Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Alternate term for a learning style focusing on student discovery of rules and conclusions from given materials, with emphasis on independent problem-solving.  

A telephone number that can be called for information, counseling, or referrals, often staffed by trained counselors. Unlike hotlines, which are designed more for real emergency situations and are often staffed 24 hours a day, helplines generally have more limited hours, such as standard business hours. Many helplines do, however, have toll-free (800) numbers that…

A series of medical tests, normally performed by an audiologist, otologist, or otolaryngologist, designed to screen for possible hearing loss, to assess the amount of hearing loss, and to identify the location of the problem causing the loss. Hearing tests are procedures performed to evaluate a person’s hearing capabilities. For newborns and infants, otoacoustic emission…

A federally funded, locally operated program that provides pre-kindergarten educational opportunities, as well as health, social, psychological, and nutritional services, for disadvantaged three- to five-year-old’s from low-income families, including many handicapped children, who are given special individualized help. Started in 1965, it is presently run by the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), surviving…

Clear differences in the way a child’s central nervous system functions and responds, compared to that of the average child. Neurologists sometimes use the term when referring to inappropriate responses or the absence of appropriate responses in a child with learning disabilities or other developmental disorders. Less clear-cut observations are called soft signs, the term…

A general term for a physical, hands-on approach to learning, one of the main modalities for receiving and processing information.  

The tendency of a person to rely more heavily on and to be more easy and proficient at using one hand than the other; also called chirality. The preference for one hand over the other is believed to reflect the dominance of one side of the brain over the other, but why this occurs is…