Camp MakeBelieve Kids

A Social and Emotional Learning Program that Builds Emotional Competence in Children. The place where youth learn to believe in themselves.

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Glossary

Here is a Glossary of some key terms you may or may not be familiar with:

Abstract thinking skills - The ability to think in terms of ideas and concepts vs concrete facts.

Advisory visiting teacher (AVT) - In Australia, special education teachers who specialize in a particular field, such as autism or cognitive impairments. These teachers visit several different school sites, serving as consultants to classroom teachers and aides and working directly with students in that area of disability.

Applied behavioral therapy - A type of psychological therapy in which the recipient is helped to shape dysfunctional behaviors through the use of shaping and positive reinforcement.

Asperger's Syndrome (AS) - A neurologically-based disorder that causes: 1) problems with developing normal peer relationships, 2) impaired ability to recognize or use appropriate nonverbal communication, 3) impairments in social interactions such as problems recognizing and responding to other people's emotions and inappropriate social and emotional behavior and 4) restricted and intense interests in certain subjects or activities. There are significant problems with social, occupational or other important areas of functioning. By the DSM IV criteria (see reference to the DSM IV below), there are no significant delays in cognitive development apparent during the first there years of life, and the child uses single non-echoed words by age two years and spontaneous communicative phrases by age three years.

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) - A neurologically-based disorder characterized by deficits in attention and/or hyperactivity/compulsivity. Under the DSM IV, there are three subtypes: 1) Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Combined Type, 2) Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Predominantly Inattentive Type, and 3) Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type.

Auditory discrimination - The ability to recognize and identify sounds and words as well as to hear similarities and differences between them.

Autism - The term "autism" sometimes is used to refer to the autism spectrum (also called the Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD) spectrum). Alternatively, the term autism often is used loosely in lieu of the terms autistic disorder, classic autism, Kanner's autism, childhood autism or early infantile autism. These terms apply to a neurologically based disorder that causes striking impairments in social interaction and a remarkably restricted, repetitive range of interests and activities. In contrast to Asperger's syndrome, there are also significant delays in verbal communication as well as non-verbal communication. Mild to profound mental retardation is found in the majority of cases. 

Autism spectrum - Autism is not a single diagnosis, but comprises various diagnoses along a continuum. The "autism spectrum" refers to all of the different autism diagnoses along that continuum. An alternate term for the "autism spectrum" is the "PDD spectrum."

Behaviorist - Someone who specializes in analyzing the functions of difficult or challenging behaviors and in designing and implementing treatment programs for such behaviors.

Central auditory processing deficit - An impairment in the ability to discriminate, recognize, or comprehend auditory information despite normal hearing ability. The CAPD individual will experience greater problems when listening to distorted speech and in poor acoustic environments such as listening in the presence of competing background noise.

Childhood Disintegrative Disorder - A neurologically based disorder in which there is a marked regression in several areas of functioning after at least two years of normal development. Regression occurs in at least two of the following areas: expressive or receptive language, social skills or adaptive behavior, bowel or bladder control, play or motor skills. Onset is before age ten and severe cognitive deficits usually are present. The social, communication and behavioral manifestations of the disorder are comparable to those seen in autistic disorder.

Chunking - Breaking down a complex task into smaller incremental steps ("chunks"). By mastering each step individually, the student can more easily master the larger task.

Cognitive - Relating to intelligence or the ability to think abstractly, to reason and to problem solve.

Cognitive ability - Intellectual ability, or the ability to know and understand.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) - A form of psychological therapy in which the therapist looks for misperceptions and distortions in the patient's thinking that cause inappropriate responses and helps the patient to correct these distortions.

Compliance - The act of participating in a task or activity in response to someone else's request to do so.

Compliance hierarchy - As used in the program to teach a student to comply with reasonable requests, a compliance hierarchy is a list of tasks that begins with a task that usually elicits compliance from a particular student, and then progresses through tasks that typically cause increasing levels of non-compliance.

Concrete thinking - Thinking that focuses on details and facts in contrast to ideas or concepts.

Contextual clues - As used in this book, these are clues to another person's thoughts, feelings or intentions that are found either in preceding events or in a body of knowledge that one has already collected about the other person. For example, the knowledge that Jane loves chocolate is a contextual clue that can help another person predict what Jane might feel, think and do if Jane were offered a piece of chocolate cake. Likewise, the knowledge that David was just reprimanded by his boss is a contextual clue that can be used to help understand why he is frowning and what he might be feeling and thinking at the moment.

