TESS 102: Introduction to Special Needs Education - Vocabulary Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering child development, disability models, human rights frameworks, inclusive education, UDL, classroom behavior support, ASD, giftedness, IEPs, and disability legislation based on TESS 102 course materials.

Physical Development

Changes in the human body over time across the lifespan, encompassing height, weight, gross and fine motor skills, sensory capabilities, nervous system changes, and propensity for disease.

Cognitive Development

Changes over time in mental processes and intellectual abilities, including thinking, intelligence, wisdom, perception, problem-solving, memory, and language.

Psychosocial Development

Developmental changes in emotions, psychological state, self-perception, and interpersonal relationships with family, peers, and friends across the lifespan.

Plasticity

The principle of development stating that human characteristics are malleable and capable of change, enabling children to adapt and overcome adversity.

Teratogens

Environmental factors encountered during prenatal development, such as maternal diseases, drugs, or environmental toxins, that can lead to birth defects.

Confirmation Bias

The cognitive tendency to search for, interpret, and recall information that confirms pre-existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.

Falsifiability

A criterion of scientific inquiry, attributed to Karl Popper, asserting that a scientific claim or theory must be capable of being disproved or rejected through observation and experiment.

Longitudinal Research Design

A developmental research design in which the same group of participants is observed and measured repeatedly over an extended period to track within-person changes.

Cross-Sectional Research Design

A developmental research design that assesses participants of different ages at a single point in time to compare age-related differences.

Sequential Research Design

A developmental research design that combines cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches by tracking multiple age cohorts repeatedly over time.

Schema

In Jean Piaget's cognitive theory, a mental category or 'box' of knowledge used to organize, store, and interpret information about the world.

Assimilation

In Piaget's cognitive theory, the process of fitting a new experience or piece of information into an existing schema based on perceived similarities.

Accommodation

In Piaget's cognitive theory, the process of altering an existing schema or creating a new mental category when new information cannot fit existing knowledge.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

In Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, the range of tasks that a learner can accomplish with the guidance and encouragement of a more skilled partner, but cannot yet handle independently.

Scaffolding

A teaching strategy derived from Vygotsky's theory where a knowledgeable adult or peer provides temporary structured support, gradually withdrawing assistance as the learner develops competence.

Microsystem

In Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, the innermost layer of direct environment and face-to-face relationships surrounding a child, including parents, peers, and teachers.

Mesosystem

In Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, the interactions and connections between different microsystems in an individual's life, such as the relationship between parents and school.

Macrosystem

In Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, the overarching cultural values, societal beliefs, laws, and political ideals that influence institutions and development.

Chronosystem

In Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, the dimension of time and socio-historical context, including changes in cultural values, technology, and government policies over time.

Impairment

A physical, sensory, intellectual, or psychological difference in a person's body or mind that an individual is born with or develops.

Disability

The restrictions, disadvantages, and exclusions created by society when environment, policies, and organization fail to accommodate human differences.

Medical Model of Disability

A perspective that views disability as an individual problem residing inside the person, focusing on bodily or mental deficits, diagnostic labeling, medical treatment, and rehabilitation.

Social Model of Disability

A paradigm asserting that people are disabled by physical, communication, attitudinal, and institutional barriers in society rather than by their own bodies or minds.

Medical Model vs. Social Model

A comparison showing that the Medical Model treats disability as an individual deficit requiring treatment by expert professionals, whereas the Social Model views disability as a social problem created by environmental barriers that must be removed so disabled people can participate.

Deconstructing Impairment

Dan Goodley's (2001) first argument, which questions and deconstructs diagnostic labels as socially constructed categories created by professionals rather than natural objective facts.

Epistemological Impacts

Dan Goodley's (2001) fourth argument, which analyzes how societal beliefs and assumptions about human deficit directly shape professional behavior, practice, and treatment of disabled individuals.

Deficit Thinking vs. Capacity Thinking

Deficit thinking focuses on what a person cannot do, weaknesses, limitations, and problems. Capacity thinking focuses on what a person can do, skills, strengths, potential, abilities, and required support.

Self-Advocacy

The movement and practice of disabled people speaking, making decisions, and representing themselves rather than relying on carers, professionals, or institutions to speak on their behalf.

