Glossary
The words in your child's reports.
Written for the evening you are handed a document full of acronyms nobody explained. Short definitions, no further jargon, and where a term is commonly used to sell something, we say so.
A
- AACAlso: Augmentative and alternative communication
- Any way of communicating that supplements or replaces speech — signs, picture cards, a speech-generating app on a tablet. Introduced properly it tends to increase speech rather than replace it. What this means for your child — AAC →
- ABAAlso: Applied behaviour analysis
- A framework for teaching skills by breaking them into steps, prompting, reinforcing and measuring. Widely used in the UAE, genuinely effective for some goals, and the subject of real criticism worth understanding before you buy it. What this means for your child — ABA →
- Access arrangements
- Adjustments a school makes so a child can show what they know — extra time, a reader, a separate room. They change the conditions of a task, not its content. Formal exam access arrangements usually need an educational psychologist report. What this means for your child — Access arrangements →
- Adaptive skills
- The practical skills of everyday independence — dressing, eating, road safety, handling money, asking for help. They matter more to an adult life than almost anything measured in a classroom, and they are the ones most often left out of a plan.
- ADEKAlso: Department of Education and Knowledge
- The authority regulating schools in Abu Dhabi emirate, including Al Ain and the Al Dhafra region. It publishes its own inclusion policy for private schools. What this means for your child — ADEK →
- ADHDAlso: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
- A difference in attention, impulse control and activity level that shows up across settings, not just in the ones a child dislikes. Diagnosed by an independent clinician — never by us. See our ADHD page for what support actually looks like. ADHD support →
- Antecedent
- What happened immediately before a behaviour. Half of understanding a difficult moment is knowing what came just before it, which is why good notes record the ten minutes before, not just the incident.
- Articulation
- How clearly speech sounds are produced. A child can have perfect articulation and still struggle to communicate, and can be hard to understand while communicating very effectively. The two are separate problems with separate solutions.
- Assistive technologyAlso: AT
- Any tool that removes a barrier — text-to-speech, a communication device, a pencil grip. Buying one without a plan for who will set it up and how you will know it worked is the most common way money is wasted here.
- AutismAlso: ASD, autism spectrum
- A difference in how a person communicates, processes sensory information and experiences the social world. Formally diagnosed by an independent clinician, never by us. See our autism page for what support looks like. Autism support →
B
- Baseline
- What a child can do before support starts, measured rather than described. Without one, nobody can prove later that anything changed. What this means for your child — Baseline →
- BCBAAlso: Board Certified Behavior Analyst
- An internationally certified behaviour analyst, qualified to design and supervise behaviour programmes. The certification is held by the individual, not by the centre that employs them. What this means for your child — BCBA →
- Behaviour support plan
- A written plan describing what a behaviour achieves for a child and what will be taught instead. A plan that only lists consequences is not a behaviour support plan.
C
- Co-regulation
- A calm adult lending a child their calm until the child can manage it alone. It is a teaching step, not an indulgence — self-regulation is built out of thousands of co-regulated moments, and children rarely learn it from being left to it.
D
- Developmental delay
- Reaching milestones significantly later than expected, in one area or several. A description of where a child is now, not a prediction of where they will end up, and not a diagnosis. What this means for your child — Developmental delay →
- Differentiation
- A teacher adjusting how something is taught so more of the class can access it — different materials, different output, more time. It is ordinary good teaching, not additional provision, and it should not require a diagnosis. What this means for your child — Differentiation →
- Discharge
- The formal end of support. It should be a planned milestone written into the plan at the start, not something that happens when a family stops paying.
