Praxis Special Education: Severe to Profound key terms

A disability category for students who have two or more co-occurring conditions, such as intellectual disability plus orthopedic impairment, whose combined effect creates needs that a program for any single condition cannot adequately address.

A combined hearing and vision loss whose impact on communication, learning, and mobility is so significant that a program designed for either loss alone cannot meet the student's needs.

A level of impairment involving substantial cognitive, communication, and adaptive limitations that requires extensive, ongoing, individualized supports across school, home, and community settings rather than intermittent help.

The most extensive level of impairment, in which a student typically has minimal symbolic communication, limited voluntary motor control, and dependence on others for most daily care and learning activities.

The everyday skills a person uses to function independently and responsibly, including self-care, communication, safety, home living, and social skills; measured alongside intellectual functioning when identifying intellectual disability.

Significantly below-average intellectual functioning that coexists with limitations in adaptive behavior and appears during the developmental period, affecting learning, reasoning, and everyday functioning.

A limitation in vision, hearing, or both that reduces the accuracy or amount of information a student receives, often requiring adapted materials, specialized instruction, or assistive technology.

Reduced vision caused by damage to the brain's visual pathways rather than to the eyes, often showing inconsistent visual responses that vary with fatigue, environment, and familiarity of the object.

Any item, device, or system, from a simple switch to a speech-generating device, that maintains or improves the functional capabilities of a student with a disability; required to be considered for every IEP.

The IEP team's required discussion, held for every student with a disability, of whether the student needs assistive technology devices or services and how those needs will be documented and provided.

Methods and tools that supplement or replace spoken language, including gestures, picture symbols, switches, and speech-generating devices, chosen to match a student's motor, sensory, and cognitive abilities.

A structured process of gathering data to identify the antecedents, consequences, and purposes that maintain a challenging behavior, forming the basis for a behavior intervention plan.

A written, individualized plan that replaces challenging behavior with acceptable alternatives by changing antecedents, teaching replacement skills, and adjusting consequences, based on functional assessment data.

A proactive approach that builds supportive environments and teaches new skills to reduce challenging behavior, emphasizing prevention and quality-of-life outcomes rather than punishment.

Gathering information through observation, work samples, interviews, and task analysis rather than standardized testing, which is often necessary when students cannot participate in formal test procedures.

An assessment that examines the settings where a student lives, learns, and plays to identify the skills actually required there, so instruction targets real environments and routines.

A purposeful collection of a student's work and recorded performance over time, used to document progress on individualized goals that standardized tests cannot capture.

Breaking a complex skill into smaller, sequenced steps so the student can be taught and assessed one component at a time, with data recorded on each step's performance.

Teaching a multi-step skill by linking its task-analysis steps together, either forward from the first step, backward from the last, or through total-task presentation of all steps.

A structured teaching method that presents one brief instruction, prompts as needed, records the response, and delivers a consequence, repeated across many short trials with clear beginning and end.

An ordered set of assistance levels, from least to most intrusive, used to help a student respond; prompts are faded systematically so the student performs the skill independently.

A procedure in which the teacher waits a set interval after giving an instruction before offering a prompt, giving the student a chance to respond independently and reducing prompt dependence.

A teaching procedure that offers the least intrusive prompt first and moves to more intrusive prompts only if the student does not respond, tracking which prompt level was needed.

Instructional arrangement in which prompts are given early enough that the student responds correctly almost every time, preventing practice of errors and building confidence and accurate responding.

Deliberate teaching in which objectives, materials, prompts, and consequences are planned in advance and student responses are recorded, so instruction can be adjusted based on data.

The ongoing, systematic recording of student performance, such as frequency counts, percentages, or trial-by-trial results, used to judge whether instruction is working and to guide changes.

Instruction organized around skills students need in daily life, such as self-care, communication, safety, and work, rather than around traditional academic subject sequences.

Teaching functional skills in the actual settings where they will be used, such as stores, buses, and workplaces, so students practice with real materials, people, and distractions.

Teaching target skills within naturally occurring classroom routines and activities, such as snack, transitions, or play, rather than in separate isolated lessons.

Intentional communication expressed through behaviors such as body movements, facial expressions, vocalizations, and gestures before the student uses symbols, pictures, or words.

An adult who notices subtle or unconventional signals, responds to them consistently, and pauses to give the student a turn, thereby teaching the student that communication has an effect.

A deliberate pause after asking or modeling something, giving a student with slow processing or motor response time the chance to respond before the adult repeats or prompts.

A communication method in which signs are received by placing a hand on the signer's hands to feel the movements, used by students who are deaf-blind or have combined hearing and vision loss.

A planned schedule of sensory experiences, such as movement or deep pressure, woven into the day to help a student stay regulated and available for learning; typically designed with an occupational therapist.

Supportive services required for a student to benefit from special education, such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language therapy, and orientation and mobility training.

The legally required written plan for a student eligible for special education, specifying present levels, measurable annual goals, services, placement, and progress reporting.

The legal guarantee that eligible students with disabilities receive special education and related services, at public expense, designed to provide meaningful educational benefit in the least restrictive setting.

The requirement that students with disabilities be educated with peers without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate, with removal only when supplementary aids and services cannot make education satisfactory.

A team process that builds goals and supports around the student's own preferences, strengths, and vision for the future, involving family and others who know the student well.

Coordinated planning, required to begin by age sixteen in most states, that prepares a student for life after school through goals for employment, education, independent living, and community participation.

A parent's or guardian's voluntary written agreement to an evaluation or service, given after receiving full explanation in understandable language, with the right to refuse or revoke.