Parent Support for Children with Challenges - Definitions

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

VAB: See Vulpe Assessment Battery.
VADS: See Visual Aural Digit Span Tlest.
vagus nerve: The 10th cranial nerve; cranial nerve X provides the motor and sensory innervation to the pharynx (throat) and the larynx (windpipe) (including the vocal cords), as well as parasympathetic innervation to the thoracic (heart and lungs) and abdominal viscera (gastrointestinal tract).
VAKT: Acronym for Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Tactile; See Fernald Word Learning Technique.
valgus: Bent outward, away from the mid-line.
validation: The process of determining a test's validity—its ability to measure what it claims to measure.
validity: The degree to which an instrument measures what it purports to measure. Face validity is a subjective impression that the test strongly appears to measure what it claims to measure. Content validity requires that the test adequately sample the range of target behaviors (e.g., that a test that claims to measure mathematical ability actually includes all types of mathematics problems). Concurrent validity correlates performance on the test with performance on another test recognized as a valid measure of the same domain. Construct validity refers to the ability to explain scores on the test in accordance with a theoretical model of behavior. Predictive validity is a measure of how well test scores hold up over time and predict future behavior including later performance on the test itself.
Valium: Trade name for diazepam.
Valproate: See valproic acid.
valproic acid: Trade names Valproate and Depakene; an anticonvulsant drug used for absence seizures (both isolated and when other seizure types are present), generalized tonic-clonic seizures, and partial seizures. Valproic acid is rarely used in infants, as they are more likely to develop liver damage. It can also produce nausea, weight gain, reversible hair loss, drowsiness, and tremors. Rarely, it can affect blood cells. Usage in pregnancy has been associated with an increased incidence of neural tube defects, as well as a risk of fetal antiepileptic drug syndrome. Valproic acid produces only minimal cognitive impairment; when used concurrently with phenobarbital, it can increase the blood level of that drug and cause sedation (sleepiness). It can also increase the side effects of other anticonvulsants such as carbamazepine (Tegretol) or phenytoin (Dilantin) used concomitantly. Valproic acid has successfully treated hypomanic states in people with severe mental retardation.
van Buchem syndrome: Hypcrostosis corticalis generalisata; a genetic syndrome with generalized bone overgrowth that can compress cranial nerves to produce facial palsy and vision and hearing loss. Inheritance is autosomal recessive. (There does exist an autosomal dominant variant.)
van der Woude syndrome: Lip pit syndrome; a genetic syndrome that includes lower lip pits, cleft lip with or without cleft palate, and hypodontia (decreased number of teeth). Conductive (involving the middle and outer ear) hearing loss problems are common. Incidence is 1 in 100,000; inheritance is autosomal dominant with variable penetrance.
varicella: Chickenpox; an exanthem (rash) produced by the human herpes virus, varicella-zoster virus (VZV). The disease has a 2-week incubation period and is highly contagions with airborne spread via respiratory secretions from several days prior to the onset of the rash through the first week of the rash. The individual pock-marks are similar to those found in variola (smallpox), but have a different temporal course. An acute cerebellar syndrome with ataxia (unsteady gait), nystagmus (involuntary eve movements), vertigo (dizziness), tremor, slurred speech, and vomiting may persist for several weeks after the rash. A live attenuated (weakened) VZV vaccine was approved for usage in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration in 1995.
variola: Smallpox; variolation refers to smallpox inoculation that leaves a scar at the vaccination site.
varus: Bent inward, toward the mid-line.
VA shunt: See ventriculoatrial shunt.
VATERS: Acronym for an association of congenital malformations: V for vertebral anomalies (malformation, deformation, disruption, or dysplasia) and ventricular septal defect (heart disease), A for anal atresia, TE for tracheoesophageal fistula with esophageal atresia, R for radial and renal (kidney) dysplasia, and S for single umbilical artery. When not part of a broader genetic syndrome, such as trisomy 18, this condition is compatible with normal cognitive functioning.