Hard Law

Legally binding international treaties, conventions, and protocols—such as the CRPD—that require formal ratification by states and create enforceable legal duties.

Soft Law

Non-binding international declarations, guidelines, and standard rules that set normative expectations and guide state policy without formal legal enforcement.

UNCRPD

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), the first legally binding global human rights treaty devoted specifically to promoting and protecting disability rights.

Optional Protocol

A separate add-on agreement to a treaty like the CRPD that grants individuals and groups the right to file complaints with an international committee once local legal remedies are exhausted.

African Disability Protocol (2018)

A continental treaty adopted in Addis Ababa tailored to African realities, extending disability rights and explicitly prohibiting regional harms such as ritual killings, albinism violence, and witchcraft accusations.

Persons with Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715)

Ghana's primary domestic disability law covering access to public facilities, education, employment, and health care for persons with disabilities.

Child Friendly Schools

A rights-based educational model with two dimensions: child-seeking (actively bringing in out-of-school children) and child-centred (acting in the best interest of the whole child's health, nutrition, and wellbeing).

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

A curriculum design framework that proactively removes barriers for all learners by incorporating multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression.

Universal Design of Instruction (UDI)

The application of Universal Design principles to the entire instructional environment, including classroom climate, interaction, physical facilities, delivery methods, info/technology, feedback, and assessment.

Internalizing Presentations

Patterns of emotional distress directed inward, such as anxiety disorders and depression, which are quiet, easy to miss, and often mislabeled as laziness or shyness.

Externalizing Presentations

Patterns of behavioral distress directed outward, such as hyperactive-impulsive ADHD or conduct difficulties, which are highly visible and disruptive in classroom settings.

Behaviour Modification

A therapeutic approach based on B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning that focuses on changing observable behavior by systematically analyzing antecedents and manipulating reinforcers or punishments.

Token Economy

A structured behavior modification system where desired target behaviors are reinforced immediately with earnable tokens (such as points or stickers) that can later be exchanged for rewards.

Behaviour Improvement Plan (BIP)

A formal, written school contract between administrators, staff, parents, and students setting out expected behaviors, environmental supports, defined consequences, and a fixed timeframe for improvement.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

A neurodevelopmental disability caused by differences in the brain, characterized by persistent challenges in social communication/interaction and restricted or repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities.

Early Signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Early behavioral, social, and sensory indicators of ASD, including delayed speech development, not responding to name, avoiding eye contact, preference to play alone, sensitivity to loud noises, toe-walking, hysteric meltdowns, and aversion to touching.

Echolalia

The immediate or delayed repetition of words or phrases spoken by others, frequently used by individuals with ASD as a communicative attempt or self-regulation tool.

Pragmatic Language Impairment

Difficulty with the social use of language, such as maintaining reciprocal conversations, turn-taking, interpreting non-literal speech, or adapting communication to social contexts.

Gifted Learners

Children born with natural intellectual or domain-specific abilities operating significantly above the average for peers of the same age.

Talented Learners

Children who have systematically trained and developed their natural abilities up to a high level of skill or performance in specific areas such as music, arts, or sports.

Acceleration

An educational strategy for gifted students that moves them through the curriculum or grade levels at a faster pace than typical peers, such as class-skipping.

Enrichment

An educational adaptation for gifted students that adds depth, complexity, or supplementary activities on top of the standard curriculum without advancing grade placement.

Individualized Education Program (IEP)

A legal and pedagogical document outlining individualized learning goals, special education services, accommodations, and progress tracking for a student with special needs.

Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP)

A core component of an IEP that quantitatively documents a student's current baseline capabilities, strengths, specific points of learning breakdown, and functional needs.

Differentiated Instruction

A proactive teaching framework defined by Carol Ann Tomlinson where teachers adjust Content, Process, Product, or Learning Environment based on learner readiness, interest, and learning profile.

Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018

Nigerian federal law enacted in January 2019 that criminalizes disability discrimination, mandates a 5-year grace period for building accessibility, and establishes the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD).

Stigma

A deeply discrediting attribute defined by Erving Goffman (1963) that reduces an individual from a whole person to a tainted, discounted outcast based on severe social disapproval.