Deductive reasoning - To start with an overarching principle or meaning and use that to draw a conclusion about a specific individual fact or event (i.e. to reason from the general to the specific). Example: Knowing that in general autistic children dislike changes in routine, Mrs. Davis deduced that her autistic student's temper tantrum had been caused by changing the time his art lesson started. (Contrast with "inductive reasoning".)

Delayed gratification - The ability to put off receiving a reward or reinforcer until a later time.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV) - The diagnostic text of the American Psychiatric Association that describes and categorizes all currently accepted psychiatric diagnoses of mental disorders. Note that many of the disorders included in the DSM IV are neurodevelopment disorders (for example autism, Asperger's syndrome, AD/HD, and mental retardation) and as such the term "mental disorders" may at times be misleading. The DSM IV is the fourth and most current edition.

Emotionally disturbed - According to the Code of Federal Regulations the label "emotionally disturbed" refers to a "condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a significant degree, which adversely affects educational performance and requires small group instruction, supervision, and group counseling: (i) an inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; (ii) an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; (iii) inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; (iv) a general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or (v) a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems."

Etiology - Cause. Example: The etiology of his headache was meningitis.

Executive functioning - The ability to plan and organize tasks, monitor one's own performance, inhibit inappropriate responses, utilize feedback and suppress distracting stimuli.

Extrinisic reinforcement - The use of a reinforcer that is desirable to the recipient and encourages him to perform a target task or engage in a particular behavior. Extrinsic reinforcement can take the form of praise, a desired object or food item, participation in a favored activity, or a token that later can be traded for a desired object or activity. (Contrast with "intrinsic reinforcement.")

Fade - To gradually withdraw either prompts or reinforcers in order to encourage the student to do a task without the need for outside influence.

Figurative language - Language that conveys a meaning that is different from the literal meaning of the words or phrases being used.

Generalization - The transference of skills learned in one context to different contexts, including the ability to use those skills in different locations with varying stimuli, with different people, and at different times.

Graded approach - To teach a skill by starting with small, easily achievable steps, and gradually increasing the difficulty or number of steps until the skill is mastered. Also known as "shaping."

Hidden stressors - Stressors that affect an individual, but are not recognized by him or by others around him.

High functioning autism (HFA) - Although HFA is not officially recognized as a diagnostic category in the DSM IV, it nonetheless is a term that is in common usage. HFA typically refers to individuals on the autism spectrum who have near-normal to above average cognitive abilities, and who are able to communicate effectively through the use of receptive and expressive language. There currently is much debate about whether HFA and AS represent the same or different entities on the PDD spectrum.

ICD 10 - The International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition. The international diagnostic manual published by the World Health Organization in 1992.

Idiom - A figure of space that is commonly known and used within a culture or subculture, in which the intended meaning is different from the literal meaning of the words (e.g., "You're skating on thin ice." Or "He's head over heels in love.").

IEP - (Individualized education plan.) By California standards, a written special education plan that is created for an individual student by a team that includes (at the minimum) a parent or guardian, a teacher, and an administrator or specialist who is qualified to provide or supervise the child's program. The team may include other members as necessary. The IEP must include, but is not limited to the following: 1) the student's present levels of performance, 2) annual goals and short-term instructional objectives, 3) the specific educational instruction and related services required by the student, 4) provisions for participation in regular educational programs when possible, 5) the projected date for initiation and the anticipated duration of the programs and services included in the IEP and 6) specific criteria and procedures for determining whether the short-term objectives are being met.

Inductive reasoning - To consider specific individual facts and draw an overall conclusion or meaning from those facts (i.e., to reason from the specific to general). Example: After observing several years of teaching that her third grade students took about twice as long to learn to write in cursive as did her fourth grade students, the teacher induced that thread graders as a group are not developmentally ready to learn cursive. (Contrast with "deductive reasoning.")

Intrinsic reinforcement - The positive that come from an inner sense of achievement or pride in having completed a task. Alternatively, a feeling of pleasure or happiness associated with doing an activity.

Irony - The use of words in writing or speaking to convey the opposite meaning of the usual or expected meaning of the words.

Kanner autism - So-called "classic autism" as described by Leo Kanner in 1943. See also "Autism."

Learning disability - A compromised ability to learn, manifested by a severe discrepancy between the student's intellectual ability and his level of achievement in one or more of the following areas: oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skills, reading comprehension, mathematics calculation or mathematics reasoning.

