Glossary

The language of neuroscience, educators and clinicians can be intimidating.  Check this comprehensive list of the words you are likely to hear.

A

Adaptivity

With every mouse click, exercises in the Fast ForWord® product exercises adapt (or adjust) to the individual skill level of each participant to ensure participants are appropriately challenged.

Attention deficit disorders (ADD)

A term frequently used to describe the academic and behavioral problems of children who have difficulty focusing and maintaining attention. Also called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD).

Attention

The ability to focus on information and tasks, and ignore distractions.

Auditory discrimination

The ability to detect differences in sounds; may be gross ability, such as detecting the differences between the noises made by a cat and dog, or fine ability, such as detecting the differences made by the sounds of letters "m" and "n."

Auditory figure-ground

The ability to attend to one sound against a background of sound (e.g., hearing the teacher's voice against classroom noise).

Auditory memory

The ability to retain information which has been presented orally; may be short term memory, such as recalling information presented several seconds before; long term memory, such as recalling information presented more than a minute before; or sequential memory, such as recalling a series of information in proper order.

Axon

An extension of a neuron cell body that transports information away from the cell body, usually by an electrical impulse.

B

Brain imaging techniques

Recently developed, noninvasive techniques for studying the activity of living brains. Includes brain electrical activity mapping (BEAM), computerized axial tomography (CAT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Brain plasticity

The ability of the brain to change through experience or learning.

C

Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD)

A physical impairment inhibiting the ability to distinguish foreground and background noise.

Cerebral cortex

The outer layer of the brain; controls thinking, feeling, and voluntary movement.

Comparison group

A group that is exposed to all the conditions of a study except for the variable being tested; in Scientific Learning outcomes studies, the variable being tested is the Fast ForWord product.

Cognition

The act or process of knowing; the various thinking skills and processes are considered cognitive skills.

Cognitive ability

Intellectual ability; thinking and reasoning skills.

Comprehension

The ability to derive meaning from text; the reason for reading.

D

Decode

To use the alphabetic principle (that each letter represents a sound) to sound out the phonemes of a word and then blend those phonemes into a recognizable word.

Dendrite

A branching extension from the neuron cell body that receives information from other neurons.

Discrimination

Process of detecting differences between and/or among stimuli.

Dyslexia

A specific learning disability that is neurological in origin; a language-based disorder characterized by difficulties with accurate and fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities, usually associated with insufficient phonological processing abilities.

E

Expressive language

Communication through writing, speaking, and/or gestures.

F

FAST Power Learning™ Formula

An acronym for Frequency and intensity, Adaptivity, Simultaneous development, and Timely motivation; neuroscience-based principles used by Fast ForWord products to enable student learning.

Figure-ground discrimination

The ability to sort out important information from the surrounding environment. For example, hearing a teacher's voice while ignoring other classroom noises (air conditioners, heaters, etc.) or seeing a word among others on a crowded page.

Fluency

The ability to read a text accurately and quickly. Fluent readers can recognize words automatically and understand their meaning at the same time.

Frequency

Occurring or repeating at short intervals. In the context of Fast ForWord products, frequency and intensity refers to the recommended protocol of daily participation and concentrated activity.

G

Graphemes

The smallest part of written language that represents a phoneme in the spelling of a word. A grapheme may be one letter, such as d, l, and p; or several letters, such as ch, sh, and th.

H

Hemisphere

Half of the brain, the right or left.

I

Intensity

Existing in an extreme degree. In the context of Fast ForWord products, frequency and intensity refers to the recommended protocol of daily participation and concentrated activity.

Intelligence quotient (IQ)

The ratio between a person's chronological age (measured in years) and mental age (as measured by an intelligence test), multiplied by 100.

L

Language age

Language abilities typically associated (via standardized, normed tests) with the demonstrated level of ability at that chronological age.

Language comprehension

The ability to understand communication from others, such as speech, written text, gestures, or sign language.

Language skills

The ability to comprehend receptive language and use expressive language to communicate. A student who has good spoken language skills will more easily master reading and writing skills.

Learning MAPs™

An acronym for Memory, Attention, Processing, and Sequencing; foundational cognitive skills required for effective reading and targeted by Fast ForWord products.

Letter-sound correspondences

The principle that each letter represents a unit of sound (a phoneme).

M

Mean

The sum of all scores divided by the number of scores, resulting in an average.

