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Resources iconDeafblindness Glossary

 
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | M | O | S | T
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Adventitiously Deafblind
Vision and hearing are present at birth but are lost to some degree later in life.
Advocacy
Taking an active role in the education and care of an individual or the act or process of supporting a cause or person.
Apnea
Pause in breathing that lasts 20 seconds or longer.
Arousal
Levels of activity from alertness to drowsiness.
Atresia
Absence or closure of a natural passage of the body (e.g., ear canal).
Atrophy
Decrease in size or wasting away of tissue.
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Brain Injury
Injury to the brain caused by a brain bleed in prematurely, trauma, infections, or other events that affect functioning in various ways.
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Cognitive Development
Development of mental processes; can be adversely affected by sensory loss.
Cognitive Skills
Thinking, reasoning, and other intellectual abilities.
Concept Development
Developing concepts. A concept is something conceived in the mind (e.g., thought or notion), an abstract or generic idea, or a mental representation, image, or idea of concrete objects as well as of intangible ideas.
Congenital
Originating from birth.
Congenitally Deaf/Adventitiously Blind
Having a hearing impairment or being deaf from birth or early childhood and experiencing vision loss in adult life; the most common cause is Usher's Syndrome, the combination of congenital deafness and Retinitis Pigmentosa.
Congenitally Deafblind
Having both visual and hearing impairment since birth or early childhood; a common cause is Congenital Rubella Syndrome as a result of maternal Rubella during pregnancy.
Cortex
Outer layers of the cerebrum and cerebellum of the brain that contains most of the higher nervous centers such as those concerned with hearing and vision.
Cortical
Relating to the cortex.
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Deafblind/DeafBlind/Deaf-Blind
Term applied to those who have a degree of both vision loss and hearing loss.
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Environment
All of the objects, circumstances, and events surrounding an individual.
Etiology
Cause or origin.
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Fine Motor Skills
Use of the hands to explore and manipulate objects in the environment.
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Genetic
Traits passed on from one generation to another.
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Hypersensitivity
Oversensitivity to stimuli.
Hypertonic
Stiff, increased tone, resistance to passive movement.
Hypoplasia
Condition of arrested development in which an organ or other body part remains below the normal size or in an immature state.
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Incidental Learning
Learning that occurs unintentionally or by chance; often done through vision and hearing.
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Mobility
Denotes the ability to navigate from one's present fixed position to one's desired position in another part of the environment.
Motivation
Desire to accomplish a goal or participate in an endeavor.
Motor Planning
Ability to automatically start, perform, and complete a series of movements to achieve a desired outcome.
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Orientation
Process through which an individual who is visually impaired uses his/her remaining senses to establish his/her position and relationship to all other significant objects in the environment.
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Sensorimotor
Related to functioning in both sensory and movement aspects of bodily activity.
Sensory Integration
Organization of sensory information to enable the child to act on and interact with the environment.
Sensory Stimulation
Rousing or invigoration of the senses - vision, audition, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, or kinesthetic.
Shaken Baby Syndrome
Syndrome that results from shaking an infant.
Smell
A sense that can give information from a distance.
Stroke
Abnormal condition of the blood vessels of the brain characterized by a blockage from an embolus or cerebrovascular hemorrhage. Depending upon where the brain is affected and the extent of the decreased blood supply to the brain, paralysis, weakness, a speech defect, aphasia, or death may occur.
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Taste
A sense. Distinguishes the sweet, sour, bitter, or salty quality of a dissolved substance.
 
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