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Definitions

The following are some definitions and/or terminologies used in the areas of Speech, Occupational and Aquatic Therapy.

A PDF version is available at the end of the list.

Adaptive Aquatics

Techniques placing the emphasis on swimming skills modified or adapted to accommodate individual abilities. Usually used with the disabled.

Apraxia

A neurological disorder in which there is a deficit in the ability to execute purposeful movement despite normal muscle tone. There is a problem in the programming for the brain to the muscles.

Aquatic Therapy and Rehabilitation

The use of water and specifically designed activity by qualified personnel to aid in the restoration, extension, maintenance and quality of function for persons with acute, transient, or chronic disabilities, syndromes or diseases.

Articulation

How the child produces sounds in words, sentences and conversation.

Articulators

The lips, tongue, jaw, teeth and palate that move to form speech sounds.

Asperger Syndrome

This is a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) in which children have an average to above average intellectual capacity with lower level social skills.

Autism

A disorder that appears within the first three years of the child’s life. This is often associated with difficulties with communication, behavior, and social interaction.

Balance

To maintain the center of gravity of a body within the base of support with minimal postural sway.

Bilateral Coordination Skills

The ability to use both sides of the body in a smooth, coordinated manner. Some activities that may be affected by difficulties with upper body bilateral coordination are stabilizing the paper while writing and using a ruler and stencils.

Buoyancy

The force acting in the opposite direction of gravity. Felt as an upward thrust.

Cardiovascular System

The distribution of blood throughout the body.

Dissociation

The concept of separating sensations and movements from another. An example would be for the child to dissociate always protruding their lips during specific jaw movements.

Dysarthria

This results from weakness, slowness or in coordination of the muscles used for respiration, phonation, and articulation.

Dysfluency

Also known as stuttering it is the interruption of smooth speech with prolongations, repetitions, and stops of sounds and words.

Dysphagia

This is a difficulty in swallowing; some children may have difficulty swallowing liquids, food, or saliva.

Dyspraxia

Partial loss of the ability to coordinate certain movements. This may be due to a neurological impairment or a delay in development.

Expressive Language

This is the output system of language. This is how the child uses language through oral communication, writing, or signing.

Figure-Ground Perception

The ability to perceive a figure in the foreground from a rival background.

Fine Motor Skills

The skilled use of one’s hands. It is the ability to move the hands and fingers in a smooth, precise and controlled manner. Fine motor control is essential for efficient handling of classroom tools and materials. It may also e referred to as dexterity.

Flexibility

The range of motion of a joint.

Gross Motor Skills

Coordinated body movements involving the large muscle groups. A few activities requiring this skill include running, walking, hopping, climbing, throwing and jumping.

Hydrodynamic Forces

They are imposed on an object, such as a person, by water flowing against and around it.

Hydrostatic Pressure

The force exerted on immersed body by fluid molecules. Equal pressure everywhere.

Hydrotherapy

The use of water by external applications either for its pressure effect or as a means of applying physical energy to a tissue.

Hypersensitivity

Oversensitivity to sensory stimuli, characterized by a tendency to be either fearful and cautious, or negative and defiant.

Hyposensitivity

Under sensitivity to sensory stimuli, characterized by a tendency either to crave intense sensations or to withdraw and be difficult to engage.

Mobility

The state of being in motion.

Motor Coordination

The coordination of movements usually between different subsequent parts of the same movement of several limbs or several actors.

Motor Planning

The ability to have an idea, plan an action and execute the action necessary for completion of a new motor skill.

Muscular Endurance

To sustain an activity for long periods.

Muscular Strength

The muscle’s ability to generate force against physical objects.

Muscle Tone

The continuous and passive partial contraction of the muscles.

Occupational Therapy

A health profession focused on the study of human growth and development with emphasis on the social, emotional and physiological effects of illness and injury. The occupational Therapist enters the field with a bachelors, masters or doctoral degree. Practioners must complete supervised clinical internships in a variety of health care settings, and pass a national examination. Most states also regulate O.T. practice via a license. Therapy interventions are customized to adapt or restore all aspects of human “occupation” across the lifespan. O.T. is the skilled treatment that helps individuals achieve independence in all facets of their lives.

Oral Motor

Movements and tools that strengthen and coordinate the jaw, lip and tongue.

Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)

A group of conditions in which there is a delay of basic skills. There is a delay in the ability to socialize and communicate with others, to use their imagination, and their understanding of the world.