Memory

The ability to store information and ideas, which is essential for word recognition, comprehension of complex sentences, and remembering instructions. Includes both working memory and long-term memory.

Mental age

The age for which a given score on a mental ability test is average or normal. The term is most appropriately used at the early age levels where mental growth is rapid.

Morphological awareness

The ability to understand and correctly use small words, letters, and letter combinations that change the meaning of a word.

N

Neuron

The cellular unit of the central and peripheral nervous systems.

Norms

Statistics that provide a frame of reference by which meaning may be given to test scores. Norms are based upon the actual performance of students of various grades or ages in the standardization group for the test. Because they represent average or typical performance, they should not be regarded as standards or universally desirable levels of attainment.

Neuroscience

Study of the brain and its functions, especially their relation to behavior and learning.

Neurotransmitter

A chemical released by neurons to relay information to other cells.

O

Oral language

Those verbal communication skills needed to understand (listen) and to use (speak) language.

P

Phonemes

The smallest units of sound in spoken language that make a difference in the meaning of words. When added together, phonemes create syllables, which allows the creation of words; for instance, "ox" is made up of three phonemes: /aa/, /k/, and /s/ (English contains 44 phonemes).

Phonological awareness

The understanding that words are composed of sequences of sounds and the ability to identify and manipulate the sounds of language. Learn more about phonological awareness.

Phonemic awareness

The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the sounds of spoken language.

Phonics

The understanding that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written language). Also known as letter-sound or sound-symbol correspondences.

Phonology

The scientific study of the speech sounds of a language.

Plasticity

The ability of a neural network to be reconfigured or rewired; changing connections within a neural network.

Processing

The ability to accurately perceive and manipulate information. In the context of reading, processing refers to the ability to distinguish speech sounds and identify letter and word forms.

R

Receptive language

Language that is spoken or written by others and received by the individual.

S

Semantics

The expressed meaning of sentences, and words.

Sequencing

Placing the detail of information in its accustomed order (for example, days of the week, the alphabet, etc.). In the context of reading, sequencing is the ability to determine the order of letters within words or words within sentences.

Sight words

Words a child can recognize on sight without aid of phonics or other word-attack skills.

Simultaneous development

Exercising multiple skills at the same time. Each Fast ForWord exercise focuses on a specific set of reading tasks and simultaneously develops underlying cognitive processes such as memory, attention, processing, and sequencing.

Sound blending

The ability to combine smoothly all the sounds or parts of a word into the whole.

Standard deviation (SD)

A measure of variation from the mean that shows how closely the scores cluster around that mean.

Standard error (SE)

The variation in score that takes into account the group size.

Standardized test

A test that compares a child's performance with the performance of a large group of similar children (usually children of the same age). Also called a norm referenced test. IQ tests and most achievement tests are standardized.

Standard score

A score that has been converted to a standard scale in order to compare it to scores from other tests.

Statistical significance

Statistical term indicating that a result has ninety-five percent certainty of being due to a factor (such as the Fast ForWord products) other than chance.

Synapse

The physical structure that makes an electrochemical connection between two neurons.

Syntax

The structure of a language, or the rules which specify how grammatical markers and words are combined to make meaningful sentences; the part of speech of a word (for instance, noun or adverb).

T

Timely motivation

The Fast ForWord exercises provide immediate rewards for correct responses. In addition, patented technologies give students only one opportunity per question to respond correctly, which reduces guessing and encourages students to maintain high levels of attention and effort.

V

Visual discrimination

The ability to detect similarities and/or differences in materials which are presented visually, e.g., ability to discriminate h from n, o from c, b from d, etc.

Visual memory

The ability to retain information which is presented visually; may be short term memory, such as recalling information presented several seconds before; long term memory, such as recalling information presented more than a minute before; or sequential memory, such as recalling a series of information in proper order.

Vocabulary

Includes knowing the meaning of single words that represent objects and groups of objects, actions, and qualities of space and time.

W

Word recognition

The ability to read or pronounce a word; usually implies that the word is recognized immediately by sight and that the child does not need to apply word analysis skills. Does not imply understanding of the word.

Word attack skills

The ability to analyze unfamiliar words visually and phonetically.

Working memory

The short-duration, limited-capacity memory system that simultaneously stores and manipulates information in order to accomplish a task; also called "scratch-pad" memory.

Written language

Encompasses all facets of written expression, e.g., handwriting, capitalization, punctuation, spelling, format, ability to express one's thoughts in sentences and paragraphs, etc.