Mastery (of a skill) - The point at which the student can accomplish a task correctly nine out of ten times. (It is generally accepted that this is the point at which the student will be able to retain the ability to independently accomplish the skill in the future.) An alternate definition sometimes used in this book is the point at which a student can do a task correctly three times in a row.

Mentor - For the purposes of this book, a person who is available to the individual with AS/HFA as an advisor, friend and confidant.

Metaphor - A form of figurative language in which there is an implied comparison between two different things without the use of the words like or as. "He is a chip off the old block," "She is pouring her heart out," and "He is a sly fox" are examples of metaphor.

Negative stimulus - A situation or task which a person finds repellent, and which he will avoid if possible. 

Neurodevelopmental disorder - A biological disorder in the development of the neurological system of a person, resulting in one or more clinically discernible deficits in that person.

Neutrotypical (NT) - A popular term that refers to a person who does not suffer from a neurodevelopmental disorder such as autism.

Noncompliance - As used in this glossary, a person's refusal to comply with a reasonable request to engage in an activity or task that is necessary for his own well-being, growth, or independence. 

Non-preferred activity - An activity that a person does not enjoy doing.

Nonverbal clue - A non-vocal clue (such as body language and facial expression) to the thoughts, feelings or intentions of another person.

Nonverbal learning disorder (NLD) - A disorder thought to be due to damage to or dysfunction of the right cerebral hemisphere, which causes relative strengths in verbal skills vs. significant weaknesses in non-verbal skills. Specifically, NLD causes dysfunction in three areas: 1) social skills (problems reading non-verbal clues, adjusting to changes and transitions, and/or deficits in social interactions and social judgment); 2) visual-spatial and organizational skills (problems with visual recall, spatial perception, and forming images); and 3) motor skills (problems with coordination, balance and/or fine motor skills).

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) - A neurologically-based psychiatric disorder characterized by recurrent obsessions or compulsions that interfere with the individual's daily life (i.e., they occupy more than one hour a day, cause marked distress, or interfere with the person's normal routine, social life, work, or school performance). 

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) - A disorder characterized by recurrent defiance, disobedience and hostility over a period of six months, that is not due to another disorder such as depression, psychosis or antisocial personality disorder. At least four of the following eight behaviors must frequently be present for the diagnosis to be made: 1) losing temper, 2) arguing with adults, 3) actively defying or refusing to comply with the requests or rules of adults, 4) deliberately doing things to annoy other people, 5) blaming others for his own or her own mistakes, 6) being easily annoyed, 7) being angry or resentful, or 8) being spiteful or vindictive. These behaviors must occur significantly more frequently than is normal for the individual's age and developmental level, and must interfere with his or her social, academic, or occupational functioning.

Pedantic speech - Speech in which the speaker demonstrates his knowledge in an unnecessarily long or tiresome way, often dwelling on minor, narrow points.

Pervasive Development Disorders (PDD) - An "umbrella" term that refers to a spectrum of disorders that include Autistic Disorder, Asperger's Disorder (Syndrome), Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), Rett's Disorder and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. Individuals with these disorders have severe impairments in reciprocal social interactions and communication skills and frequently have stereotyped behavior, interests and activities.

Pragmatics - The social use of language.

Preferred activity - An activity that a person enjoys doing.

Prompt - To encourage, remind or "cue" someone to do something. Prompts can take several forms, ranging from physically guiding the student through a task (e.g., placing one's hand over the student's hand to guide him to pick up a pencil) to a verbal reminder or a slight gesture (such as pointing or nodding one's head) that reminds the student to start or continue a task. In general, it is best to use the least intrusive and least noticeable prompt that will work for the particular situation. Also, it is important to fade prompting by slowly decreasing the number of prompts and by moving from more intrusive and noticeable prompts to those that are more subtle, until the student requires only that amount and type of prompting that is appropriate for his age.

Prosody - As it applies to speech, prosody is comprised of the pitch (or "intonation"), loudness and tempo of the spoken words.

Psychoanalysis - A method used in psychiatry to search a person's mind for unconscious fears, anxieties or desires that may be causing a particular mental or emotional disorder.

Psychotic - Referring to symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, or severely disorganized or catatonic behavior. 

Reinforcement menu - A list of extrinsic reinforcers from which the student may choose a reinforcer for desirable behavior or for successfully completing an assigned task.

