motor skills. As opposed to P.D.D., language and social
development remains profoundly deficient.
awkward: (see gross motor and
clumsy).
behavior modification: a technique intended to change
behavior by both successively rewarding desirable actions combined with
ignoring undesirable behavior, in order to produce a specific behavioral
change.
blending phonemic elements into known words:
combining heard sounds into a whole word one knows and recognizes. For
example, blending the heard sounds of the letter c, a, t into the word
cat. Sometimes called auditory blending.
body image: perception of one's own body and its
relationship to the environment. Body image is the summation of
information received through the senses about the body and it's
relationship to people, places and things in the environment.
brain damage: injury to the brain that results in
disturbances in behavior. The injury may affect the reception,
integration, remembering and/or expression of information.
brain injury: (see brain damage)
central nervous system: the brain and the spinal cord
(see peripheral nervous system).
channel integration: the ability to integrate
smoothly and efficiently information from several sensory modalities at
one time.
circumlocution: a "round-about" way of speaking. It
is often used by an individual when that person cannot recall specific
words they need to describe objects, activities, or events. (see
nominal recall).
clumsy: poorly coordinated or inharmonious
functioning of large muscles.
cognitive style: a person's typical approach to
managing information and problem solving. It is often described in terms
of the information gathering channels one characteristically uses.
complex grammatic structure: the meaning implicit in
language that is the result of word arrangement and syntactic language
rules (in other than simple sentences).
comprehension: (usually refers to comprehension of
language) the understanding of the relationship between thought and
behavior expressed through language. This usually includes understanding
derived from complex grammatic structure and through hierarchical
classification of language. One's comprehension of heard language and
one's comprehension of language one reads can be quite different.
conceptualization: the process of forming a general
idea from what is observed, heard or touched.
coordination: the harmonious functioning of muscle
sets to perform complex movements. This can relate to fine motor (or small
muscle) set coordination or gross motor (or large muscle) set
coordination.
cortex: in this context, cortex refers to the
cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain.
cross dominance: a condition in which the preferred
eye, hand, or foot are not on the same side of the body. For example, an
individual may be right footed and right eyed but left-handed (see
mixed dominance).
Cylert: the trade name for pemoline (see stimulant
medication).
decoding: the process of getting meaning from written
or spoken symbols by analyzing separate letters, ascribing the appropriate
sounds to them, and blending them together in order to identify the
individual word.
deep dyslexia: this term is used for people who have
difficulty with the mechanical aspect of reading (the dyslexia part of the
phrase deep dyslexia) and also have difficulty with comprehension of the
meaning of words after the words have been properly decoded. This
comprehension problem can exist with semantic meaning and/or syntactic
meaning. This is an extremely debilitating combination of difficulties
(see dysphasia). It is sometimes called third dyslexia.
developmental disability: a problem in physical or
mental development that appears before the age of eighteen. An inability
to perform physically and/or mentally within certain expected age limits.
This phrase usually refers to areas one expects to see improved
progressively as the child matures and for which there are recognized
developmental time tables.
developmental lag: a delay in some aspect of physical
or mental development that normally improves throughout childhood.
Dexedrine: the trade name for dextroamphetamine (see
stimulant medication).
directionality: the ability to distinguish right from
left, front from back, up from down (see position in space).
directional problem: (see directionality)
discrimination: the ability to distinguish one thing
from another, responding differentially. Discrimination is accomplished
through the senses. Auditory discrimination refers to the ability to
distinguish one sound from another. Visual discrimination refers to the
ability to discriminate between separate visual stimuli. Tactile
discrimination refers to the ability to distinguish between things one
touches (see auditory discrimination and auditory
perception).
disinhibition: in this context, poor restraint in
response to life situations. This is often coupled with the word disorder,
as in disinhibition disorder. Someone with disinhibition problems is often
seen as impulsive.
disinhibition disorder: (see attention deficit
disorder and disinhibition).
