Glossary

While we are striving to make this website as user friendly and as easy to understand as possible, we also want to ensure that you understand some of the therapeutic jargon that people in education, and the medical field use. As we post more material, every time we use a word that may require additional explanation we will hyperlink it and add it to the glossary for your reference. Below are our interpretations of the definitions of these words (definitions are adapted from our experiences and literature).

504:

This is a section of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a federal law that provides students with equal access to general education and protects these students from discrimination by public schools. In the school system it is referred to as a 504 plan. A child who has a 504 usually is not in special education and does not have an IEP or ISFP. 504’s are more about providing school based accommodations to support how your child learns, not what they learn; the academic curriculum is not changed. Usually, a child has to have an injury, a physical disability, or condition that makes their ability to access the curriculum difficult.

- Some common 504 accommodations include extra time for tests, sitting near the front of the class, extra time to move from class to class in the hallways, or using audiobooks.
- 504’s can include Assistive technology, and occasionally services such as transportation services or counseling.

Activities of Daily Living (ADL):

This is a term frequently used by Occupational Therapists (OT), and it generally refers to the essential everyday tasks that a person has to engage in. The activities that a person needs to complete change over the course of their lives and can be influenced by culture. Peoples’ independence with completing these tasks can be impacted by developmental delays, injuries, and/or aging.
- Some examples of basic Activities of Daily Living include: Feeding, ambulating (the ability to move from one place to another, like walking or crawling), toileting, dressing, bathing, and sleep.

Bilateral coordination:

The term bilateral refers to two sides, or in this case, the two sides of your body, the left and the right. Bilateral coordination is the way in which we combine and try to simultaneously use both sides of our body to perform daily tasks.

- Some examples of common activities that you use bilateral coordination include using scissors, writing (one hand holds the paper), pouring a beverage, tying shoes.
- Bilateral coordination can be impeded by developmental disabilities, neurological issues, trauma (like a fracture), and low tone.

Child life specialist:

A pediatric healthcare professional who helps children and their families cope with the stress and challenges that may be associated with an illness, disability and hospitalization through various coping mechanisms, including but not limited to medical play, normalization activities, sibling support, non-pharmacological pain management, age appropriate distractions, developmentally appropriate procedural preparation and bereavement/end of life support. Child Life Specialists mainly work in hospital settings but are now expanding to school settings, outpatient clinics, courtrooms and dental offices.

Emotional regulation skills:

These skills are almost like coping skills, and their acquisition and implementation can be affected by a child’s age, developmental level, environment, and potential diagnosis. These skills usually refer to how a child behaves or responds when trying to express, manage, and/or identify feelings while engaging in an activity or interacting with others. The optimal version of developing and using these skills results with a child experiencing a level of emotional distress while engaging in an activity but displaying and managing their emotions in a way that allows them to constructively participate in the activity or social interaction.

Ergonomics:

A science that looks at how the human body and human interactions are impacted by elements of a system and or their profession. OT’s consider theories, the anatomy of the body, analyze job functions, and collect data to create and/or adapt the working environment and/or the way in which people perform job related tasks to optimize productivity and maintain optimal health while performing job functions.

Evidence based practice:

A combination of practice techniques, clinical reasoning, treatment interventions, and theories that are developed from the results of applicable scientific research. Known as “best practice,” when professionals use evidence-based research to inform their practice, the care they give is supposed to be more effective.

Fine motor skills:

Our ability to use and coordinate the muscles in our hands and wrists to manipulate items, use tools, and perform everyday tasks.

Some tasks that require fine motor skills include writing, drawing, coloring, manipulating clothing fasteners, and braiding your hair.
Individuals that have challenges with fine motor skills frequently have decreased hand and/or upper body strength, can have underdeveloped arches in their palms, have difficulty with independent task completion, and can often be impacted by diagnoses and/or trauma.
OT’s frequently work with children and adults on fine motor skills, fine motor coordination, and hand strength to support increased independence with tasks.
There are many named fine motor skills such as translation, in-hand manipulation, and various types of grasps (i.e. pincer grasp- the ones babies use to pick up items like finger food).

Grading:

A way in which OT’s modify a task for a child to have the optimal chance of success with engagement and completion of the task. An OT can “grade” a task down, or simplify the task, or they can “grade” a task up, making the task harder. Our brains learn and change for the better when engaged in tasks that provide a “just right” level of challenge. OT’s use their education and experience to find the graded or best level of difficulty for a child to have success but also be set up for optimal development. In our ADL worksheets, you will find a simplified version (graded down version), general version, and an advanced version (graded up version).