Reinforcer - Anything that follows a behavior and increases that behavior. A negative reinforcer is something that a person will try to avoid. In the process of avoiding a negative reinforcer, the individual increases a desirable behavior. For example, the loud beeping sound by a phone left off the hook is something that people typically want to avoid. The obnoxious noise increases the likelihood that people will hang up their phones. (In this example, the loud noise made by the phone is the negative reinforcer and hanging up the phone is the desirable behavior that results.) A positive reinforcer is something is desirable to the recipient. The expectation of receiving a positive reinforcer motives the recipient to increase the desired behavior. Types of positive reinforcers include social praise, preferred activities, edible reinforcers and tangible reinforcers (e.g., stickers, toys, tokens, etc).

Remediation - In special education, the process of providing appropriate programming to improve the student's performance in a particular area.

Rett's Disorder - Categorized in the DSM IV as one of the pervasive developmental disorder, Rett's Disorder is found only in females and is characterized by a period of about five months of apparently normal development followed by a loss of multiple previously achieved milestones: Between five and thirty months of age functional hand movements are replaced with hand-wringing movements. Head growth decelerates between five and forty-eight months of age. Subsequently there is a loss of social interaction (some of this may be regained later) and the development of severe delays in expressive and receptive language, psychomotor skills, and coordination of gait and trunk movements. Significant mental retardation is present in most cases.

Semantics - The meanings of words and expressions.

SENSE skills - An acronym used in teaching nonverbal social skills. The letters stand for the following words: Space - maintaining the right physical distance from the other person. Eye contact - making appropriate eye contact. Nodding - nodding the head to show attention, agreement and disagreement. Statements of encouragement - making standard, brief comments such as "hmm", "uh huh",  or "really!" to show encouragement or attention. Expressions - using appropriate facial expression and body language.

Shaping - To teach a student a completely new behavior in a graded, stepwise fashion by: a) first reinforcing the student for a preexisting behavior that is close to the ultimate goal behavior, and b) then reinforcing successively closer approximations of the desired behavior until it is mastered. (See also "Graded Approach.")

Simile - A figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another thing. Similes always use the words "like" or "as." (Examples: "She is light as a feather," or "She sings like a bird.")

Social story - As developed by Carol Gray: A brief story that is used to teach a student an important lesson that would be difficult to explain to the student using usual teaching methods.

Stress hierarchy - A hierarchy that lists tasks that cause the student varying degrees of stress. The tasks are ranked in order from least to most stressful. The student is reinforced for accomplishing each task on the hierarchy, starting with the least stressful and then working up the hierarchy in a slow, methodical way to allow the student to succeed at each successive task before moving on to the more difficult task that follows.

Stress prevention - To reduce stress in a student's life by proactively preventing causes of stress in the student's daily life whenever possible.

Syntax - Sentence structure. The arrangement and function of words, phrases or clauses in a sentence.

Target task - An isolated task that the teacher or student designates for the student to accomplish.

Theory of mind skills - 

First order theory of mind skills - The ability to understand or predict what another person thinks, feels, desires, intends, or believes about something (person, place, thing, event, etc.). For example, when packing for a trip, Megan packs her son's coat in a suitcase while he is at school. Later, she finds him looking for his coat in the closet. Megan knows that her son believes that the coat is in the closet because that is where he always puts it. She realizes this because she knows that her son was absent when she packed the coat; he did not see the coat being moved, and he therefore would believe that the coat was still in the closet.

Second order theory of mind skills - A person's ability to understand or predict what a second person thinks or believes about the thoughts, beliefs, feelings, desires, or intentions of a third person. For example, when Ted sees Justin frown angrily at Hilary (who is holding Justin's broken toy), Ted thinks Justin believes that Hilary intended to break his toy.

Token economy - A system of reinforcement in which the student earns different numbers of tokens, or tokens of differing values, for doing various types or numbers of tasks. The student then "cashes in" the tokens (either immediately or at a later time) for a reward of corresponding value. Many different items can be used as tokens, including tickets, poker chips, and "play" money, to mention a few.

Tone of voice clues - Clues to the speaker's feelings, thoughts or intentions that are conveyed by his tone of voice.

Triggers (or triggering events) - An event that precipitates a certain behavior or response.

 Testimony

"The study really shines a light on something many parents look for, but seems to elude them. Validation that the program works --RESULTS. Isn't that the biggest question you get, "What will the program give my son or daughter...what can I expect...how long will it take to see results?" I'm very proud Jake is attending the Camp MakeBelieve Kids program. The changes he's made are priceless!"

Lauren Alvaraz