Physical & Occupational Therapy Terms
Have you ever read a report about your child and wondered what some of the terms actually meant? Starting your child in therapy can be overwhelming, especially when you have to learn an entirely new vocabulary to keep up with their sessions, progress, goals, and how you can work to improve their skills at home. Ms. Debbie is one of our wonderful Physical Therapists and is here to save the day by sharing an extensive list of terms and definitions related to physical and occupational therapy. If you have a child in PT or OT, you will want to bookmark this page!
Discovering your child has additional challenges to explore, interact and masterfully negotiate their environments is an emotional and concerning discovery.
Therapy helps child and parent find a way forward together. One of the new skills parents will need to acquire is knowledge of terms used to describe behaviors, positions, body parts and interventions that will come up in therapy sessions, other medical visits and medical reports.
This is a beginning guide to use for reference, but never hesitate to ask for additional clarification if you have additional questions.
You will forever be your child’s best advocate. Knowledge and understanding of their challenges will make you more effective in doing so.
Adaptive response – an appropriate action in which the individual responds successfully to some environmental demand; requires good sensory integration and furthers the sensory integration process
ADL/ADLs – Activities of Daily Living
Dyspraxia – deficient motor planning that is often related to a decrease in sensory processing
Base of support – the weight-bearing surface of the body; for example: in standing = the feet
Bilateral – pertaining to two sides of the body, as in: both arms or both legs
Cervical – pertaining to the neck
Core – pertaining to the trunk of the body (primarily abdominals and back)
Dissociation – to separate; for example: one extremity/limb performs a movement without the other extremity doing the same or similar movement at the same time
Extension – a straightening or backward movement of the spine or limbs
External rotation – an outward turning of the limb away from the body
Eye-Hand Coordination – the efficient teamwork of the eyes and hands, necessary for activities such as playing with toys, dressing, and writing
Fine Motor – referring to movement of the muscles in the fingers, toes, eyes and tongue
Fine Motor Skills – the skilled use of one’s hands – the ability to move the hands and fingers in a smooth, precise and controlled manner. Fine motor control is essential for efficient handling of classroom tools and materials – may also be referred to as dexterity.
Flexion – a bending or forward movement of the spine or limbs
Gravitational Insecurity – extreme fear and anxiety that one will fall when one’s head position changes
Gross Motor – refers to movement of large muscle groups
Gross Motor Skills – coordinated body movements involving the large muscle groups; for example, running, walking, hopping, climbing, throwing and jumping
Hamstrings – a muscle group on the back of the thigh that can bend/flex the knee and straighten/extend the hip
Hyperextension – excessive movement in the direction of extension
Hypersensitivity – oversensitivity to sensory stimuli, characterized by a tendency to be either fearful and cautious, or negative and defiant
Hypersensitivity to Movement – a sense of disorientation and/or avoidance of movement that is linear and/or rotary
Hyposensitivity – under-sensitivity to sensory stimuli, characterized by a tendency either to crave intense sensations or to withdraw and be difficult to engage
Internal rotation – an inward turning of the limb toward the body
Instability – lack of firmness in weight-bearing; difficulty maintaining weight bearing
Lumbar – pertaining to the low back
Midline – the theoretical lines that divide the body into two equal halves vertically or horizontally
Motor Control – the ability of the Central Nervous System (CNS) to regulate or direct the musculoskeletal system in a purposeful act
Motor Coordination – the ability of several muscles or muscle groups to work together harmoniously to perform movements
Motor Planning – the ability to conceive of, organize, sequence, and carry out an unfamiliar and complex body movement in a coordinated manner, a piece of praxis
Muscle Tone – the degree of tension normally present when one’s muscles are relaxed, or in a resting state
Perception – the meaning the brain attributes to sensory input
Postural Adjustments – the ability to shift one’s body in order to change position for a task
Postural Insecurity – a fear of movement/head/posture changes due to poor control of one’s trunk or posture
Postural Stability – being able to maintain one’s body in a position to efficiently complete a task or demand, using large muscle groups at the shoulders and hips
Praxis – the ability to interact successfully with the physical environment; to plan, organize, and carry out a sequence of unfamiliar actions, and to do what one needs and wants to do. Praxis is a broad term indicating voluntary and coordinated action. Motor planning is often used as a synonym for praxis.
