Glossary

Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.

16 results found in child development.

Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI, Cortical Visual Impairment)
Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is an umbrella term for visual deficits resulting from damage to the brain rather than the eyes. It affects visual perception, including visual acuity, cortical image …
Dyspraxia (Developmental Coordination Disorder, DCD)
A neurodevelopmental condition affecting motor planning, coordination, and the sequencing of movements. People with dyspraxia have difficulty translating intended actions into coordinated physical mov…
Early Intervention (EI, Early Childhood Intervention)
Services and support provided to infants and young children (typically birth to age 3 or 5) with developmental delays or disabilities, and their families. For DHH children, early intervention is criti…
Early Intervention (EI, Early Childhood Intervention)
Early intervention refers to services and supports provided to infants and young children (typically from birth to age six) who have developmental delays, disabilities, or conditions that place them a…
Emergent Literacy (Early Literacy, Pre-literacy)
The developmental process through which young children (typically birth through age 5) acquire foundational skills and concepts about reading and writing before formal instruction begins. For sighted …
Family-Centered Learning (Family-Centered Education)
An educational approach that actively involves family members in the learning process, recognizing that home environments and family participation significantly impact learning outcomes, often more th…
Incidental Learning (Observational Learning, Informal Learning)
Knowledge and skills acquired without deliberate instruction, typically through casual observation of the environment and other people. An estimated 80% of early childhood learning occurs incidentally…
Language Deprivation (Linguistic Deprivation)
The condition that occurs when children do not receive sufficient accessible language input during critical developmental periods, leading to atypical neural development, cognitive delays, and lifelon…
Multiple Cue Responding (MCR)
The ability to observe and attend to multiple features of a stimulus simultaneously (such as colour, shape, and size) and use all of those features to make decisions. Multiple cue responding is a foun…
Peripersonal Space (Near space, Reaching space)
The area immediately surrounding the body that is within arm's reach, typically extending about 60-70 cm from the body. Peripersonal space is significant in accessibility because blind and visually im…
Pivotal Response Training (PRT, Pivotal Response Treatment)
A naturalistic, child-initiated behavioural intervention developed for children with autism that targets "pivotal" skills — foundational abilities whose improvement produces widespread positive change…
Sensory Based Motor Disorder (SBMD)
A subtype of Sensory Processing Disorder in which the brain has difficulty using sensory information to plan and execute motor actions. SBMD encompasses two sub-types: postural disorder, which affects…
Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD, Sensory Integration Disorder, Sensory Integration Dysfunction)
A condition in which the brain has difficulty receiving, organizing, and responding to sensory information from the environment and the body. People with Sensory Processing Disorder may be oversensiti…
Social Attention (Social Orienting)
The set of behaviours, motivations, and perceptual processes involved in directing and coordinating attention toward other people during social interaction. Social attention includes orienting toward …
Speech Delay (Language Delay, Delayed Speech)
A condition in which a child does not develop speech and language skills at the expected rate for their age. Speech delay can affect the production of sounds (articulation), the ability to form words …
Vocal Development (Speech Development, Vocal Production Development)
The process by which individuals acquire and refine the ability to produce speech sounds and vocalizations. In typically developing children, vocal development progresses through stages from cooing an…