Brain Injury - The physical damage to brain tissue or structure that occurs before, during, or after birth that is verified by EEG, MRI, CAT, or a similar examination, rather than by observation of performance. When caused by an accident, the damage may be called Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). 

Developmental Aphasia - A severe language disorder that is presumed to be due to brain injury rather than because of a
developmental delay in the normal acquisition of language. 

Dyscalculia - A severe difficulty in understanding and using symbols or functions needed for success in mathematics. 

Dysgraphia - A severe difficulty in producing handwriting that is legible and written at an age-appropriate speed. 

Dyslexia - A severe difficulty in understanding or using one or more areas of language, including listening, speaking, reading, writing, and spelling. 

Dysnomia - A marked difficulty in remembering names or recalling words needed for oral or written language. 

Dyspraxia - A severe difficulty in performing drawing, writing, buttoning, and other tasks requiring fine motor skill, or in
sequencing the necessary movements. 

Learning Modalities - Approaches to assessment or instruction stressing the auditory, visual, or tactile avenues for learning
that are dependent upon the individual. 

Minimal Brain Dysfunction (MBD) - A medical and psychological term originally used to refer to the learning difficulties that seemed to result from identified or presumed damage to the brain. Reflects a medical, rather than educational or vocational orientation. 

Multisensory Learning - An instructional approach that combines auditory, visual, and tactile elements into a learning task. Tracing sandpaper numbers while saying a number fact aloud would be a multisensory learning activity. 

Perceptual Handicap - Difficulty in accurately processing, organizing, and discriminating among visual, auditory, or tactile
information. A person with a perceptual handicap may say that "cap/cup" sound the same or that "b" and "d" look the same.
However, glasses or hearing aids do not necessarily indicate a perceptual handicap. 

Resource Program - A program model in which a student with LD is in a regular classroom for most of each day, but also
receives regularly scheduled individual services in a specialized LD resource classroom. 

Significant Discrepancy - A statistical deviation from norms or between one measure and another.

Specific Learning Disability (SLD) - The official term used in federal legislation to refer to difficulty in certain areas of
learning, rather than in all areas of learning. Synonymous with learning disabilities.