Blue word glossary

Please select the letter to skip to that section. 

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

A

• Abuse / abusive - Abuse is when someone hurts you or treats you badly. 
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is when a child or adult finds it hard to concentrate. They might also find it hard to keep still or be quiet. 
• Adolescent - Describes a young person between about 10 and 19 years old. There are many changes during this time as the young person moves from being a child to an adult.  These changes include physical changes e.g. puberty, emotional changes and changes in brain development. 
• Adrenaline - A substance that is released in the body of a person who is feeling a strong emotion (such as excitement, fear, or anger) and that causes the heart to beat faster and gives the person more energy. 
• Anxiety - Feeling worried, nervous or scared 
• Appointment - An agreement to meet someone: on an arranged day, at an arranged time, in an arranged place 
• Assess, assessed or assessment - An assessment is collecting information to help understand what is happening and why. 
• Autism/Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)/ Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC)/ Asperger’s Syndrome/autistic - If a person is autistic, it means their brain works differently. People may have differences in how they interact with and understand other people, how they think about activities and interests and may have sensory differences. 
• Average - A standard, level or age that is thought to be typical 

B

• Behaviour’s that challenge challenging behaviour - A person’s behaviour can be described as challenging if it puts them, or the people around them, at risk or leads to a poorer quality of life. Behaviours that challenge could include aggression towards others, self-harm, destructiveness, disruptiveness. 
• Body language - Body language is a way of communicating without using words. The different types of body language include body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. 
• Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) - Refers to people in the United Kingdom who do not consider themselves to be white. People who come from other countries or cultures who may live in a different way or have a different skin colour. 
• Bully / Bullying - Bullying is when someone tries to hurt someone else, on purpose, usually more than once.  Bullying can be physical hurting someone or teasing them for calling them names   

C

• Camouflaging / Masking - When we ‘camouflage’ or ‘mask’ it means we are hiding or disguising parts of ourselves to fit in with other people. Examples include forcing or faking eye contact or smiles during a conversation. 
• Care Act 2014 - The Care Act is a law about care and support for adults in England. 
• Carer’s assessment - An assessment for a person if they care for another person. This is to find out what the Carer’s needs are and what support they need. 
• Carer’s assessment - An assessment for a person if they care for another person. This is to find out what the Carer’s needs are and what support they need. 
• Challenging - Difficult or demanding 
• Challenging behaviour or behaviours that challenge - A person’s behaviour can be described as challenging if it puts them, or the people around them, at risk or leads to a poorer quality of life. Behaviours that challenge could include aggression towards others, self-harm, destructiveness, disruptiveness. 
• Children Act 2004 - A law created to make the country a safer place for children. 
• “Chit chat” / small talk - Informal conversation, often with someone you do not know very well, about general topics such as the weather or something in the news 
• Clinic / clinics - A place where you go to meet professionals face to face  
• Cognitive ability - This describes the things someone is good at and the things they find more difficult. 
• Communicate / communication - Communication is the way we give people information and get information from them. It includes speaking, writing and other ways of communicating such as non-verbal communication 
• Consent - Consent means you agree to something.  
• Coronavirus restrictions - Changes that have to be made to reduce the risks from coronavirus/covid 19  

D

• Data - Factual information 
• Denial - Saying or believing that you have not done or experienced something that you actually have 
• Depression - Feeling full of self-doubt and sadness. 
• Diagnose / diagnosis / diagnosed - A diagnosis is when a professional looks at all the information about you and decides if you have autism or not. 
• Distractibility - Finding it difficult to focus or concentrate  
• Domestic abuse / domestic violence - Domestic abuse / domestic violence is any behaviour that causes harm to someone. It is carried out by a partner, ex-partner or family member. It can happen to anyone. 

