Chapter 10: Autism Spectrum Disorders & Dev. Disabilities

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)


  a lifelong complex behavioral syndrome that appears by 3 years of age, with children having a markedly absent interest in social interactions and relationships, severely impaired communication skills, and repetitive, stereotyped movements, combined with restricted interests that are often obsessive or fixated
• Developmental Disability


  a disability that originates before 18 yrs of age and is characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills
• Meta-analysis


  A statistical method designed to increase the reliability of research by combining and analyzing the results of all known studies of the same product or research on the same subject population
• Joint Attention


  the shared focus of two people on an object when one person alerts another to an object by means of eye-gaze, pointing or other verbal or nonverbal indications
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder


  An anxiety disorder characterized by repetitive thoughts, behaviors, and rituals
• Theory of Mind


  the ability to imagine or anticipate the mental states of other people which may be different from one's own.
• Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)


  a neurological disorder that causes difficulties with processing information from the five sense
• Hyperacusis


  oversensitivity to certain frequencies and volumes of sounds, sometimes sounding unpleasant or painful
• Phonophobia


  fear of loud sounds, particular sounds or frequencies, particular voices, or fear of one's own voice
• Savant Syndrome


  the co-occurrence of unexpected or unusual high-level skills (math calculations, days and dates in history or future, or remarkable memory for unrelated information) with generally low intelligence that is most commonly associated with autism
• Hyperlexia


  an above-normal ability to read coupled with a below-normal ability to understand both spoken and written language
• Mutism


  the inability to speak; usually used in reference to voice disorders where an individual may use selective or elective mutism
• Idiosyncratic Language


  an individual's choice of words and use of words in sentences that have their own unique meaning, which may or may not be interpretable to a listener
• Neologism


  a combining of sounds that usually follow conventional conventions but is an invented word that appears to serve a linguistic function
• Social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SCD)


  a primary deficit in the social use of nonverbal and verbal communication characterized by difficulty in using language for social purposes
• Picture Exchange Communication Systems (PECS)


  Developed by 2 SLPs, PECS is a form of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) used widely with children and adults with ASD and other disorders. PECS is designed to teach functional communication with an initial focus on spontaneous communication.
• Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA)


  an applied science devoted to developing procedures that produce measurable changes in behavior using principles of operant conditioning, classical conditioning, and social learning theory
• Discrete Trial Training (DTT)


  a one-on-one instructional approach using behavioral methods to teach skills in small, incremental steps in a systematic, controlled fashion.
• Naturalistic Intervention


  an intervention approach that is based on applied behavior analysis principles that is used in daily routines throughout the day to develop skills in the areas of prelinguistic an linguistic communication and social development
• Intellectual Disability (Intellectual Developmental Disability)


  a disability characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior and originates before 18 years of age
• Adaptive Behavior


  the ability to act as independently and responsibly as other people of the same age and cultural background
• Functional Communication


  forms of behavior that express wants, needs, feelings, thoughts, knowledge and preferences that others can understand
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome


  the result of a mother's use of alcohol during pregnancy that may cause a fetus to develop abnormally slowly
• Down syndrome (Chromosome 21 – trisomy syndrome)


  the most common genetic chromosome disorder that causes lifelong intellectual disability and developmental delays
• Macroglossia


  the abnormal enlargement of the tongue in proportion to other structures in the mouth; usually occurs secondary to an underlying congenital disorder
• Least restrictive environments


  a legal term that mandates regulation for students in special education to be in the same classrooms as other children as much as possible. A principle that guides a child's education program.