disordered reading: a pattern characterized by
additions, deletions and substitutions of words and complicated by random
addition and deletion of whole words and word endings. It requires
frequent rereading of material and results in confusion about specific
detail. It is a prevalent disorder, and it is very debilitating.
distractibility: inability to maintain attention to a
task at hand because sounds, sights and other stimuli that normally occur
in the environment become overwhelmingly compelling (see attention
deficit disorder).
distractible: being easily distracted; having one's
attention easily diverted by inconsequential occurrences (see attention
deficit disorder); being unable to maintain focus on the task at
hand.
dominance: in this context, the preference for using
one side of the body when using hands, feet, eyes, ears, etc.
dyscalculia: inefficient understanding of or use of
arithmetic symbols or functions (see acalculia).
dysfunction: a disturbance or inefficiency in the
functioning of an organ or body part; difficulty or abnormality in a
function.
dysgraphia: inefficiency or confusion in the ability
to produce legible handwriting because of motor skills, visual perception
skills and/or the coordination of the visual and motor skills necessary
for writing (see kinesthetic, fine motor, agraphia,
and eye-hand coordination).
dyslexia: a failure to learn to read at peer level,
irrespective of intellect, or exposure to reading instruction. Some
dyslexics reverse b's and d's. Some read words backwards. Some confuse the
position of letters in words (cloud for could and horse for shore, for
instance). Some do none of these. Dyslexia may exist in phonemic or
semantic levels and may appear at any age level, depending upon the
demands placed on an individual relative to the individual's capacity for
reading.
dysnomia: (see anomia, nominal recall
and naming fluency).
dysphasia: confusion in or inefficiency in one's
ability to understand and/or express oneself through written and/or spoken
language (see aphasia).
dyspraxia: confusion in coordinating the voluntary
muscle movements (see apraxia).
dysprosodia: confusion in recognition of or
understanding of the melodic quality and tone of voice (see
aprosodia).
etiology: the cause of a condition or disease; the
study of causes, especially of diseases.
expressive language: communication to others with
verbal language (speaking and writing) and nonverbal language (gestures,
body language and tone of voice).
expressive prosody: the giving off meaning through
the melodic quality and the tone of one's own voice.
eye-hand coordination: the ability of the eyes and
hands to work together in a smooth coordinated way to complete a task.
Handwriting is an example of eye-hand coordination.
figure-ground discrimination (perception): the
ability to sort out important information from the surrounding
environment, to determine which data is foreground and which data is part
of the background. There is auditory figure-ground (hearing a teacher's
voice and ignoring all the background classroom noise) and visual
figure-ground (important detail in a cluttered visual field).
fine motor: related to the use of small muscles;
referring to skillful, discrete, coordinated, sequenced movements of small
muscles (such as those used for writing) (see dysgraphia for a
definition of confusion or inefficiency with fine motor performance).
gross motor: related to the use of the large muscles;
the use of the large muscles in a smooth and coordinated way for
activities requiring strength and balance; walking, running and jumping
require gross motor ability; referring to the coordinated, skillful,
sequenced movements of the large muscle groups for activities such as
walking and running.
handedness: the hand one prefers to use when doing
daily tasks such as writing, eating, etc.
hierarchical classification of language: the ability
to discriminate subtle differences in semantic meaning of words that are
related in overarching language classes but carry subtle differences in
meaning.
hyperactivity: a pattern of constant and excessive
moving around (usually presumed to be due to central nervous system
dysfunction). It is often disorganized and disruptive.
hyperkinesis: (see hyperactivity)
hyperkinetic syndrome: (see
hyperactivity).
impulsivity: rapid reacting to stimuli without
considering consequences or reflection.
incoordination: poor integration of muscle sets,
usually referring to inefficiency with large muscle movement as in
walking, running and jumping. The terms clumsy or klutzy are often used
for people who suffer with this incoordination. It may also appear in the
organized use of small muscles when one is attempting writing or
drawing.
information processing channel: (see sensory
channel)
inhibition: the ability to stop or limit specific
activities or processes; the blocking out of impulses (see
disinhibition).