- Dyscalculia
- A specific difficulty with number — quantity, place value, recalling facts, estimating. It sits alongside ordinary intelligence and is far less well recognised than dyslexia, which is why it is usually caught years later. What this means for your child — Dyscalculia →
- Dysgraphia
- A specific difficulty with the physical and organisational act of writing — letter formation, spacing, speed, and getting known content onto a page. What this means for your child — Dysgraphia →
- Dyslexia
- A specific difficulty with accurate and fluent word reading and spelling, unrelated to intelligence or effort. Formally identified by an educational psychologist, not by us. See our learning differences page. Learning differences and dyslexia →
- DyspraxiaAlso: DCD, developmental coordination disorder
- Difficulty planning and carrying out coordinated movement — not weakness, but the sequencing of an action. Doing up buttons, catching, handwriting, riding a bike, moving through a crowded room. What this means for your child — Dyspraxia →
E
- Early intervention
- Support delivered in the preschool years, when change tends to come faster. It is a genuinely strong argument and also the one most often used to rush families into signing. What this means for your child — Early intervention →
- Echolalia
- Repeating words or phrases heard elsewhere — immediately, or hours and weeks later. It is communication, not noise, and it is very often a stage on the way to flexible speech rather than a barrier to it. What this means for your child — Echolalia →
- Executive function
- The set of mental skills that run everything else — planning, starting a task, holding a sequence in mind, switching, resisting the first impulse, monitoring your own work. What this means for your child — Executive function →
- Exit criterion
- The condition that has to be true for a stage of support to end, agreed in writing before that stage starts. If a provider cannot tell you theirs, they do not have one. What this means for your child — Exit criterion →
- Expressive language
- What a child can put out — words, sentences, gestures, signs, anything that gets a message across. Distinct from what they understand. What this means for your child — Expressive language →
F
- Fading
- Deliberately reducing prompts, adult proximity or session frequency as a child becomes more independent. It should be scheduled in the plan, not improvised when a family raises the cost. What this means for your child — Fading →
- Fine motor skills
- Small, precise movements — pencil grip, buttons, cutlery, scissors. Usually addressed by an occupational therapist, and usually improved more by daily practice at home than by a weekly session.
- Functional needs assessment
- An assessment of what a child can do, what gets in the way, and what a setting can realistically deliver. It answers what to do on Monday. A diagnosis answers a different question. Functional needs assessment →
G
- Generalisation
- A skill working outside the place it was taught — with a different adult, in a different room, on a different day. A skill that only appears in the therapy room has not generalised, and is not yet useful. What this means for your child — Generalisation →
- Gross motor skills
- Large movements — running, climbing, balance, catching. Weakness here shows up in the playground before it shows up in a report, and playground exclusion has social consequences long before it has physical ones.
H
- Handover
- The point at which one adult's knowledge of a child transfers to another — a new therapist, a new LSA, a new school year. It is where most of the loss in this sector happens, and it is preventable with a written record.
I
- IEPAlso: Individual Education Plan, ILP
- The school's own written plan for a child — targets, provision and review dates. Outside support should work to it rather than beside it, or the child ends up with two plans and no one plan. What this means for your child — IEP →
- Inclusion
- A child taking part in the ordinary life of a setting, not merely being present in the room. Attendance without participation is the failure mode this word usually hides.
- Independence File
- Our record of everything about a child's support — plan, goals, session data, reports, reviews and decisions. It belongs to the family, who can export all of it free at any time, including on the way out. The Independence File →
- Independence Plan
- Our one-page plan: goals in plain English, intensity, settings, projected timeline and review dates. Everyone involved works from it, and it names other providers where they are the better fit. The Independence Pathway →
- Intensity
- How much support, how often. The number most commonly inflated in this sector, which is why our recommendations above a set intensity need a second signature from someone with no commercial role. What this means for your child — Intensity →
- Interoception
- The sense of what is happening inside your own body — hunger, thirst, needing the toilet, the physical build-up to anger. Frequently unreliable in children with sensory differences, which explains a lot of behaviour that looks sudden.