Pragmtics

The social use of language in relation to the context and communication partner.

Praxis

Refers to motor planning and is the ability of the brain to conceive, organize and execute unfamiliar actions in a planned action sequence.

Proprioception

The internal sense that tells you where your body parts are without you having to look at them.

Receptive Language

The input system of language. This is what the child hears and sees with their senses. This is how the child understands what is being said.

Resistance

The relationship between the fluid friction and the velocity of movement.

Sensory Defensiveness

A child’s behavior in response to sensory input, reflecting severe over-reactions or a low threshold to a specific sensory input.

Sensory Diet

A term devised by Patricia Wilbarger in 1971 to describe a therapeutic method to maintain an optimal level of arousal (in the nervous system) by offering the right combination of sensory information. The term diet is a metaphor for the regular “feeding of the nervous system” to change one’s state of arousal timed carefully throughout the day. A well-planned “sensory diet” should include comfort touch, pleasurable social experiences, organizing proprioception, varied tactile activities and modulating vestibular input.

Sensory Dormancy

A child’s behavior in response to sensory input, reflecting under-responsiveness or a high threshold to a specific sensory input.

Sensory Input

The constant flow of information from sensory receptors in the body to the brain and spinal cord.

Sensory Integration

The ability to receive, process and act upon sensory input for “use”. This “use” may be a perception, an adaptive response or a learning process. Through sensory integration many different parts of the nervous system work together so that a person can interact with the environment efficiently.

Sensory Integrative Dysfunction (Now referred to as D.S.I.)

A brain irregularity that makes it hard to receive, process and act upon sensory input efficiently. DSI can be observed as a delay or difference in one’s motor learning, social/emotional, language, or attention abilities. Two categories of dysfunction in sensory integration include dysfunction in discrimination/praxis or dysfunction in sensory modulation.

Sensory Mosulation

Increasing or reducing neural activity to keep that activity in harmony with all other functions of the nervous system. Maintenance of the arousal state to generate emotional responses, sustain attention, develop appropriate activity level and move skillfully.

Sensory Orientation

Selective attention, supporting our inner drive to engage with the stimulus, respond and learn.

Sensory Processing Skills

The ability to receive and process information from one’s sensory systems including touch (tactile), visual, auditory (hearing), proprioceptive (body position) and vestibular (balance). Behavior, attention and peer interactions are greatly influenced by the child’s ability to process sensory stimuli.

Spasticity

A disorder of the central nervous system in which certain muscles continually receive a message to tighten and contract.

Spatial Awareness

The perception of one’s proximity to, or distance from, an object, as well as the perception of the relationship of one’s body parts.

Tactile Defensiveness

A sensory defensiveness that results in tactile sensations being perceived as negative. Decreased attention, avoidance of a variety of touch experiences and strong emotional reactions are seen consistently in a child exhibiting tactile defensiveness.

Therapeutic Listening

A therapy technique; the use of modulated and filtered music during S.I. therapy to promote regulation and praxis, as devised and instructed by Sheila Frick, OTR.

Vestibular

Refers to our sense of movement and the pull of gravity, related to our body.

Vestibular System

Our inner gyroscope that detects the sense of movement head movement and our response to gravity to help develop a sense of spatial relationships. Our inner drive is to keep the body in an upright position. Any input to this primitive system can last up to 6 hours in the nervous system, so parents and therapist must use caution when applying this powerful input. In Aquatic Therapy & Rehabilitation is defined as: our balance and our sense of spatial orientation, is the sensory system that provides the dominant input and movement and equilibrioception.

Viscosity

The friction between molecules of a liquid which causes resistance to flow as molecules of the liquid tend to adhere to each other and the surface of the body moving through it.

Visual Discrimination

Differentiating among symbols and forms, such as matching or separating colors, shapes, numbers, letters and words.

Visual Figure-Ground

Differentiation between objects in the foreground and in the background.

Visual Motor Skills

The ability to visually take in information, process it and be able to coordinate your physical movement in relation to what has been viewed. It involves the combination of visual perception and motor coordination. Difficulty with visual motor skills can result in inaccurate reaching, pointing and grasping of objects, as well as difficulty with copying, drawing, tracing and cutting.

Visual Perceptual Skills

The ability to interpret and use what is seen in the environment. Difficulties in this area can interfere with a child’s ability to learn self-help skills like tying shoelaces and academic tasks like copying from the blackboard or finding items in a busy background.

Weight Bearing

The amount of weight a person puts on the leg.

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