I.Q.: these initials refer to the intelligence
quotient. The number expresses the ratio between one's chronological age
(age measured in years) and mental years (as measured by an intelligence
test), times 100. Though regularly used at elementary levels, these scores
often aren't stabilized until after puberty.
kinesthetic: pertaining to muscles, muscular sense;
the sense perception of movement; referring to and related to the
integration of information that results from movement, change in the
position of muscles, structures, or body parts.
klutzy: poorly coordinated or inharmonious
functioning of large muscles.
laterality problems: confusion with left and right.
Sometimes it refers to a failure to determine handedness or choose a
preferred hand.
L.D.; learning disabilities: a group of disorders
(presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction) in which there
is a point-specific error in processing a cognitive task, such as reading,
writing, spelling, math, listening, thinking, or talking. These
difficulties are not due to lack of intellect, emotional problems,
deafness or blindness. Persons with learning disabilities are often
referred to as having a "learning disability" or even being "LD." The
diagnosis of a learning disorder is essential for minors to qualify for
academic accommodations under Federal Law.
learning style: the channels through which one best
understands and retains information. Individuals learn best through one or
more sensory processing channels: visual, auditory, motor, gustatory,
olfactory or a combination of these. Visual and motor are most crucial to
academic performance.
long term auditory memory: (see memory,
auditory memory, long term memory). The ability to retrieve
or recognize information one has experienced a long time ago and has
carried forward in time. There is long term auditory memory, long term
visual memory, long term motor memory, long term olfactory memory, and
long term gustatory memory. Auditory and visual memory are the most
relevant to school. Motor memory is important, but its relevance is less
than auditory and visual. Motor memory systems are most critical to the
educational process in kindergarten and the primary grades. Long term
memory tends to be most resistant to disease processes.
long term memory: the ability to retrieve or
recognize information one has experienced and carried forward in time for
a substantial amount of time. This phrase is used to cover memory of
things that occurred a few days ago as well as seventy years ago.
long term visual memory: (see memory,
visual memory, long term memory).
mainstreaming: the practice of placing children with
handicaps and special educational needs into regular classrooms.
maturation lag: delayed maturity in one or several
skills or areas of development.
M.B.D.: (see minimal brain dysfunction)
memory: the ability to retrieve or recognize
information one has experienced and carried forward in time.
minimal brain dysfunction: a broad and unspecific
term formerly used to describe a learning disability (see learning
disability); a mild neurological abnormality that causes differences
in brain activity, especially that activity which relates to learning.
mirror reading: the tendency to read words or number
groups backward. For example, reading saw for was and 91 for 19.
mirror writing: writing words or numbers in reverse,
as if seen in a mirror.
mixed dominance: (see cross dominance).
modality: (see sensory channel)
motor: pertaining to muscle or body activity.
naming fluency: the degree to which an individual
recalls names of persons, places, and things in a reasonably rapid way.
Problems in this area are often seen in an individual who has auditory
memory difficulty. Sometimes the problem is only a problem of delay in the
recall or slow retrieval (see anomia, nominal recall, and
auditory memory). Difficulty in fluency is sometimes referred to as
"halting speech."
nominal recall: the ability to recall names of
people, places, or things. Difficulty in this area usually means one has
trouble recalling well known names of people, places or things and one has
difficulty committing to memory new names of people, places and things.
Nominal recall is often seen with long term auditory memory problems (see
anomia and naming fluency).
Orton Gillingham Method: a specific and organized
method for teaching individuals to read. The technique devised by Anna
Gillingham and modified by Samuel Orton, M.D., emphasizes phonetic
structure and is a multisensory approach.
P.D.D.: delay in social, language, and motor skills.
