So, a little story, that got me thinking about this post. My sister in law Trixie was over the other day when I got a call from one of "Isaac's people". I can't recall which one. I chatted with them on the phone for 5-10 minutes before I hung up, the whole time Trixie was listening. She piped up when I was done and said " I have no clue what you were talking about with that person...the SLP, and OT, and IPP meeting, Respite, Specialized services ...blah, blah, blah".
I hadn't even thought about how it would have sounded to someone else. This is kind of how I talk now, A LOT of the time. The more I thought about it the more I realized how much I have been learning in the past few months, and over the last few years with our other kids speech delays and now Isaac's diagnosis. So the result is a list of words that I've been using in my everyday language now. Sometimes I talk like this and forget that not everyone speaks this language. As I made the list it was kind of neat seeing all the new knowledge I have taken in. For those of you that converse with me regularly feel free to stop me and ask me to explain what I am talking about or you could always refer to my list!
EI - early intervention program - a team that focus's on a child's strengths and teaching tactics and physical accommodations to address challenges at school.
IEP - individualized education program - used in schools with the child's support team
PUF - program unit funding - government provides school's with funding for your child based on their diagnosis. The funding is used for an aide for your child or other necessary materials to help your child learn, as well as services from an SLP, OT or other professionals that come into the school to work with your child and their aide and teacher.
IPP- individual program plan - this is a plan that the team of SLP,OT and teacher and aid come up with to track your child's progress. We typically have 3-4 of these each year for each of our children that received PUF - (it's a great tool for accountability and to track progress)
SLP - Speech Language Pathologist
OT - Occupational Therapist
EA - Educational Assistant
RESPITE - child care that is provided and paid for by FSCD. We qualified for 10hrs/month that's paid for. We also hire our own respite worker that can't be family and has to be 16 years or older.
ABA - applied behavior analysis - process of systematically intervening to increase likelihood of desired behaviors or skills and decrease likelihood of undesired behaviors.
INCLUSION - working together with school, community and neighborhood at including special needs kids into their local environment.
ASD - Autism Spectrum Disorders - a group of related brain-based disorders that affect a child's behavior, communication, and social skills. autistic disorder, Asperger syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder.
PDD - Pervasive developmental disorders - show some signs of autism or other PDD but don not have a sufficient number or intensity of symptoms to be diagnosed with AD or Asperger syndrome. fewer overall symptoms but the symptoms are still challenging.
PDD-NOS- pervasive developmental disorder- not otherwise specified
FINE MOTOR SKILLS - coordinating small controlled movements - cutting, writing, drawing
GROSS MOTOR SKILLS - coordination - running/jumping etc.
HIGH FUNCTIONING - when their intelligence is in the normal range
LOW FUNCTIONING - when their intelligence is below the normal range
ASPERGER SYNDROME - intelligence is normal - may speak in an odd way, may speak in only one tone (monotone), may speak in language above what would be expected for their age like "little professors.", hard maintaining back and forth conversation, take things literally, problems with humor, teasing and figures of speech.
DEVELOPMENTAL DELAY - is what it says but can happen in various areas (speech, fine motor, gross motor etc.)
SPEECH DELAY - ummm delay in speech. With Sam and Luke it was problems with forming the words properly to say them correctly, Isaac was delayed in not really having very many words for his age.
EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE -
being able to put thoughts into words and sentences, in a way that makes sense and is grammatically accurate.
RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE - the ability to understand or comprehend language heard or read.
PEDIATRICIAN- a medical practitioner specializing in children and their diseases.
ENT - Ears , Nose Throat Specialist
AUDIOLOGIST - Ear doctor
PARROTING OR ECHOING - repeats what others say without understanding the meaning
ROTE -Rote
learning is a memorization technique based on repetition. The idea is that one will be able to quickly recall the meaning of the material the more one repeats it.
SENSORY DISORDER -
is a condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses.
REPETITIVE AND OBSESSIVE BEHAVIOURS -
intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear or worry (obsessions), repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety (compulsions), or a combination of such obsessions and compulsions
ANXIETY DISORDER -
is a serious mental illness. For people with anxiety disorders, worry and fear are constant and overwhelming, and can be crippling.
JOINT ATTENTION - looking back and forth between an object or event and another person and connecting with that person
NON-VERBAL - doesn't speak
REGRESS - lose skills and language they previously had
PSYCHOLOGISTS - study emotions, perception, intelligence, consciousness, and the relationship between these phenomena and processes and the work of the glands and muscles.
NEUROLOGISTS - brain doctors
PRAGMATIC LANGUAGE - social use of language
ARTICULATION - pronunciation
GENETIC TESTING - tests genetics in your family to connect dots or to find links.
MRI - magnetic resonance imaging (brain scan)
GI SYMPTOMS - gastrointestinal symptoms
TICS - involuntary brief motor movements or sounds
STUCK - a tendency to be "stuck" on certain behaviors and have problems with change
SELF - STIMULATION (repetitive behaviors) - examples are flapping their hands, ripping papers, toe-walking, basically behaviors that don't seem to have a purpose, but are often used to calm an asd child.
VERBAL APRAXIA (dyspraxia) - a neurologically based disorder that affects verbal speech
SOCIAL STORY - provide info about various social situations thru the use of pictures and text to prepare child before he encounters a similar setting
FBA - functional behavioral analysis - identifies events leading up to the behavior and the consequences that maintain it.
PECS - a non-verbal visual language system that uses photographs, lie drawings, and pictures to teach children
SENSORY INTEGRATION - difficulty processing info that comes in thru visual, hearing, and other sensory pathways at the same time.
SPECIALIZED SERVICES - an organization that you choose after being approved by FSCD to work with your child and your families needs. We will receive OT, SLP and behavioral therapy from the service provider we chose. They will come a few times a week to our home to work with Isaac and us.
FSCD - family support for children with disabilities
SOCIAL STORIES - a way to give your child information about a specific social situation using your own personalized stories.
The more I learn the language the more I also learn that there is an etiquette to speaking it as well. Some people are offended by the terms "high functioning" and "low functioning", some people do not like labels, some people refer to their ASD child as "my aspie" or my "non-verbal aspie".
Friends and family this is only an introduction to this complex disease. I'm sure I will be adding words to my vocabulary everyday!
