Special Education

A Parent's Guide: Special Education Process
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ACRONYM               DESCRIPTION                    

ADA                           Americans with Disabilities Act

ADD/ADHD             Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder

ADL                            Activities of Daily Living

AE                               Age Equivalent

AIS                              Academic Intervention Services

AIT                              Academic Intervention Team

AP                               Advanced Placement

APE                            Adaptive Physical Education

AR                              Annual Review

ASD                            Autistic Spectrum Disorder

ASHA                         American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

ASL                             American Sign Language

AT                               Assistive Technology

AU                              Autism

AYP                            Adequate Yearly Progress

BIP                              Behavior Intervention Plan

BOCES                       Board of Cooperative Educational Services

BOE                            Board of Education

CAPD                         Central Auditory Processing Disorder

CCS                             Coordinated Children’s Services

CDOS                         Career Development & Occupational Studies

CHP                            Child Health Plus

COTA                         Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant

CP                               Cerebral Palsy

CPSE                           Committee on Pre-School Special Education

CSE                             Committee on Special Education

CT                               Consultant Teacher

CTE                             Career & Technical Education

DD                              Developmental Disabilities

DDP4                         Developmental Disabilities Profile

DOH                           Department of Health

ECDC                          Early Childhood Direction Center

ED                               Emotional Disability

EI                                 Early Intervention

ELA                             English Language Arts

ELL                              English Language Learner

ENL                             English As A New Language

ERSS                           Educationally Related Support Services

ESY                             Extended School Year

FAPE                          Free Appropriate Public Education

FAS                             Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

FBA                            Functional Behavioral Plan

FERPA                       Free Educational Rights and Privacy Act

504                             Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-112)

GED                            General Equivalency Diploma

IAES                           Interim Alternative Educational Setting

ICT                              Indirect Consultant Teacher

ID                                Intellectual Disability

IDEIA                         Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act

IEE                              Independent Education Evaluation

IEP                              Individualized Education Plan

IESP                            Individual Education Service Program

IFSP                            Individual Family Service Plan

HI                                Hearing Impaired

IH                                Impartial Hearing

IHO                             Impartial Hearing Officer

IQ                                Intelligence Quotient

LD                               Learning Disability

LEA                             Local Education Agency

LEP                             Limited English Proficiency

LOTE                          Language Other Than English

LRE                             Least Restrictive Environment

MAPS                          Management,Academic,Physical & Social (PLPS-Required Sections)

MD                             Multiple Disabilities

NCLB                          No Child Left Behind

NYSAA                      New York State Alternate Assessment

NYSED                       New York State Education Department

OCR                            Office of Civil Rights

ODD                           Oppositional Defiant Disorder

OHI                             Other Health Impaired

OI                                Orthopedic Impairment

OMH                          Office of Mental Health

O & M                       Orientation & Mobility

OPWDD                    Office For People With Developmental Disabilities

OT                               Occupational Therapy

OTR                            Registered Occupational Therapy

PDD                            Pervasive Developmental Disorder

PLP                             Present Level of Performance

PPS                             Pupil Personnel Services

PT                               Physical Therapy

PR                               Program Review

PSWD                         Pre-Schooler With A Disability

RCAL                          Resource Center for Accessible Living

RCPC                          Rockland County Children’s Psychiatric Center

RR                               Resource Room

RS                               Related Service

RTI                              Response To Intervention

SAS                             Supplementary Aids & Services

SDD                            Significant Developmental Delay

Section 611                Spec. Ed. --- 3 – 21 yr. olds

Section 619                Spec. Ed. --- 3 – 5 yr. olds

SED                            State Education Department

SEIT                           Special Education Itinerant Teacher

SETRC                       Special Education Training Resource Center

SLD                             Specific Learning Disability

SLI                               Speech or Language Impaired

SLP                             Speech/Language Pathologist

SRO                            State Review Officer

ST                                Speech Therapy

STAC                          System for Tracking & Accounting of Children

STO                            Short Term Objective

SW                              Social Worker

SWD                           Student With A Disability

TASC                          GED - General Equivalency Diploma/Class at BOCES

TBI                              Traumatic Brain Injury

TDD/TTY                   Telecommunication Devices for the Deaf

TOD                            Teacher of Deaf/Hard of Hearing

USDE                          United States Department of Education

VESID                         Office of Vocational & Educational Services For Individuals

                                     With Disabilities

VI                                Visually Impaired

VR                               Vocational Rehabilitation

 

DIAGNOSTIC EVALUATION ACRONYMS                     

FSIQ                           Full Scale Intelligent Quotient

GIA                             General Intellectual Ability

MR                             Math Reasoning

NO                              Numerical Operations

PD                               Pseudo Word Decoding

PR                               Perceptual Reasoning

PS                               Processing Speed

RC                               Reading Comprehension

VC                               Verbal Comprehension

WM                            Working Memory

WR                             Word Reading

Occupational Therapy Activities
You can help your child continue improving their ability to perform in school by addressing all areas of development when they play and complete school work at home.

GETTING OUTSIDE! 
The importance of large motor play cannot be stressed enough as being the basis for fine-motor and visual skills. Body coordination develops in a progression- first from the trunk; then the arms/legs/neck, and finally the hands/feet/eyes.

• So...Run...Climb...Jump...Push...Pull...Roll...Balance...Carry
• Change-it-up: go forward...go backwards...go up...go down...go sideways
• This can be done in a variety of ways:
•  Typical child play
•  Household chores
•  Adventures

Activities to Improve Visual Perceptual and Visual Motor Skills

• Completing dot-to-dots
• Mazes
• Complete the drawing
• Look at an item and try to draw it
• Hidden pictures
• Word searches
• Jigsaw puzzles
• Copying and making patterns
• Games – Memory, Chutes and Ladders, Uno, Connect Four, Boggle
• Draw an incomplete shape and have the student finish the shape.
• Search for items in a book, map, dictionary, or encyclopedia
• Copying information from a book (i.e. recipe, definitions, etc.)
• Etch-a-sketch
• Where’s Waldo?

Writing Skills

•  Drawing within the lines
• Tracing patterns
• Solving a maze
• Completing geometric designs
• Completing capital letters
• Matching pictured objects
• Drawing/Imitating vertical, horizontal, cross, shapes 
• Rubbing: Tape cardboard forms to table-Place paper on top-trace
• Hand lotion/shaving cream/pudding on foil. Child copys letters 
• Finger Painting
• Sand or salt trays – trace letters
•  Complete drawings and writing on an inclined surface.
• Clay, putty or play dough

Fine Motor

• Travel size games
• Marbles
• Pick up sticks
• Stringing beads
• Placing coins and beads into containers with small openings
• Snack such as Cheerios, raisins and other small snack foods
• Puzzles
• Craft projects
• Lite Brite
• Etch-A-Sketch
• Coloring books
• Multiple games with small parts to manipulate
• Scissor activities
• Kerplunk
• Operation 

Hand/Arm Strength 

• Rolling, pinching and building with clay and putty
• Squirting items with a squirt bottle
• Picking up items with tongs
• Squeezing a stress ball (make using a balloon and play dough)
• Making baked goods that need to be kneaded by hand
• Crab walking
• Wheelbarrow walking
• Animal walks (student can make them up)

Shoe Tying 

•  Use two different colored shoelaces for practice
•  Select one method & make sure everyone teaching the child uses it 
• To keep laces tied, use flat cotton laces rather than round ones.