VC: See verbal comprehension.
velo-cardio-facial syndrome: See Shprintzen syndrome.
velum: Soft palate.
venipuncture: The drawing of blood through a vein for a laboratory test.
ventral: The front; the anterior or belly surface; opposite of dorsal.
ventricle: A cavity or chamber, usually of the heart or brain.
ventricular: Pertaining to a ventricle.
ventricular septal defect (VSD): A relatively common congenital heart detect in which there is an opening between the two ventricles (large lower chambers) of the heart, sometimes accompanied by a murmur (abnormal heart sound on physical examination), cyanosis (blue color), and other symptoms of heart failure. VSD can be one of a number of organ system malformations included in genetic syndromes associated with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. It is possible to outgrow the effect of a small VSD.
ventriculoatrial (VA) shunt: A neurosurgical treatment for hydrocephalus (excess fluid in the brain). This procedure connects the ventricle of the brain with the right atrium of the heart by means of a tube with a pressure-regulated one-way flow valve. The VA shunt is more prone to infection but less likely to become obstructed than the ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt.
ventriculogram/ventriculography: A radiographic procedure to visualize (with or without contrast material) the ventricles (fluid-containing spaces) of the brain.
ventriculomegaly: Enlargement of the ventricles (fluid-containing spaces) of the brain. Large ventricles seen on computed tomography (CT) scan or ultrasound can be due to hydrocephalus (excess fluid in the brain) or to brain atrophy (wasting).
ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt: A mechanical pump with a pressure-regulated one-way valve connecting the ventricle of the brain with the peritoneal (abdominal) cavity so that the excess fluid (and pressure) in the brain in hvdrocephalus is relieved; also, sometimes, the neurosurgical procedure to place such a shunt. Complications of shunts include infection and meningitis (inflammation of the spinal cord and brain membranes), blockage, disconnection of the shunt tubing from the shunt, and relative shortening of the tubing caused by the child's growth. Shunt infections may contribute to brain injury and a decrease in cognitive functioning. The VP shunt is more prone to obstruction but less likely to get infected than the ventriculoatrial (VA) shunt.
VEP: See visual-evoked potential.
VER: Visual-evoked response; See visual-evoked potential.
verbal comprehension: (VC) One of the three Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) factor scores; these are sometimes referred to as the Kaufman factors. VC; is a measure of verbal knowledge and comprehension learned through formal education and other life experiences. This factor score is obtained by summing the scaled scores for the information, similarities, vocabulary, and comprehension subtests. VC seems to measure a common component of the verbal scale subtests by addressing both item content (verbal) and the related mental process (comprehension). Perceptual organization (PO) and freedom from distractibility (FFD) are the other two WISC-R factor scores. Factor scores are used to generate additional information and also support the interpretation of the child's WISC-R subtest pattern of strengths and weaknesses. On the Wechsler Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WISC-III), VC has become the verbal comprehension index (VCI).
versive seizure: One of the more common presentations of a focal seizure, in which the movement of the eyes, head, and extremities (arms or legs) is away from the side of the lesion. Seizure disorders with versive movements and no loss of consciousness often have a frontal lobe focus, whereas those with automatisms (robotic behaviors) and staring have a temporal IWS lobe focus. Electroencephalographic (EEG) abnormalities are found anterior (front) to the rolandic gyrus in cither the frontal or temporal lobes and may not be present between seizures. 'The etiology (cause) of these seizures ranges from underlying structural lesions (e.g., heterotopias [tissue displacement]) to idiopathic (unknown). treatment is similar to that for other focal seizures.
vertigo: Loss of balance usually accompanied by a sense of dizziness, often attributed to vestibular (balance) dysfunction, as in Ménière disease.
very low birth weight (VLBW): Description of infants with birth weights below 1,500 grams.
vestibular-bilateral disorder: A sensory integrative dysfunction characterized by shortened duration of postrotary nystagmus (involuntary eve movements), poor integration of the two sides of the body and brain, and difficulty in learning to read or calculate.
vestibular dysfunction: A hypothetical etiology (cause) for learning disabilities derived from 1) an analogy with the perceptual distortions induced by Meniere disease, and 2) the interpretation of mild motor dysfunction as labyrinthine rather than cortical in origin. Two treatments rely on this hypothesis: I) the Ayres sensory integration approach, and 2) the use of antimotion sickness drugs (e.g., meclizine) to treat dyslexia.
