Jargon buster

Access: The opportunity to use, get or benefit from something. If the person has a disability, the person may need changes to be made to enable them to have full access to everything in their community, including services, facilities, and information.

Active Listening/ empathic listening / reflective listening: A way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding and trust. It includes giving your full attention that enables that person to be fully heard

ADHD: A condition where an individual finds it hard to concentrate, may be over-active and can struggle to manage their behaviour. It is not the same as a learning disability. The condition can be managed with good support and sometimes medication.

Advocacy: Help to enable the person to get the care and support they need that is independent of their local council. An advocate can help the person express their needs and wishes and weigh up and take decisions about the options available to them. They can help the person find services, make sure correct procedures are followed and challenge decisions made by councils or other organisations.

Autism Strategy: A national plan covering all of England that explains what the Government is doing to make sure that adults with autism get the help they need with things such as living independently and finding employment. The autism strategy tells local councils and health services what they should do to help support autistic adults. Many councils have their own autism strategy setting out what they will do to improve the lives of autistic adults in their area

Autism/Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) / Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC): Autism is a lifelong complex condition that typically appears during early childhood and affects people differently and to varying degrees. Autism is defined by a certain set of behaviours that can impact a person’s social skills, communication, relationships, and self-regulation. Autistic people can find it hard to communicate and interact with other people, find things like bright lights or loud noises overwhelming, stressful or uncomfortable, find it hard to understand how other people think or feel, get anxious or upset about unfamiliar situations, changes in routine and may take longer to process information

Best interests: ‘Best interests’ is not directly defined by the law, but someone should act in a person’s ‘best interest’ if the person does not have the capacity to make decisions for themselves, for example financial or health decisions. When deciding what is best for the person, one should consider the person’s wishes, feelings, beliefs, the views of their close family and friends, and personal circumstances.

Child and Adolescents Mental Health Service (CAMHS): A free service run by the NHS that assesses and treats young people up to the age of 18 years with emotional, behavioural, or mental health difficulties. CAMHS also assesses for a variety of disabilities, including Autism and ADHD.

Capacity: The ability to make your own choices and decisions. Someone has capacity when they are able to understand and remember information and clearly communicate their decisions. Someone may lack capacity, for example, due to mental health problems, dementia, or learning disabilities.

Carer: Someone who provides unpaid support to a family member, partner, friend, or neighbour who is struggling, disabled, or ill, and who could not manage without the help of a carer. This is different from a care worker who is paid to support

Challenging behaviour: When someone behaves in a way which may cause harm to themselves or other people. This behaviour may be due to being unable to communicate their needs.

Citizens Advice (CAB): A charity that offers free, independent, confidential advice around a range of problems including money, benefits, housing, or employment. This is either online or over the phone and they can help you find legal advice if necessary.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT): A type of therapy often used to treat anxiety and depression which can be delivered either face-to-face, online, or over the phone. CBT is designed to help you challenge and change your thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes which may be affecting your feelings and behaviour.

Co-morbidity: When a person is living with more than one health condition, mental health condition, or disability at the same time.

Confidentiality: Keeping personal information private and safe and not sharing any information without the person’s knowledge and permission. All information shared about yourself should be carefully protected and only shared on a need to know basis.

Co-production:  When a person is an equal partner in designing the support and services they receive. Co-production recognises that the people who use support services will have the knowledge and experience to help improve the services for both themselves and other people.

Disabled: The Equality Act 2010 defines a person as disabled if they have: “a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to do normal daily activities.”

Discrimination: Treating people with differences or certain characteristics differently and not offering them the same opportunities, for example due to age, ethnicity, or disability.

Diversity: Recognising that all individuals are unique and respecting all differences, for example race, gender, disability, and sexual orientation.

Dyscalculia: A type of learning difficulty that affects a person’s mathematical ability and their ability to understand and read numbers.

Dyslexia: A type of learning difficulty that affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent reading, spelling, writing, and information processing.

Dyspraxia: A developmental co-ordination disorder affecting fine and/or gross motor coordination.

Early Intervention: Providing early support to prevent any problems from getting worse. This may apply to both children and young people and older people or people with disabilities to allow them to remain well and independent.

Easy Read: Using pictures, simple words, and clear writing to help make something easier to understand.

Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP): A legal document for children and young people up to age 25 years with a disability or special educational need (SEN). An EHCP identifies any educational, health, and social needs that the child or young person has, and any support needed to meet those needs and allow them to achieve what they want in life.

Eligibility: When a person is able to access support or a service as their needs fit the specific criteria.

Emotional health: How you think and feel overall, it is a sense of wellbeing and having the ability to cope with life events. It’s not about being happy all of the time, it’s how well you can make sense of and deal with your emotions.

Impairment: A difference in physiological or psychological abilities that are often caused by injury, illness, or a disability.

