Category: O

A grade placement for which a child is of the right chronological age but too low a developmental age. Some experts in child development believe that over-placement is a major cause of failure at school, and as a result some parents have held their children back to have them be the oldest, and presumably, therefore,…

In individual testing, such as developmental screening tests, any of a child’s actions or interplay that are not directly related to the test items, including innocuous small talk and attempts to distract the examiner from continuing with a test item that seems difficult.  

A student whose academic performance is well above educators’ estimate of his or her potential, especially a student whose scores on standardized tests of ability are consistently lower than those on achievement tests. Outperforming expectations may result when a student has strong motivation to succeed and the ability to focus effort, sometimes with a specific…

A pair of small, oval-shaped sex glands (gonads) in a woman, which produce the key female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, as well as the eggs (ow; singular, ovum). The ovaries are on either side of the uterus in the lower abdomen, lying under the fallopian tubes. At birth, a baby girl’s ovaries each contain…

A physician who specializes in diagnosing and treating diseases and injuries of bones and joints and associated muscles, tendons, cartilage, and ligaments. Orthopedists set and put casts on fractures as needed; perform surgery, as to repair birth defects or remove tumors, including arthroscopic surgery; and may also replace joints, as in a knee, hip, or…

In education, a general term for a physical condition that adversely affects a child’s mobility and development of normal motor skills; also called physical handicap.  

A variety of mechanical aids and equipment developed to help people with orthopedic handicaps, especially in the areas of sitting, standing, walking, and using their hands, as well as maintaining balance and protecting the body from harm. These are basic necessities if the child is to develop other skills to the fullest.  

An operation to reshape or reposition the jaws, as to correct severe cases of malocclusion, in which the teeth do not meet evenly. Such surgery is normally performed by an oral surgeon in a hospital. A surgical intervention aimed at modifying the interconnections between the teeth and/or the supporting structures, commonly performed alongside orthodontic measures.…

Devices used by dentists to correct some types of malocclusion, in which teeth are not in proper positions.  

A child who has no parents and often no guardian. Such a child would once have routinely been placed in a large institutional orphanage but is now more likely to be placed in a group home and then with foster parents until arrangements can be made for the child’s adoption. Under immigration law, for purposes…