VF: See videofluoroscopy.
vibrotactile hearing aid: A device used to assist individuals with severe hearing impairments to detect sound by converting the sound into vibrations felt by the skin on the chest or arm; the vibrations are spread out in a regional manner with high frequencies at one end and successive frequencies decreasing at the other end. A vibrotactile hearing aid is often used to supplement an augmentative hearing aid.
vicariation: A hypothetical process of recovery after brain damage that involves the takeover bv other parts of the nervous system of functions lost when part of the brain is damaged. The degree of vicariation depends on age; it is more likely to occur in early development.
videofluoroscopy (VF): A radiographic technique that allows a visual diagnosis of swallowing disorders and helps identity specific feeding adaptations to manage such disorders,
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales: A structured interview to measure adaptive behavior in four separate domains: communication (receptive, expressive, and written subdomains), daily living skills (personal, domestic, and community sub-domains). socialization (interpersonal relationships, play and leisure time, and coping skills subdomains), and motor skills (gross- and fine-motor subdomains). The domains and the adaptive behavior composite can he expressed in a variety of derived scores including age equivalents and adaptive levels. The survey form (297 items) and the expanded form (577 items) are used to assess adaptive behavior in children from birth to 18-9 years of age and in adults with low functioning; the classroom edition (244 items) is for school children from 3 to 12-9 years of age. This test is the 1984-1985 revision of Edgar A. Doll's (1889-1968) Vineland Social Maturity Scale (1935, 1965). Extensive standardization, reliability, and validity data are provided in the manuals for the different editions. Deficits in adaptive behavior as measured by this type of instrument are a necessary component in the diagnosis of mental retardation.
virus: A noncellular infectious agent consisting of cither DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) or RNA (ribonucleic acid) surrounded by a protein coat. Viral infections do not respond to antibiotics and are treated preventively by active immunization (vaccination) when available.
viscera: (s., viscus) Internal organs of the body. The abdominal viscera include the liver, stomach, and intestines.
viscosity: The persistence of traces of earlier structures of thinking into later, more mature levels; for example, children with mental retardation will remain in a state of transition between two Piagetian (or other) stages for a longer time period than children without mental retardation.
visual acuity: Vision, a measure of how well one sees. Most vision screening generates a distance that one eye can see in relation to the distance most people can see. For example, 20/100 vision means that the eye with impaired vision can see at 20 feet what the normal eve can see at 100 feet. More severe visual disturbance is reflected by the inability to detect movement or light. Lack of visual acuity is blindness. Corrective lenses (glasses or contact lenses) attempt to correct vision as closely as possible to 20/20. Legal blindness is denned as a visual acuity that can only be corrected to 20/200 or by contraction of peripheral (noncentral) visual fields in the better eye. Monocular (one eve) poor vision is often asymptomatic (without symptoms), but can result in a strabismus (squint). Visual acuity screening for children is routinely performed in most doctors' offices and schools.
Visual Aural Digit Span Test (VADS): A refinement of digit span (the repetition of increasingly longer sequences of digits as a test of auditory sequential memory) to assess learning style in children from 5-5 to 12-9 years of age. The number sequences are presented both aurally (spoken) and visually (on printed cards), and the responses are both oral and written. These four subtest results are combined to generate six further subscores for aural input, visual input, oral expression, written expression, intrasensory integration, and intersensory integration. The test is brief and nonthreatening, and provides a useful screening or confirmation of more extensive learning disability evaluations. Reliability and validity data have been published. VADS was devised by Elizabeth Koppitz, whose scoring system for the Bender Gestalt test is widely used.
visual-evoked potential (VEP); visual-evoked response (VER): A quantitative measure of the response of the occipital lobes of the brain on the electroencephalogram (EEG) to a light stimulus. The VEP provides information about visual activity as well as the integrity of the nerves in the visual system. It is used in the diagnosis of leukodystrophies, lipidoses, demyelinating diseases, and the optic neuritis found in Friedreich ataxia. Values will be abnormal in cortical blindness (loss of sight due to a brain lesion located in the specific occipital or visual area of the cerebral cortex), but normal with visual-perceptual problems.
visual fields: The area that the eye can see. There is an overlap between the visual fields of the two eyes, but they do not overlap completely. Damage to the brain or optic nerve can cause a "visual field cut" or deficit. This results in a partial loss of vision in each eye. If the damage is to the right side of the brain, then the vision loss will be to the left side of each eye (i.e., the temporal side of the left eye and the nasal side of the right eye). Visual field cuts' are sometimes discovered when the individual neglects or ignores the side of the task that cannot be seen. These are often difficult to diagnose in children, but should be suspected in the presence of a hemiplegia (paralysis of half the body).
visual impairment: Visual acuity worse than 20/70 in the better eye after correction.
