A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L
M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Adult seeking - requesting help from an adult or threatening to get an adult during a conflict with a peer.

Analog task - an artificial or "counterfeit" social situation involving "live action" designed to simulate real life.

Assessment - evaluating for purpose of diagnosing a problem, understanding the nature of a problem, planning intervention, measuring changes in behavior and/or skills.

Assertive - directly saying what he/she wants without saying "please," or asking about or stating a social norm ("Did the teacher say it was OK?"). In a conflict a child will state his/her desire in a firm, forceful manner and using no "softeners."

Behaviors - The term "behaviors" refers to the observable behaviors that make up social communication. They are the verbal and nonverbal actions children exhibit when they are interacting with others in social situations. "Others" can be children or peers, and adults.

Causal conjunctions - Words that conjoin 2 clauses, specifying a causal relationship (e.g., because, so).

Clause - syntactic construction containing a subject and predicate and forming part of a sentence or constituting a whole simple sentence (e.g., My mom came to the house. - 1 clause; My mom came to the house when I was sick. - 2 clauses).

Communicative intentions - the functions of language (e.g., greeting, answering, acknowledging, commenting, requesting action, requesting information, etc.).

Conjunction - a word joining two phrases, clauses, sentences (e.g., but, and, because).

Contextual demands - environmental or situational demands that impact one's ability to perform in a social situation (e.g., number of people, number of tasks, noise, visual distracters, etc.).

Ellipsis - The omission from a syntactic structure of a word or words whose meaning is recoverable from the semantics of the sentence (e.g.,"The boy ate some cake, but the girl didn't in which "eat some cake" is understood).

Ethnographic data - description of behaviors in context.

Etiology - the cause of a disorder, delay or disability.

Executive function - the "executor" of processing; the primary abilities of manipulating information so that it is understandable and usable.

Gerund - the "ing" form of a verb functioning as a noun (e.g., I like swimming.).

Hypothetical task - an artificial social problem that requires an answer or solution.

Hostile/coercive - directly countering another person's actions in an unfriendly manner, like grabbing, hitting, pushing, talking back in a hateful manner or yelling. In a conflict, this is seen as an aggressive solution.

Infinitive - "to" verb form that functions as a noun (e.g., I like to run).

Irrelevant strategy - changing the subject, or performing in a way that is totally unrelated to the situation during a conflict.

Language Deficits - "Language deficits" refer to the difficulties children have using their language in social situations. Language deficits can be in the comprehension and production of syntax (structure or form), semantics (word or sentence meaning) or pragmatics (use).

Narrative - an extended piece of organized discourse (oral or written) with a story grammar/structure (e.g. plot, characters, etc.).

Nonstandardized tasks - formal assessment instruments that are not standardized (see standardized tests).

Passive - a strategy for resolving a conflict where one gives in or forfeits one's own interest. For example, a child might walk away, or let a friend win without a comment or just an acknowledgment.

Peer conflicts - social situations between children (i.e., peers), in which a problem arises. The problem or conflict needs be resolved and usually the children need to negotiate in some manner to come to some conclusion or resolution.

Peer entry - social situation in which a child attempts to enter a peer group.

Pragmatics - interpersonal use of language; the use of language structures (syntax) and meaning (semantics) to communicate in social contexts (e.g., knowing that "Can you pass the salt?" is not a question about the length of your arm).

Processing - the way information is manipulated, including information retrieval, examination, organization, analysis.

Processing Deficits - "Processing deficits" refer to the difficulties children have with organization, memory and planning during social situations. These processes, or executive function operations, enable a child to recognize the social and informational demands of a situation, to organize and manipulate several ideas or stimuli at once, and to "shift gears" and adapt to changes that pop up in a social situation. These are the underlying processing operations that allow a child to "think" on line.

Processing demands - the demands that influence one's ability to perform in a social situation (e.g., demands for attention, memory, planning, organizing etc.) May include the number of people involved, emotions, or familiarity of the situation.

Proposition - idea or concept, a clause with at least a noun/verb.

Quantitative data - observable, countable occurrences/non-occurrences of behaviors (what occurs).

Qualitative data - description (objective and subjective) of behaviors, phenomenon (what occurs and how it occurs).

Semantics - the meaning of words, phrases, clauses and sentences.

Social-Cognitive Abilities - the skills needed to know how to behave in a social situation.

Social Cognitive Deficits - the difficulty children have conceptualizing and reasoning about their social world. Specifically, these are the problems children have in appraising a situation, reading social cues.

Social Communication - the language that is used in social situations.

Social Communication Behaviors - the observable behaviors that make up social communication. They are the verbal and nonverbal actions children exhibit when they are interacting with others in social situations. "Others" can be children or peers, and adults. (e.g., resolving peer conflicts, entering a peer group, explaining behaviors, etc.).

Social Communication Problems - "Social communication problems" refers to the difficulties children have in social situations that require language for participation.

Social goals - what one wishes to accomplish in a social situation.

Social knowledge - the knowledge or information that a child has about a social situation, which allows him/her to know how to appropriately behave.

Social reasoning - the information that allows a child to "reason out" a social situation and determine how to behave appropriately.

Social strategies - the means by which one accomplishes a goal in a social situation.

Socially appropriate and polite - accommodating the needs of others during a conflict; compromising, asking for more information from a friend, making a polite request, commenting (using "please"), acknowledging the problem and trying to find a solution.

Standardized tests - tests that are shown to be valid, reliable, normed on a "control" sample of the population, and provide a variety of scores to use for comparing performance of individual children to the norm (i.e., same-age peers) Syntax - rules used when stringing words together to form phrases, sentences (i.e., part of grammar).

Temporal conjunctions - words that conjoin two propositions, indicating their temporal relationship (e.g. after, while).

Wh-question - an interrogative structure that seeks a specific type of information (e.g., "who," "what," "where," "when," "how," "why").

University of Washington, Dept. of Speech & Hearing Sciences, Tele-Collaboration Project. © 1999-2001, UW-SPHSC, including all photographs and images unless otherwise noted. Comments: tcollab@u.washington.edu