Inclusion: Meeting the needs of all individuals by creating equal opportunities by removing all barriers which may stop an individual from participating.

Information, Advice and Support Service (also known as SENDIASS): A service that provides information, impartial advice, and support for parents and carers of children and young people aged 0-25 years with special educational needs and disabilities.

Learning Difference: Similar to ‘learning difficulty’, an individual with a learning difference simply learns differently to others. Some people prefer ‘difference’ rather than ‘difficulty’ because it highlights a difference rather than a cognitive weakness which isolates them from others.

Learning difficulty: A difficulty with learning and processing new information, for example reading, spelling, or maths. Different to a ‘learning disability’ because underlying intelligence is not affected, although ‘difference’ and ‘difficulty’ are often used interchangeably.

Learning disability: A brain impairment which starts in childhood and has a lasting effect on a person’s development. It may affect the person’s ability to communicate, understand new or complex information, or to learn new skills. The person may be able to live independently or may need support to manage day to day.

Lived Experience: Personal knowledge which is gained through direct involvement in events and having actually lived through it.

Local Authority (LA) / Local Council: The local government who is responsible for decision making and a range of vital services and businesses in a local area.

Local offer: Services that are available for children and young people up to age 25 years with special educational needs or disabilities and their families. All councils are required to publish a local offer, a single place which outlines all services that are available in that area, including details about how to access each service.

Makaton: A communication tool using speech, signs, and symbols, for people with disabilities and/or learning difficulties, which supports the development of essential communication skills including listening, comprehension, and memory recall.

Mental health: Mental health includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being, affecting how a person thinks, feels, acts, and how a person is able to handle stress.

Neurodiversity/ Neurodiverse condition/ Neurodivergent: The umbrella term used to explain the differences in the way people’s brains work and the experiences and interactions that people have. Neurodiversity includes conditions such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, and Autism.

Neurotypical: A word referring to people who have typically functioning brains and who develop at a similar rate to most of their peers.

NHS: The National Health Service is the big organisation which runs all the different health services paid for by the government.

Parent Carer Forum: A group of parents and carers of disabled children who work with councils, schools and health and care providers in a local area to help parents have a say and make sure services meet the needs of children and their families. There is a Parent Carer Forum in most local council areas in England.

Participation: Taking part in an activity, task, or decisions including about your health and care.

Peer Support: Using personal experience to support another person who is going through similar experiences, for example around particular health conditions or disabilities. Peer support can be offered one-to-one or in groups and either face-to-face, online, or over the phone.

Prescribe: When a doctor or other health professional advises and authorises the use of medication or treatment.

Prescription: A document written by a medical professional which authorises a person to be given a medication or treatment with instructions about how and when they should take it.

Processing information: The fluency with which the brain receives, understands and responds to information. Not everyone processes information at the same pace.

Profound and Multiple Disabilities: A description of a person’s condition relating to the complexity of their needs. People with profound and multiple disabilities often have difficulty communication and require a high level of support in day-to-day life.

Reasonable Adjustment: Changes that people and/or organisations must make so that people with disabilities can take part.  

Resources: All materials, information, and contacts that may be of use to people.

Safeguarding: The process of ensuring that people are not at risk of being abused, neglected, or exploited. Councils have a duty to work with organisations to protect anyone from abuse and neglect.

Special Educational Needs (SEN): The legal term used to refer to your child’s requirements in education. According to Section 20 of the Children and Families Act 2014, a child has SEN “if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made”

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND): This is the preferred term now used by professionals referring to a child or young person with a learning difficulty and/or a disability which means why require additional health and education support.

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD): A condition which affects how the brain processes sensory information from the surrounding internal and external environment. Often associated with autism and usually diagnosed in children although adults can also be affected.

Signposting: Directing people to services, information, and contacts which may be useful and suitable to their needs.

Social Services: Services paid for by the government to support people and communities, like education, housing and healthcare.

Social Worker: A trained professional who works with people to help resolve problems and enable them to reach the necessary social services.

Specialist: A person who concentrates primarily on one particular subject and has a wealth of knowledge about that subject. For example, a mental health nurse is a specialist in looking after people with mental health issues.

Therapy: A type of treatment that aims to relieve emotional distress and mental health problems by doing a variety of activities including, for example, talking, exercise, and art.

Voluntary sector: Organisations that are independent from the government and local councils and whose purpose is to create social impact rather than profit. Social care services are often provided by voluntary organisation by arrangement with the council and some are user-led organisations so are run by the people the organisation is designed to benefit.

Wellbeing: The state of being healthy, happy, and comfortable both physically and mentally.

Young Carer: A young person up to the age of 18 years who looks after or helps to look after a family member or friend with an illness, disability, or addiction. They may be responsible for multiple aspects of day to day life including shopping, cooking, cleaning, personal care, and emotional support.