visual memory: The ability to retain information presented through visual sensory and perceptual pathways. Visual memory is the capacity to revisualize or retrieve specific images as needed and the ability to recognize previously viewed information on demand. The ability to recognize a face or recall the configuration of a previously viewed word as such are examples of visual memory.
visual motor: See perceptual-motor.
visual perception: The ability to interpret information provided to the brain by the eyes. Determination and discrimination of spatial information (e.g., position in space and relative object size and location) are components of visual perception. Visual perception is not directly related to visual acuity or eye movements.
visual-perceptual motor (VPM) function: The ability to interpret and integrate information obtained through the eyes in such a way that a motor act can be performed based upon that information. VPM ability can he tested by having the child copy geometric forms and designs. Tests such as the Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (DTVMI) and the Bender Gestalt test are commonly used to assess VPM ability.
visual threat: Blinking in response to a hand moving suddenly toward the eyes: such a response becomes consistent in infants after 2 months of age.
visual tracking: Perceptual-motor milestones observed in early infancy; at 1 month of age, the infant can consistently follow objects moving in a horizontal direction; by 2 months, in a vertical direction; and by 3 months, in a circle. Subtle limitations in visual tracking in older children have been implicated in reading disorders, but this association probably confuses cause and effect.
visual training: See optometric training.
vitiligo: Depigmentation of the skin, producing white patches; it is acquired and often erratically progressive; a localized albinism. Vitiligo is seen in syndromes (e.g., Waardenburg syndrome), can be an isolated dermatological (skin) disorder, and may be associated genetically with sensorineural (involving the inner ear or the auditory nerve) hearing loss.
VLBW: See very low birth weight.
VLDS: See Mecham Verbal Language Development Scale.
vocabulary: A lexicon; the number of words that a person understands (i.e.. receptive) and can use (i.e., expressive). Vocabulary generally increases with age, so that tests that estimate vocabulary size are employed as measures of language function and as components of more generalized cognitive and educational assessments.
vocabulary: A verbal subtest on the Wechsler tests consisting of words presented in increasing order of difficulty. The child is asked to orally define each word, as a measure of the child's intellectual (general mental) ability. This test of word knowledge taps a variety of factors including expressive (spoken) language skills, word-finding skills, exposure to and involvement with the environment, simultaneous or gestalt information processing ability, and long-term memory. Information regarding the child's fund of information, richness of ideas, and concept formation can also be obtained. Vocabulary is relatively resistant to neurological deficits and psychological disturbances. The subtest is difficult to score, as subjective judgments about the quality of responses are part of the scoring procedure, and the examples provided do not exhaust the spectrum of possible answers. The subtest is discontinued after five consecutive failures.
Vocabulary Comprehension Test: A criterion-referenced checklist of 95 vocabulary words and phrases for use with children through kindergarten.
Vocational Rehabilitation: The state agency that provides medical, therapeutic, counseling, education, training, assessment, and other services needed to prepare people with disabilities for work.
Vojta: A system of physical therapy to treat cerebral palsy. Developed by the Czech neurologist Vaslav Vojta, it focuses on reflex creeping patterns.
von Economo encephalitis: Encephalitis lethargica; an encephalitis (brain inflammation) that was epidemic between 1915 and 1926 and provided examples of postencephalitic brain injury that contributed to the evolution of the concept of minimal brain damage.
von Recklinghausen disease: See neurofibromatosis.
VP shunt: See ventriculoperitoneal shunt.
VPM function: See visual-perceptual motor function.
VSD: See ventricular septal defect.
vulnerable child syndrome: A behavioral syndrome observed in parents in reaction to the earlier threatened loss of their child. A mother may continue to express and act on (usually in the form of over-protection) unrealistic tears over the health and survival of, for example, a child who had been premature but was now a healthy preschooler. Illness in the first several months of life is especially liable to engender a continuing parental misperception of childhood vulnerability and deserves firm and caring supportive counseling. Separation (anxiety), infantilization, and hypochondriacal (excessive and unjustified worry about health) concerns are common. Vulnerable child syndrome can be observed in children with developmental disabilities when these latter were secondary to an early life-threatening event. The vulnerable child syndrome can also occur in a child who has always been healthy but whose sibling has died.
Vulpe Assessment Battery (VAB): A comprehensive developmental instrument for use with children from birth through 6 years of age.