The delay is not uniform.
peer relationships: in school children, this refers
to the development of social bonds with persons of the same age.
perception: the ability of the brain to receive and
interpret sensory information.
perceptual disorder: difficulty in reception,
processing and/or interpreting information obtained from a particular
sense.
perceptual handicap: confusion or inability to
process or interpret sensory information.
peripheral nervous system: that part of the nervous
system excluding the brain and spinal cord; that is peripheral nerves and
their associated muscles and end-sensory organs.
perseveration: the uncontrolled repeating of words,
motions or tasks. One often has difficulty shifting to a new task when
this is a problem.
phonetics: the study of the sounds of words in speech
and the letters associated with those sounds; sound letter relationships
are an aspect of Western languages.
phonics: the sound letter relationships implicit in
Western language and their utilization in teaching reading (see word
attack).
poor motor control: problems in the smooth and
coordinated use of small and/or large muscles (see gross motor and
fine motor).
poorly coordinated: one who has problems in the
smooth and coordinated use of small and/or large muscles is considered
poorly coordinated (see gross motor and fine motor).
position-in-space: in education this refers to the
aspect of academic concepts that depend heavily on position rather than
form or position in addition to form; the aspect of visually available
information that is primarily dependent on position (rather than form);
reversals of b's and d's, reading saw for was, etc., are manifestations of
problems with position-in-space (see strephosymbolia).
prosody: the ability to read the meaning in the
melodic quality or tone of voice of others (receptive prosody) and give
off meaning through melodic quality and tone of one's own voice
(expressive prosody). The variations in the melodic quality of the voice
are the result of pitch, rhythm and stress.
psychomotor: in this context, relating to the
production of voluntary and conscious movement.
readiness: physical, mental and emotional
preparedness to cope with a task. Reading readiness implies ability to
perceive differences and similarities in shapes and sounds, to identify
some letters of the alphabet, and to be ready to learn to recognize words
on sight.
reading disability: an inability to read, a confusion
with reading, or a failure to read at an expected level despite normal
intelligence and appropriate exposure to reading instruction (see
dyslexia and alexia).
recall: the process of retrieving something
experienced in the past and brought forward in time to recapture features
of the experience.
receptive prosody: the ability to read the meaning in
the melodic quality or tone of voice of others.
recognition: (usually referring to memory processes)
the process of identifying that something has been experienced previously,
something that was heard, seen, touched or otherwise experienced.
retrieval: the ability to summon up from memory a
particular bit of information. Often spoken of as retrieval memory or
recall. When one retrieves or recalls bits of information because of
casual stimulation, it is referred to as retrieval, but most discussions
in a school setting are related to demand retrieval. That is, a demand is
placed on the individual to retrieve particular information now (as in a
test). It is often the demand aspect (to do it now), a demand imposed by
someone else, that causes the trouble for people with retrieval problems.
Some people can retrieve stored or remembered information, but they are
very slow to do so. This, too, is a retrieval problem.
retrieval time: the time it takes one to bring up
from memory the desired bit of information, to bring back or reconstruct a
stimulus experienced at an earlier time. Many people with problems
labelled as memory problems simply have difficulty in rapid retrieval. The
memories are there, they are able to be retrieved, but the retrieval takes
longer than it does for most individuals.
reversal: the tendency to reverse the form of
letters, position of letters, syllables, or words in reading or writing.
For example, a child may write or read b for d, or write or read bat for
tab. This problem is properly called a position-in-space difficulty (see
position-in-space).
Ritalin: the trade name for methylphenidate often
given to modify hyperactivity in children (see stimulant
medication).
self esteem: one's sense of relative worth.
self image: the sum total of how a person feels and
thinks about himself or herself. Also referred to as self concept or self
esteem. One's sense of the role he or she plays within a group, how
worthwhile the role is, and how well the role is executed. For example,
the "dutiful daughter" or "class clown" refers to self-imaging. Self
image, self esteem, and self concept are frequently used synonymously.
semantic categories: groups of words for persons,
places, things, relationships, or events that share an essential
underlying feature. For example, cats and dogs are pets. Cats and panthers
are part of the feline family. These relationships can then be organized
into a hierarchy (see hierarchical classification of language).
