Glossary of scientific terms

Language: The expression and understanding of human communication.

Leber’s amaurosis: A form of blindness.

Limbic system: A group of interlinked brain structures which are responsible for aspects of emotional, sexual, and eating behaviour.

Luxury trust: A trust that describes the kind of allowable expenses in a way that excludes the cost of care in state-funded programs in order to avoid cost-of-care liability.

Mainstreaming: The practice of involving handicapped children in regular school and preschool environments.

Malnutrition: Nutritional intake that is insufficient to promote or maintain growth and development.

Mannerism: An ordinary gesture or expression that becomes abnormal through exaggeration or repetition.

Mental handicap: A syndrome comprising impaired intelligence and learning difficulties. By itself this term does not indicate the cause of these problems, and different subgroups of mental handicap, caused by different factors, exist.

Modeling: See Imitation.

Moebius’ syndrome: A congenial anomaly syndrome characterized by abnormalities in the nerve-supply to eye muscles and groups of facial muscles. This results in paralysis of certain facial muscles.

Monozygotic twins: Twins that derive from only one fertilized egg. After a number of cell divisions new cells are split to form the two fetuses. They are genetically identical.

MRI scans: Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans. A relatively newly developed form of imaging. It entails the measurement of the particles emitted from the body after exposure to a large fluctuating magnetic force.

Motor: Relating to the ability to move oneself.

Motor planning: The ability to think through and carry out a physical task.

Multihandicapped: Having more than one handicap.

Neuroleptic: Medicine which produces symptoms resembling those of diseases of the nervous system.

Neologisms: Made-up words not belonging to any conventional vocabulary, but not meaningless.

Neurofibromatosis (von Recklinghausen’s disease): An inherited genetic disorder, which can take the form of producing coffee-like skin marks and abnormalities of the nerves.

Neurologist: A physician specializing in medical problems associated with the brain and spinal cord.

Neurotransmitter: The chemical substance between nerve cells in the brain which allows the transmission of an impulse from one nerve to another.

Noonan syndrome: A syndrome of multiple physical anomalies, including heart, chest, and facial abnormalities, accompanied by mental handicap.