Proprioception – the unconscious awareness of sensations coming from one’s joints, muscles, tendons, and ligament that provides “position sense” and allows for perception and judgement of weight and force production
Range of Motion – a measure of the amount of movement/motion available at any given joint of the body
Reflex – an involuntary/automatic response to a stimulus
Rotary - spinning or moving in a circular motion
Self-Help Skills – competence in taking care of one’s personal needs, such as bathing, dressing, eating, grooming, and studying. Also referred to as Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
Self-Regulation – the ability to control one’s activity level and state of alertness, as well as one’s emotional, mental or physical responses to senses; self-organization
Sensorimotor – pertaining to the brain-behavior of taking in sensory messages and reacting with a physical response
Sensory Defensiveness – child’s behavior in response to sensory input, reflecting severe over-reactions or a low threshold to a specific sensory input
Sensory Diet – the multisensory experiences that one normally seeks on a daily basis to satisfy one’s sensory appetite; a planned and scheduled activity program that an occupational therapist develops to help a person become more self-regulated
Sensory Discrimination – the ability to perceive various aspects of sensation (light, touch, texture, smell, taste, etc.)
Sensory Input – the constant flow of information from sensory receptors in the body to the brain and spinal cord
Sensory Integration/Sensory Processing – the normal neurological process of taking in information from one’s body and environment through the senses, of organizing and unifying this information, and using it to plan and execute adaptive responses to different challenges in order to learn and function smoothly in daily life
Sensory Integrative Dysfunction – the inefficient neurological processing of information received through the senses, causing problems with learning, development and behavior
Sensory Integration Treatment – a technique of therapy, which provides playful, meaningful activities that enhance an individual’s sensory intake and lead to more adaptive functioning in daily life
Sensory Modulation – increasing or reducing neural activity to keep that activity in harmony with all other functions of the nervous system; maintenance of the arousal state to generate emotional responses, sustain attention, develop appropriate activity level and move skillfully
Sensory Processing Skills – the ability to receive and process information from one’s sensory systems including touch (tactile), visual, auditory (hearing), proprioceptive (body position) and vestibular (balance). Behavior, attention and peer interactions are greatly influenced by the child’s ability to process sensory stimuli.
Sensory Registration – initial awareness of a single input; assigning value and emotional tone to a stimulus.
Symmetrical – referring to symmetry of the body, whose right and left halves are mirror images of each other
Tactile – refers to the sense of touch and various qualities attributed to touch, including detecting pressure, temperature, light touch, pain, discriminative touch
Tactile Defensiveness – the tendency to react negatively and emotionally to unexpected light touch sensations
Tone (muscle) – the degree of tension normally present in the resting state of a muscle
Thoracic – pertaining to or affecting the chest or upper back
Unilateral – affecting or occurring on only one side of the body
Vestibular – refers to our sense of movement and the pull of gravity, related to our body
Vestibular Sense – the sensory system that responds to changes in head position and to body movement through space, and that coordinates movements of the eyes, head and body. Receptors are the inner ear.
Visual Discrimination – differentiating among symbols and forms, such as matching or separating colors, shapes, numbers, letters, and words
Visual Figure-Ground – differentiation between objects in the foreground and in the background
Visual Motor – referring to one’s movements based on the perception of visual information
Visual Motor Skills – the ability to visually take in information, process it and be able to coordinate your physical movement in relation to what has been viewed. It involves the combination of visual perception and motor coordination. Difficulty with visual motor skills can result in inaccurate reaching, pointing and grasping of objects, as well as difficulty with copying, drawing, tracing and cutting.
Visual Perception – the ability to perceive and interpret what the eyes see
Visual Perceptual Skills – the ability to interpret and use what is seen in the environment. Difficulties in this area can interfere with a child’s ability to learn self-help skills like tying shoelaces and academic tasks like copying from the blackboard or finding items in a busy background.
Visual-Spatial Processing Skills – perceptions based on sensory information received through the eyes and body as one interacts with the environment and moves one’s body through space. Including: Depth perception, directionality, form constancy, position in space, spatial awareness, visual discrimination, visual figure-ground.
Vestibular Stimulation – stimulation of the vestibular apparatus (bones of the inner ear and canals) that provides information regarding acceleration and the position of the body in space
Weight shift – translation or movement of body weight from one side to another, forward and backward
Thank you Ms. Debbie for such a comprehensive list! We hope that this is helpful as your child is participating in therapy. As always - if you have questions about any terms you hear or read, don’t hesitate to ask your therapist!