Graphomotor skills:

The motor skills that are necessary for handwriting, drawing and coloring. Often, it is used synonymously for handwriting skills, and the legibility of a person’s writing. Graphomotor skills are one of the main skills that cause a student to be referred to school based Occupational Therapy.

There are many factors, skills and motor abilities that need to be acquired when striving for legible handwriting, some include: the ability to identify letters, reading abilities, fine motor skills, hand and arm strength, visual motor skills, the ability to have and maintain optimal posture.

Home modification:

A way to support individuals and help them achieve more success and independence with completing daily tasks in their home environment. This can include re-arranging items and/ or furniture, decluttering, organizing, adjusting dimensions of furniture, or buying or creating products that can physically support an individuals’ access to their environment.

Some examples include: Buying or creating a footstool so that your child can be more supported sitting at the dinner table, moving their homework station near the window so they have more natural light, or adding hooks for your child’s coat near the front door.

Impulse control:

A person’s ability to stop themselves from engaging in a behavior, think/reflect whether this behavior would be appropriate and/or necessary at this time, and then either modifying their behavior or stopping the behavior altogether. This behavior may be a physical action, or even speaking. A child’s ability to exercise impulse control can be affected by developmental age, the amount and effectiveness of their social skills, their level of energy at the time, whether or not their basic needs are met at the time (ex feeling sleepy, or h-angry …grumpy from being hungry), if the activity is meaningful to them, and by certain diagnoses (like ADHD, ASD, or sensory processing disorder).

Decreased impulse control may show up in the form of a child taking a toy from another child, quickly pulling away from their adult and trying to run in a different direction, hitting their caregiver or a peer, or throwing an object.

Individualized Educational Program (IEP):

Similar to an IFSP. An IEP is also a plan and legal document that is given to eligible children, aged 3-21, that provides children with the special education services and support that they need to thrive academically. Reviewed and potentially amended annually and tri-annually, this document and program includes the type of classroom setting, type of academic support given by their teacher, the related service providers that would be working with the child (ex. Speech and language, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, counseling), environmental accommodations, and annual goals.

Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP):

For children aged birth to three years old, that are found eligible for early intervention services, an IFSP is both the legal document and plan that would describes the type of support and services that the child and their family would be provided to assist them with helping the child to achieve developmental milestones and catch up on necessary skills (physical, self- help, social, cognitive and social emotional skills). This plan is reviewed, assessed and amended to meet the needs of the child as they age and progress.

Some of the services that may be included are: Speech and language therapy, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and social work services.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA):

A federal law that ensures that all educational services and programs must be provided to children with a disability from birth to age 21. ISFP’s and IEP’s are written plans and programs that are mandated by IDEA.

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs):

This is also a term frequently used by OT’s, and is similar to ADLs, except these tasks require more complex and higher level skills to complete, and while they are not essential to basic survival, they are needed to have meaningful engagement in the world. Similarly to ADLs, a person’s ability to complete these tasks can be greatly affected by developmental delays, injuries, and/or aging.

Some examples of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living are: Financial management, home establishment and management, care of others, driving and community mobility, meal preparation, medication management, and shopping.

Medical Play:

A method of play where a child engages with real or pretend medical tools for the purpose of developing coping strategies for actual medical experiences. A child is able to express concerns and fears in a safe space, become acquainted with the tools and their uses, associate the tools with joy and comfort and become educated on any medical procedure using toys and/or dolls to enact the healthcare experience

Modeling:

A way to intentionally or unintentionally teach someone something by your actions alone. In other words, a person is learning how to do something by observing and trying to copy your actions.

Unintentionally, a person may be modeling a daily activity, or could be modeling a negative behavior such as verbally or nonverbally expressing their frustration over something not going their way. A child may see these things occurring, and eventually start copying these behaviors.
Intentionally, a parent, teacher, child, or therapist may use modeling to teach a child a skill. When intentionally using modeling as a technique, the “Model/ teacher” may demonstrate the physical action of the task slowly or in steps, and will frequently add verbal directions.
We suggest that you model the tasks for your child before using the ADL worksheets with them. If your child is having difficulty with specific steps, try modeling those steps, and practicing those parts of the task until they get it, before moving on to the next steps.

Motor planning:

A process that can happen subconsciously; also referred to as praxis, this involves thinking about and planning how one would have to coordinate their body to perform the steps of an activity and then having their body follow the planned steps to execute the task. Many children with developmental delays, neurological disorders, and/or neurological injuries can have difficulty with motor planning, especially new tasks.