K
- KHDAAlso: Knowledge and Human Development Authority
- The authority regulating private schools in Dubai. It publishes an inclusive education policy framework and inspects schools against it. What this means for your child — KHDA →
L
- Least restrictive environment
- The principle that a child should be supported in the most ordinary setting that works for them, rather than the most specialised one available. It cuts both ways: an unsupported mainstream classroom is not less restrictive if the child cannot access any of it.
- LSAAlso: Learning support assistant, shadow teacher
- An adult supporting a child in class. Done well, they work to written targets under clinical supervision with a plan to withdraw. Done badly, they become a barrier between a child and their classmates. What this means for your child — LSA →
M
- Mainstream
- An ordinary school, as opposed to a specialist setting. Which is right depends on the child and on what the school can actually resource, not on which sounds more ambitious. Mainstream with support, or specialist? →
- Maintenance
- A low, stable level of support for a child who will not reach full independence — typically a review each term and a number to call. A legitimate ending, provided it is named as one rather than implied to be temporary.
- MilestoneAlso: Developmental milestone
- A skill most children reach within a broad age range — first words, walking, joining two words together. The ranges are wider than parents are led to believe, and a single missed milestone matters far less than a pattern across several. When a missed milestone is worth acting on →
- MoEAlso: Ministry of Education
- The federal education authority. It regulates public schools nationally, sets the MoE curriculum, and is the relevant authority for private schools in the emirates without their own regulator — Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.
- Motor planning
- Working out how to perform an unfamiliar physical action before doing it. A child who manages a known obstacle course easily and freezes at a new one is showing a motor planning difficulty, not a lack of ability.
- Multidisciplinary teamAlso: MDT
- Several professions working on one child. It only means anything if they read each other's notes and meet. Four professionals with four plans is not a multidisciplinary team, it is four bills.
O
- Occupational therapyAlso: OT
- Therapy focused on the practical business of daily life — motor skills, self-care, sensory regulation, and the physical demands of a classroom. Formal sensory profiles come from an OT, not from us. What this means for your child — Occupational therapy →
P
- Phonological awareness
- Hearing and manipulating the sounds inside spoken words — rhyme, syllables, the individual sounds in "cat". It is an oral skill, and it is the strongest early predictor of how easily a child will learn to read. What this means for your child — Phonological awareness →
- Pragmatic language
- The social use of language — turn-taking, staying on topic, reading tone, knowing how much background a listener needs. A child can have a large vocabulary and perfect grammar and still find every conversation hard. What this means for your child — Pragmatic language →
- Prompt
- Any help given to get a response — a gesture, a word, a hand on an elbow. Prompts are supposed to be removed on a schedule. Prompt dependence is what happens when nobody wrote that schedule.
- Prompt dependence
- When a child will only perform a skill once an adult signals. The skill is present; what is missing is starting it alone — and the adult help that taught it is now the thing preventing it. What this means for your child — Prompt dependence →
- Proprioception
- The sense of where your body is in space without looking. Children with weak proprioception often seek heavy pressure — crashing, squeezing, chewing — which is regulation, not misbehaviour.
R
- Receptive language
- What a child understands, as distinct from what they can say. Usually ahead of expression, sometimes well behind it, and the gap between the two decides what to teach next. What this means for your child — Receptive language →
- Regression
- Losing a skill a child previously had. Distinct from a plateau, and worth reporting to a clinician promptly rather than watching — particularly a loss of words or social response in a young child.
- Reinforcement
- Anything that follows a behaviour and makes it more likely next time. Often reduced to rewards, but attention, escape from a demand and sensory feedback are all reinforcers, and the last three explain far more behaviour than stickers do.
S
- Scaffolding
- Temporary support that lets a child do something slightly beyond them alone — with the temporary part being the whole point. Scaffolding that never comes down is not scaffolding, it is the building.
- Screening
- A short check designed to flag who needs a fuller assessment. It is not a diagnosis and cannot be one. A screening result is a reason to look properly, not a conclusion.
