Antecedent: A stimulus (i.e. a verbal cue, activity, event or person) that immediately precedes a behavior. This stimulus may or may not serve as discriminative for a specific behavior.

Cornelia de Lange: (Cornelia de Lange Syndrome) An autosomal dominant disorder associated with genetic abnormalities, mental retardation, and self-injury.

Dexedrine: Trade name of a common central nervous system stimulant used to improve academic performance by increasing attention span, and to decrease disruptive behavior and hyperactivity.

Functional Assessment: Also known as Functional Behavioral Assessment. The process of collecting information in order to develop hypothesis statements regarding the variables that maintain and predict problem behavior. Functional assessment strategies include indirect assessment methods, direct observation, and functional analysis.

Gustatory Stimulation: Any stimulation related to the act of tasting or the sense of taste.

Homeostatic: (Homeostatic Theory) A hypothesis that suggests a certain level of stimulation is optimal for a person and a student engages in stereotypy in order to compensate for under and over-stimulating environments.

Interdisciplinary Team: A group of people from different perspectives or disciplines that join together to problem solve and develop educational and behavioral plans. Team members may include the student, parents or other family members, teachers, therapists, community members, job coaches, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and paraprofessionals.

Lesch-Nyhan: (Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome) An X-chromosome linked disorder affecting only males. This syndrome is associated with severe self-injury, mental retardation, spastic cerebral palsy and other symptoms.

Menstruation: The process involving the monthly flow of blood and cellular debris from the uterus beginning at puberty in females.

Neurotransmitters: A chemical substance that conveys nerve impulses across a synapse. Neurotransmitters are responsible for sending nerve impulses from one nerve cell to another.

Organic: (Organic Theory) The hypothesis indicating that biological factors within the student maintains problem behavior.

Otitis Media: Infection or inflammation of the middle ear.

Physiology: A branch of biology that studies the functions and processes of living organisms including the organs, tissues, and chemical phenomena involved.

Pica: A behavior that involves swallowing inedible objects such as clothing, cigarette butts, or paperclips.

Prader Willi: (Prader Willi Syndrome or PWS) Students with this disorder often have insatiable feeling of hunger. PWS is caused by a deletion or inactivation of genes in a specific region of chromosome 15.

Psychotropic Medication: A drug prescribed in order to stabilize or improve mood, mental state, or behavior.

Quality of Life: A variety of elements in a person's life including predictability, environmental stability, level of social belonging, empowerment and control, well being and satisfaction.

Respondent Learning: (Also called classical, respondent, or Pavlovian conditioning) The process of pairing environmental events with unconditioned stimuli that elicit reflexive responses. Over time, these new environmental events elicit a conditioned reflex response in the absence of any other stimuli.

Rett: (Rett Syndrome) A form of infantile dementia found only in females. The condition involves a progressive loss of cognitive function, ability to communicate, seizures, respiratory disturbance, and stereotyped hand-wringing and hand-to-mouth movements.

Ritalin: Trade name of a common central nervous system stimulant used to improve academic performance by increasing attention span, and to decrease disruptive behavior and hyperactivity.

Sensory Stimulation: (Sensory Stimulation Theory) The hypothesis that a behavior occurs in order to experience an internal sensation.

Setting Event: Any occurrence that affects a student's responses to reinforcers and punishers in the environment. Setting events can be due to environmental, social, or physiological factors. Occurrences that affect a behavior at one point in time may change the likelihood of a targeted behavior at a later point.

Stereotypy: (Also called self-stimulation) Rhythmic, repetitive behaviors that do not appear to serve an adaptive function and can interfere with learning and a student's quality of life. Examples of stereotypy include rocking, hand flapping, and self-injury.