semantic meaning: the understanding of the meaning of
language carried in words and word classes (as compared to the meaning
implicit in the structure or syntax of language).
semantics: the study of the meaning of words and the
relationships between words, grammatical forms, and their role in
language.
sensorimotor: involving both sensory and motor
functions (see sensory motor).
sensory: relating to sensation.
sensory channel: the specific sense used to acquire
or manage information. Visual, auditory, motor (tactile, kinesthetic),
olfactory (perception of odors) and gustatory (perception of taste) are
modalities or sensory channels. Visual and auditory are the most relevant
to classroom performance. Usually refers to the receiving organ, nerve
pathways and area in the brain that organizes the information.
sensory motor: involving both sensory and motor
functions; coordinated relationship between information from the senses
and movement (this can be relevant to gross motor movement and/or fine
motor movement).
sequential memory: remembering information in its
particular order (such as telephone numbers or a combination lock).
Auditory sequential memory is the remembering of the correct order of
heard information and visual sequential memory is the remembering of the
correct order of seen information.
sequential order: the arrangement of information in a
particular way, with the position of the information in that specific
manner being critical to the sum total of impact of the data.
short term auditory memory: (see memory,
short term memory, and auditory memory).
short term memory: the ability to retrieve or
recognize information one has experienced and carried forward in time but
for just a short period of time, often divided into immediate and somewhat
delayed short term memory.
short term visual memory : (see memory,
visual memory, short term memory).
SLD: (see specific language disability and
learning disability)
social skills: those interpersonal behaviors that
contribute to successful interaction with other people. People with
learning disabilities often have trouble with social interaction.
specific language disability: one of the learning
disabilities that relates to language difficulty in particular (see
learning disability).
spinal cord: the long structure that runs the length
of the spinal column; the spinal cord receives information from nerves (of
skin, joints, muscles and ligaments) and conveys commands for
movement.
stimulant medication: medication sometimes used for
hyperactivity and/or attention problems. Stimulant medications seem to
improve the ability to focus. The most common are methylphenidate
(Ritalin), dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), and pemoline (Cylert).
strephosymbolia: an old term used in the past for
reversal of letters and words in reading and/or writing. Not seen
frequently anymore (see position in space).
syntax: the patterns used in the putting together of
words, phrases, and clauses in sentences and the rules that relate to that
integration.
tactile: pertaining to touch or the sense of
touch.
tactile agnosia: the inability to recognize objects
that have been touched (see agnosia).
transposition: in this context, changing the sequence
of letters, numbers, syllables, or words when reading, writing or doing
math. For example, reading cloud as could, or I can go as Can I go? (see
position in space).
underfocused attention: (see attention deficit
disorder).
visual agnosia: failure to recognize people, places
or objects by sight (see agnosia).
visual closure: cognitive ability to incorporate
visual detail that is from the ends of the visual stimulus.
visual discrimination: the cognitive ability to
perceive similarities and differences in seen stimuli (see
perception).
visual figure ground: the ability to distinguish
foreground visual stimuli from background visual stimuli.
visual memory: the cognitive ability to retrieve or
recognize information one has seen and has carried forward in time.
Remembering someone's face is a visual memory experience.
visual motor: integration of visual information with
appropriate body movement (fine or gross motor movement of muscles).
visual perception: the cognitive ability to correctly
take in and interpret seen information.
visual processing: a term often used to refer to all
visual perceptual, visual associative and visual memory activities.
visual reception: the receiving of visual stimuli by
the brain.
visual sequential memory: remembering seen
information in its particular order (see visual memory).
whole language reading: an approach to teaching
reading that assumes children regularly exposed to fine language will
learn those words. This system relies on use of good literature from the
very beginning.
word attack: the ability to simultaneously analyze
unfamiliar words with a coordinated visual and phonetic method using
knowledge of the sound letter relationships implicit in Western language
(see phonics).
word blindness: an inability to recognize or recall
letters and words when one is of normal intelligence and has been exposed
to reading instruction (see alexia).
word finding: (see nominal recall).
