Jargon

When one is dealing with a child who has struggles there is almost a 'secret' language that us parents have to learn real quick. It's a combination of 'medicalese' and 'educationalese'. Although my undergraduate is in elementary education, most of this jargon I learned first hand dealing with doctors, specialists, and other professionals throughout the years. If you have any other terms you want clarified, I'm not an expert, but post anyways, and somehow I or someone else reading this will help you. The terms that follow are in no particular order, and they basically are laypeople's definitions, (i.e. my simple definiton).

Chronological age: the age of the child/adult from birth, for example if a child is born Aug. 30, 2005, he will be 1 yr, 4 days old. etc.

Developmental age: the age of the child/adult as determined by his abilities. For example the above 1 yr old may only be functioning as a 6 month old in speech, thus his developmental age in speech will be 6 months.

Expressive language: this is the language, the ability to communicate-- the child speaks and communicates. Once tested the evaluator may determine that a three year old, for example has the expressive language capabilities of a 1 yr. 6month old .

Receptive language: this is the ability to perceive, to intake language....how well is a child understanding spoken and/or written language. Once again a three year old may have the ability of receptive language as a 2yr, 4 month old.

Fine motor skills: the skills that require the 'small muscles' to perform, writing, cutting, stacking, copying, tracing, etc.

Large or gross motor skills: the skills that require a larger part of the body to complete: sitting, crawling, walking, jumping, kicking, skipping, balancing, etc.