M

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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) 

Computerized image technology that uses nuclear magnetic resonance to create cross sectional images, or “slices,” of targeted part of the body.

Mainstreaming 

The concept that students with disabilities should be integrated with their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent possible, when appropriate to the needs of the student with a disability.

Makaton 

A simplified sign and symbol system based on British Sign Language (BSL) and natural gesture.

Making Inferences 

Children with language delays often have difficulty making inferences about what’s going on around them or when they are reading.

Maladaptive Behavior 

Inappropriate behavior or misbehaving, a behavior that has a negative impact on the person who is exhibiting it.

Mandible 

Lower jaw.

Mands 

Requests, asking for items or information. Examples include:

  • Mand for item “cookie” or “I want cookie”
  • Mand for information “where is the ball?”
Manifestation Determination 

A determination made by a school district, parent, and relevant members of the IEP team that a child’s conduct was caused by, or was the result of, the child’s disability.

Manifestation Determination Review 

If child with disability engages in behavior or breaks a rule or code of conduct that applies to nondisabled children and the school proposes to remove the child, the school must hold a hearing to determine if the child’s behavior was caused by the disability.

Manipulatives 

Objects used or handled by students (e.g., pegs, puzzle pieces, blocks).

Manner of Articulation 

Consonants are classified in terms of their Place-Manner-Voice. The manner of articulation is the type of obstruction that occurs in the production of a particular consonant. The ‘manners’ of articulation are: Stop, Fricative, Affricate, Nasal, Liquid and Glide. The Stops, Fricatives and Affricates are termed obstruents, and the Nasals, Liquids, Glides, AND VOWELS are termed sonorants. The consonants /l/, /r/, /w/ and /j/ are also referred to as approximants.

Manual Stimulation 

The use of touch and pressure to stimulate nerves in and around weak muscles.

Mastered Skills 

A skill that has met mastery criteria and can be demonstrated across multiple stimuli, people, and environments.

Mastery 

When a client demonstrates a skill independently and across multiple environments. The typical mastery criteria is that a client must answer correctly three consecutive days in a row over two different therapists.

Maximal Opposition 

A maximal opposition cuts across many featural dimensions. For example the word pair bun-sun differs in place (labial is distinct from coronal), manner (stop is distinct from fricative) and voice (/b/ is voiced and /s/ is voiceless). The contrast fat-gnat is in place, manner, voice and major class (/f/ is an obstruent and /n/ is sonorant), and markedness (/f/ is marked, /n/ is not).

Maximum Assistance 

The student performs 25% to 49% of tasks by self.

Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) 

The average sentence length, usually taken from a language sample (see above). This is a little tricky because it is not just the number of words, but the number of morphemes (see below). Ex: A child that says “playing” is using a more complex form than one who says “play”. The “ing” has it’s own meaning (present tense- I am doing it now) and counts as an extra morpheme.

Mediation 

A voluntary process or resolving disputes between two parties that is led by a mediator – a trained, impartial third party.

Medical Model 

Therapy focuses on treatment to cure or alleviate specific underlying medical conditions.

Medical Services 

Related service; includes services provided by a licensed physician to determine a child’s medically related disability that results in the child’s need for special education and related services.

Memory 

A person’s mental capacity to be able to recall or reproduce what he/she has learned and retained. This includes facts, events, impressions, words, names, experiences, procedures, etc.

Mental Age (MA) 

The level or age equivalent at which a child realistically functions or performs. (MA is routinely used in Intelligence Quotient (IQ) testing, where test results indicate the actual developmental age of a child’s cognition and behavior.) Some clinicians use the term Developmental Age in place of MA. For example, if a child is 4.6 years old and is assigned an MA of 3.6, then the report is indicating that he or she is one year behind.

Mental Processes 

The cognitive operations involved when a person thinks and remembers. Some thought functions considered to be mental processes include attention, memory, problem solving, decision making, and producing and understanding language.

Mental Retardation 

Impaired intellectual ability that is equivalent to or less than an IQ of approximately 70 with onset before age 18, and presenting with concurrent impairments in adaptive functioning. The condition is manifested typically by abnormal development, learning difficulties, and problems in social adjustment.

Metacognitive 

The ability to reflect and think about the “thinking” process itself. Defined as “thinking about thinking” or “knowing about knowing”.

Metalinguistic 

Ability to think about language and to comment on it, as well as to produce and comprehend it.

Metaphasia 

A person’s knowledge of language and insight into the cognitive processes used to communicate using language.

Metapraxia 

A person’s understanding of and insight into the planning and execution of movement patterns.

Metathesis 

Error pattern in which two sounds in a word are reversed (basketball pronounced as baksetball).

MI-Access 

This is Michigan’s alternative assessments to the MEAP that are specifically geared toward students with disabilities. One of four assessments is selected based on the student’s anticipated level of independence in adulthood.

Minimal Assistance 

The student performs 75% or more of tasks by self.

Minimal Opposition 

A minimal contrast or minimal opposition is defined by one feature difference. For example, sip-zip involves a minimal difference in voice; sip-ship involves a difference in place; and, sip-tip involves a difference in manner. A contrast like shape-jape is not quite ‘minimal’, differing in manner and voice.

Minimal Pair 

Treatment technique in which a person is exposed to two sets of stimuli that differ in only one dimension, usually in order to teach the child differences in meaning that result from differences in speech productions. Words that are alike in sound, except for a single phonetic feature; e.g., pear-bear, fat-vat. See Near Minimal Pair.

