Understanding Your Child's Results & Common Terminology
Receiving an evaluation report can feel overwhelming. You may see unfamiliar terms, scores, and acronyms that make it difficult to understand what they mean for your child.
This guide explains some of the most common terms you'll encounter during the New York City private school/private evaluation special education process.
Learning Disabilities & Diagnoses
Dyslexia
A learning disability that primarily affects reading, including decoding, spelling, and reading fluency. Dyslexia is not related to intelligence.
Dysgraphia
A learning disability that affects writing. Students may struggle with handwriting, spelling, organizing thoughts, or expressing ideas in writing.
Dyscalculia
A learning disability that affects understanding numbers and mathematical concepts.
Students may have difficulty with:
Basic math facts
Number sense
Mental math
Multi-step calculations
ADHD
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder can affect:
Attention
Organization
Impulse control
Working memory
Task completion
Although ADHD is not a learning disability, it can significantly affect learning and school performance.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
A developmental disability that can affect communication, social interaction, behavior, and sensory processing. Every autistic individual has different strengths and support needs.
Executive Functioning Challenges
Executive functioning refers to the brain's ability to plan, organize, manage time, regulate emotions, and complete tasks. Difficulties with executive functioning are common in students with ADHD, learning disabilities, and autism, but they can also occur on their own.
Processing Speed Weakness
Processing speed refers to how quickly a person can take in, understand, and respond to information. Students with slower processing speed often understand the material but need extra time to complete assignments or tests.
Language Disorder
A language disorder affects how a student understands spoken language (receptive language), expresses thoughts (expressive language), or both. It is different from simply having a limited vocabulary or learning English as a second language.
Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NVLD)
NVLD primarily affects visual-spatial reasoning, organization, and understanding nonverbal cues, while verbal skills are often a strength. Students may struggle with math, social situations, or interpreting body language.
Intellectual Disability (ID)
An intellectual disability involves significant challenges with both intellectual functioning and everyday adaptive skills. Students with ID can learn and make meaningful progress when provided with appropriate supports and individualized instruction.
Understanding Evaluations
Neuropsychological Evaluation
A comprehensive evaluation that examines how a child's brain functions in areas such as learning, memory, attention, language, reasoning, and problem-solving. It is often used to identify learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, and other developmental or neurological differences.
Psychoeducational Evaluation
An evaluation that focuses on a student's cognitive abilities and academic skills to determine how they learn best and whether they qualify for educational supports or accommodations.
Educational Evaluation
An assessment conducted by a school to better understand a student's educational needs and determine eligibility for school-based services.
Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE)
An evaluation completed by a qualified professional who is not employed by the school district. In some situations, parents have the right to request that the school district fund an IEE if they disagree with the school's evaluation.
Common Testing Terms
Cognitive Ability (IQ)
A measure of general thinking and reasoning skills. IQ scores are just one part of understanding how a child learns and should never be viewed as the only indicator of intelligence or potential.
Achievement Testing
Tests that measure a student's academic skills in areas such as reading, writing, spelling, and math.
Standard Score
A score that compares a student's performance to other students of the same age. Most standardized tests have an average score of 100.
Percentile Rank
A way of showing how a student's performance compares to peers. For example, a student in the 75th percentile scored higher than 75% of students their age.
Average Range
The range of scores considered typical when compared to same-age peers. Scores slightly above or below average do not necessarily indicate a disability.
Working Memory
The ability to hold and use information in your mind while completing a task, such as solving a math problem or following multiple directions.
Processing Speed
How quickly a student can take in, understand, and respond to information. A slower processing speed does not mean a student is less intelligent—it simply means they may need more time to complete tasks.
Visual-Spatial Skills
The ability to understand and organize visual information, such as recognizing patterns, reading maps, solving puzzles, or understanding diagrams.
Fine Motor Skills
Small muscle movements used for activities such as handwriting, cutting with scissors, buttoning clothes, and typing.
Adaptive Functioning
The everyday skills needed for independence, including communication, self-care, social skills, organization, and daily living tasks.
Learning & School Supports
Accommodation
A change in how a student learns or demonstrates knowledge without changing what they are expected to learn. Examples include extended time, preferential seating, or audiobooks.
Modification
A change in what a student is expected to learn. Modifications alter the curriculum or learning expectations and are less common than accommodations.
Classroom Supports
Strategies or tools teachers use to help students succeed, such as visual schedules, graphic organizers, checklists, or movement breaks.
Testing Accommodations
Supports provided during quizzes and exams to allow students to demonstrate what they know fairly. Examples include extended time, a separate testing room, breaks, or having questions read aloud.
Assistive Technology
Technology that helps students overcome learning challenges. Examples include text-to-speech software, speech-to-text programs, audiobooks, calculators, and organizational apps.
Educational Professionals
Neuropsychologist
A licensed psychologist who evaluates how the brain affects learning, behavior, memory, attention, and problem-solving.
School Psychologist
A professional who works within schools to evaluate students, support mental health, consult with teachers, and help determine eligibility for school services.
Educational Psychologist
A psychologist who studies how students learn and may conduct educational assessments or recommend instructional strategies.
Occupational Therapist (OT)
A healthcare professional who helps students develop fine motor skills, sensory processing, handwriting, self-regulation, and daily living skills that support success at school.
Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP)
A specialist who evaluates and treats difficulties with speech, language, communication, and social communication.
Reading Specialist
An educator with advanced training in teaching reading and supporting students with reading difficulties, including dyslexia.
Special Education Teacher
A teacher specially trained to provide individualized instruction and support for students with disabilities.
Educational Terms
Executive Functioning
The mental skills that help us plan, stay organized, manage time, control impulses, remember information, and complete tasks.
Self-Advocacy
A student's ability to understand their own strengths and challenges, communicate their needs, and ask for appropriate support.
Multi-Sensory Instruction
A teaching approach that engages multiple senses—such as seeing, hearing, speaking, writing, and movement—to improve learning and memory.
Evidence-Based Instruction
Teaching methods that have been shown through research to be effective for helping students learn.
Progress Monitoring
The process of regularly measuring a student's growth over time to determine whether an intervention or support is working.
Response to Intervention (RTI)
A multi-level system used by many schools to provide increasing levels of academic or behavioral support before considering special education eligibility.
Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS)
Also a multi-level system used to provide increasing levels of support, like RTI, but clearly integrated social and emotional needs alongside academic goals; schools using RTI are currently trying to move to an MTSS system.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
An educational framework that encourages teachers to present information in multiple ways and offer different methods for students to learn and demonstrate their knowledge, making learning accessible to all students.