Occupational Therapy:

Per the American Occupational Therapy Association, Occupational Therapy (OT) is a type of rehabilitative service that therapeutically uses every day activities to support people of all ages and demographics with having meaningful engagement in the activities and roles that they need or want to do.

Occupational Therapists have education to support people’s physical, cognitive, psychological, sensory, emotional, and social needs.
Occupational Therapy services usually include an evaluation to determine the individuals or family’s goals, interventions to assist people with reaching those goals, and progress monitoring to ensure that the interventions are best tailored for people to meet their goals.
Some common settings/situations where an OT would work are: in a hospital setting working with people who experienced a neurological or orthopedic injury, in a long term care facility or home supporting older adults with physical and cognitive changes, and with children in a school helping them to acquire skills to thrive academically. For more information, check out the AOTA webpage.

Occupations:

When we think of this word, the word jobs comes to mind. In the OT world, the word “occupations” refers to jobs, or activities that people engage in. These include ADLS, IADLS, but also education, work, play, social participation, leisure, and rest.

Proprioception:

One of our senses (yup, we have way more than just 5 senses!). This sense is also known as kinesthesia, and it refers to our ability to sense where our body is in space, what action it is doing, and how it is moving. The receptors that help us to detect this sense are located in our joints, muscles and tendons. Therefore, as we move, and our joints, muscle and tendons move closer together or further apart, it activates the receptors and sends signals these important signals to our brain.

Proprioception is frequently impacted by neurological challenges, joint injuries, and certain disorders like Autism Spectrum Disorder.
This sense can also cause a “calming” and or organizing effect on children and adults if a person engages in activities that significantly activate these receptors. Some examples of activities include: “Heavy work”- carrying laundry, swimming, engaging in yoga, or even laying under a weighted blanket.

Self regulation skills:

A way in which a person tries to independently change their behavior based on the requirements and demands of the task and the environment. The person would also have to manage their sensory, energy, emotional and environmental needs to be at a state that enables them to optimally engage in the task at hand. These skills can be impacted by a child’s developmental age, whether their basic needs have been met at the time (are they sleepy, hungry, etc.), their ability to communicate, the difficulty of the task, environmental pressure, sensory stimulation, and by a child’s diagnosis.

Social skills:

This refers to our ability to communicate, and the ways in which we navigate social situations. Social skills include both non verbal communication (such as body language and gestures), and verbal communication.

When using social skills to navigate a social situation, we think about active listening, being able to pause and wait your turn to speak instead of blurting/ interrupting, being able to stay on the topic of conversation, maintaining eye contact as someone talks to you, knowing the appropriate distance to maintain when talking to others, and even demonstrating ideal sportsmanship behavior when playing a game.

Social skills develop over time as we acquire language and are put in more social environments. However, there are some diagnoses like Autism Spectrum Disorder, that make acquiring a demonstrating ideal social skills difficult.
We, as clinicians, have also noticed that children that were born right before the COVID-19 pandemic, and/or who spent most of their early childhood education at home, via remote learning, also have been displaying some challenges with social skills. While we are not sure if there is a direct connection here, these children may have been more isolated, had limited practice using social skills with peers, and/or may be somewhat affected in a social emotional capacity by their life during the pandemic.

Social Stories:

Stories that use simplified language and meaningful pictures to describe a social situation that a child may experience. These stories are used to provide children with more information on what to expect during social situations, and usually suggest socially acceptable ways in which they can respond to these situations. The most effective social stories are as individualized as possible (they include personalized details about the child), and are reviewed with the child multiple times, before they encounter the social situation depicted by the story. For children who have some anxious or nervous feelings, are shy or less social, don’t easily respond well to change, or even have certain developmental delays or disorders, social stories can be particularly helpful. https://www.special-learning.com/article/what-are-social-stories/

Visual motor skills:

Also known as visual motor integration skills; this refers to our ability to notice, interpret, and use visual information and coordinate our bodies to respond with a physical action. Visual motor skills often work with our fine motor skills to perform daily actions and activities.

Similarly to fine motor skills, individuals that have challenges with visual motor skills often have difficulty with independent task completion and can often be impacted by diagnoses and/or trauma.
Difficulty with visual motor skills can often be exhibited by children when trying to catch a ball, using writing or eating utensils, and even in reading (reading can also be impacted by many other things as well).
For example: in order to use scissors to cut, we have to see where we want to cut, and monitor the boundaries of the shape we are cutting. Simultaneously, as we use this visual information we must coordinate our fingers, hand, and wrists on both hands to stabilize the paper, and to open and close the scissors (fine motor skills).