- Self-regulation
- Managing your own attention, emotion and arousal well enough to do what a situation asks. Built gradually, out of thousands of moments of being regulated by somebody else first. What this means for your child — Self-regulation →
- SENCOAlso: Special educational needs coordinator
- The person in a school responsible for children with additional needs. Usually the most useful single relationship a parent has inside a school, and usually the most overloaded. What this means for your child — SENCO →
- Sensory processing
- How the nervous system takes in and organises information from the senses. Differences here are real and affect what a child can tolerate; they are described by an occupational therapist. See our sensory processing page. Sensory processing differences →
- Sensory profile
- A description of how a child responds to sensory input — sound, light, touch, movement. Written by an occupational therapist. Useful when it changes what a room demands, not when it sits in a drawer.
- Shadow teacher
- The common UAE term for a one-to-one classroom assistant. The same role an LSA does. Ask any provider offering one what the exit plan is; the answer tells you most of what you need to know. What this means for your child — Shadow teacher →
- SLTAlso: Speech and language therapy, SALT
- Therapy for communication — understanding, expression, speech sounds, and the social use of language. Functional communication comes before clarity of speech, in that order. What this means for your child — SLT →
- SPEAAlso: Sharjah Private Education Authority
- The authority regulating private schools in Sharjah. It sits alongside the national framework rather than replacing it, and the same national language applies — students of determination, and an expectation that schools include rather than refer out. Support in Sharjah →
- Speech sound disorder
- Persistent difficulty producing speech sounds beyond the age most children have mastered them. Distinct from a language difficulty: the message is intact, the delivery is not.
- Statement of need
- A written description of what a child requires, used to secure school or funding support. Its usefulness depends entirely on whether it is specific enough to act on.
- StimmingAlso: Self-stimulatory behaviour
- Repetitive movement or sound that regulates the nervous system — hand movements, rocking, humming, spinning objects. For most autistic people it is useful, and for many it is necessary. What this means for your child — Stimming →
- Students of determinationAlso: People of determination
- The official UAE term for children with additional needs, adopted nationally in place of the language of disability. It carries a policy expectation, not just a change of vocabulary. What this means for your child — Students of determination →
T
- Task analysis
- Breaking a skill into the smallest teachable steps — the eleven separate actions in washing your hands, rather than "washing your hands". Most teaching that fails, fails because the step was too big.
- Termly review
- A scheduled point at which data is looked at and the plan is confirmed or rewritten. A review that never results in a change is not a review.
- Transfer
- Our fourth stage: moving skills from the therapy room into school life and training the teaching team to carry them. The stage most often skipped, and the reason support so often never ends. The Independence Pathway →
- Transition
- Any move between one thing and the next — activity to activity, year to year, school to school. The point at which most difficulty appears, and the one most often left out of a plan because it belongs to nobody in particular.
V
- Visual schedule
- A picture or written sequence showing what happens next. One of the cheapest interventions that exists, and one of the most reliably effective for a child whose difficulty is with uncertainty rather than with the activities themselves.
W
- Working memory
- How much a child can hold in mind while doing something with it — a three-part instruction, a sentence while spelling it, a sum carried between steps. What this means for your child — Working memory →
If a report still doesn't make sense
Send it to us and we'll translate it.
Any report, from any provider, including ones we have nothing to do with. We will tell you in plain English what it says, what it recommends, and which parts are actually supported by the evidence in it.
There is no charge for this and it does not make you a client. It is the single most useful twenty minutes we can give a family who is stuck.
Reading a recommendation
A short guide to what a good recommendation contains, and the four things a weak one always leaves out.
Questions before you sign
Eleven questions worth asking any provider, including us, before you commit to a programme.
Longer than a definition
The words explained properly.
Where a term needs more than a paragraph, there is an article about it.
Where this starts
Tell us what you've noticed.
Twenty minutes on the phone with someone who does this every day. No assessment, no cost, and no obligation to become a client at the end of it.
If we're not the right people, we'll tell you who is. That includes naming providers we don't own, and it costs you nothing either way.