Special Education Terminology Every Physical Education Teacher Should Know

Overview & Synopsis

An initial step to demonstrate commitment and professional behaviors is to be knowledgeable in the terminology used by special education colleagues, and to share with them common terminology used in physical education settings. Adapted physical education (APE) and general physical education (GPE) teachers need to know terminology used by multidisciplinary individualized education program (IEP) teams so they can be active contributing team members, and thus better assist the student with a disability in their class. The purpose of this article is to review commonly used special education terminology that APE and GPE teachers may hear during their interactions with team members. In addition, this article includes suggestions for participating in the IEP meeting and collaborating with parents and other special education professionals. IEP meetings are the perfect setting to learn and share common terminology.