Mixed Hearing Loss 

A hearing loss with combined sensorineural and conductive elements.

Mixed Rate of Instruction 

Changing the rate material is introduced and taught dependent on the students level of understanding. When students are understanding at a high rate, the material is presented quickly. However, when students are having a more challenging time grasping the concepts, the material is taught at a slower pace.

Modeling 

Providing a demonstration of an expected behavior.

Modelling and Recasting 

Modelling and recasting are conversational techniques used by SLPs/SLTs, parents and teachers to help children’s speech and language development.

Moderate Assistance 

The student performs 50% to 74% of tasks by self.

Modifications 

Actual changes made in a task, routine, etc., to help an individual complete tasks/achieve goals to the best level possible within the general curriculum.

Modified Independence 

The student is able to complete the prescribed activity independently given extra time, modifications or accommodations.

Monaural Amplification 

The use of one hearing aid instead of two.

Morpheme 

Words or parts of words that have meaning. This includes regular words such as house, cat, tree, etc., and “bound morphemes” such as “s” (plural, possessive), “ing”, “est”, “er”, etc.

Morphology 

The study of how sounds and words are put together to form meaning.

Motor Imitation 

Physical movements that are copied from a model.

Motor Planning or “Praxis” 

The ability to plan, initiate and execute a motor action.

Motor Speech Disorders 

Motor speech disorders are a group of speech disorders characterized by difficulty with the motor aspect of speech. They can involve difficulty with the coordination and planning of movements needed for speech (Apraxia) or difficulties with the strength of the articulatory and respiratory system (Dysarthria).

Mouth Tension 

There is increased tension in the mouth while speaking, especially for certain words or sounds.

Move On When Reading 

Arizona is one of the states that passed third-grade retention legislation in May, 2010 called “Move on When Reading.” A.R.S. requires that a pupil not be promoted from the third grade if the pupil obtains a score on the reading portion of the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards test, (AIMS) (or a successor test) demonstrating that the pupil’s reading falls far below the third grade level. While retention policies are receiving a lot of attention due to a push to improve 3rd-grade reading, early identification and intervention are more likely to improve student performance. What we have learned from states like New York and Florida is to not just repeat the same 3rd-grade curriculum; we have to do something different. Schools must develop early identification systems and target struggling readers for intervention. The interventions need to be grounded in a theoretical framework for how reading skills are acquired, based on neuroscience findings, and evidence from effective education programs. Interventions need to address the five components of the reading process, explicitly instruct students in the structure of language, provide opportunity to practice, and monitor students frequently. Mary Wennersten, ADE.

Movie Talk 

See Echolalia.

Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team (MET) 

The MET is a comprehensive evaluation process that is scheduled every 3 years for special education certification. (It is currently under review at the federal level and therefore subject to changes in Michigan).

Multidisciplinary Team 

A group or team of disciplines that work, assess, report results, and/or deliver treatment to clients.

Multiple Sclerosis 

A neurological disorder characterized by progressive and deteriorating muscular disability produced by an overgrowth of the myelin sheath surrounding the nerve tracts; paralysis, muscle tremors, and dysarthria may be associated to varying degrees depending of the site of lesion.

Multiple Disabilities 

Disability category under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation, blindness, mental retardation. orthopedic impairment, etc.) that cause such severe educational problems that problems cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments.

Multiple Opposition 

Multiple oppositions are constructed when one sound is contrasted with many, as in ‘dip’ vs. ‘lip’, ‘ship’, ‘grip’ and ‘chip’ (dip-lip, dip-ship, dip-grip, dip-ship) in a treatment set in the variation of Minimal Pairs therapy called Multiple Oppositions Therapy (Multiple Oppositions Intervention).

Multiple Opposition
Multisensory 

Approach that emphasizes the use of vision, hearing, and touch to provide additional information to help shape a child’s speech production.

Multisensory Structured Language Education 

An educational approach that uses visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile cues simultaneously to enhance memory and learning. Links are consistently made between the visual (what we see), auditory (what we hear), and kinesthetic-tactile (what we feel) pathways in learning to read and spell.

Multisyllabic Words 

Some experts define multisyllabic words as words of more than one syllable, and others define them as words of more than two syllables. There is a tendency among researchers nowadays to avoid the terms ‘multisyllabic words’ and ‘polysyllabic words’ and to use the terms ‘one syllable words’, ‘two syllable words’ and ‘long words’ instead. See Long Word.

Munching 

The earliest form of chewing.

Muscular Dystrophy 

A progressive degenerative disease resulting in muscles that may be unable to either to contract of relax.

Mutual Recognition Agreement 

See Associations.

Myofunctional 

A. Pertaining to muscular function. B. In speech, denoting the action of muscle groups related to facial development and tongue function.

Myofunctional Therapy 

Method of restoring to normal the action of the muscle groups related to tongue function and swallowing. Myofunctional Therapy involves training oral muscle groups to correct a deviant swallow pattern. Tongue thrust or deviant swallow often has a negative impact on dental alignment and speech production. Therefore, habituating a correct swallow can, in turn, strengthen muscles which are necessary for correct speech production.


Myringotomy 

Surgical incision into the tympanic membrane to allow drainage of fluid from the middle ear.