E

• Eating disorder - An eating disorder is a mental health condition where a person uses the control of food to cope with feelings and other situations.  Eating disorders can include anorexia nervosa and bulimia. 
• Emotions - Emotions can be described as how we feel at a certain time.  Emotions can change quickly, you cannot see them, and people experience them differently.  Emotions include happy, sad, angry, excited, confused and may more. 
• Emotional support - Offering care and understanding to another person at a time when they need this. 
• Emotional Wellbeing Hub (EWH) - This is for people under the age of 25 years old. A person, their GP, family member, or other health professional can call EWH ask for help.  This could be for an autism assessment or support with mental health. 
• Empathy - Being able to understand another person’s thoughts and feelings 
• Enabling - Helping someone to do something they could not have done on their own 
• Energy accounting / social energy / social battery - A way of thinking about energy levels and how every day activities and interactions with others effect our energy 
• Evidence - Information or facts we know from research  
• Experience / experiencing - Something that has happened to you or is happening to you 
• Expectations - A strong thought or feeling that someone will behave in a certain way and do a certain thing  

F

• Face to face appointment - An appointment when you meet someone in person  
• Flexibility of thought - To be able to be flexible in thinking is to be able to think about something in a different way  

G

• Gender identity - How you feel about yourself.  Do you think of yourself as male (a boy) or female (a girl)? If you were born as a boy and feel like a boy or born as a girl and feel like girl this is called cis gender. If you were born as a girl but feel like a boy or born as a boy and feel like a girl this is called transgender. 
• Gender orientation/sexual orientation - This describes who you are attracted to; boys, girls or both. 
• Gender diverse - This means a wide range of different gender identities and gender/sexual orientations.  
• GP - General practitioner – your doctor 

H

• Harrassment - When someone hurts you or does bad things to you. 
• Imagination - Imagination is when we use our mind to think of new ideas. 

I

• Informative - Useful or interesting information  
• Insightful - showing a clear understanding of something   
• Intelligence - How able we are to learn and use new and skills 
• Intensity - How strong our passion or interest is in something  
• Interactive - Interactive is being able to talk as a group 
• Interoceptive/Interoception - How we understand information that is sent by our body for example how we know we are feeling hungry or our heart is beating fast 
• Intuition - Quickly understanding something without needing to think about it 
• Isolation - a lack of friends or social relationships causing you to feel lonely 

J

• Jargon - Words or phrases to do with a particular subject or profession.  These are usually used with people familiar with the subject and can be difficult for others to understand  

L

• Learning disability - When it is more difficult for someone to learning new skills and use them in everyday life. 
• Literature - Literature is things that have been written. 

M

• Masking / Camouflaging - When we ‘camouflage’ or ‘mask’ it means we are hiding or disguising parts of ourselves to fit in with other people. Examples include forcing or faking eye contact or smiles during a conversation. 
• Masturbation - Masturbation is touching or rubbing any private part of your body because it feels nice. A girl or woman might touch around her vagina or breasts and a boy or man may touch or rub their penis and testicles. It is normal to masturbate but this must be done in a private area. People who masturbate might feel very excited and orgasm; this is where your body produces fluids from your genitals and it is called ejaculation. 
• Menopause - The time in a woman’s life typically between the ages of 45 and 50 when periods stop 
• Mental Health - This includes our emotional, mental, and social well being  
• Mindfulness - Focussing on what’s going on around you in the present time 
• Meditation - Focussing your mind and learning how to  feel calm 
• Motivate - Giving someone encouragement or a reason for doing something 
• Misdiagnose / misdiagnosis - When someone is given the wrong diagnosis  
• Multi-disciplinary team - This is a team made up of lots of different people with different roles. In our team, there are different professionals. That just means different people with different skills. Everyone in our team knows a lot about autism. 

N

• Naturally - Without anything added or changed 
• Neurodevelopmental - Neurodevelopmental is to do with the way a person’s brain develops.
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders (NDD) pathway - The neurodevelopmental pathway is about how people, who’s brains may have developed differently, access the services that they need. 
• Neurodivergent - When your brain works differently to other people your age  
• Neurotypical - When your brain works in a way that is it similar to most other people your age 
• NICE guidelines - An organisation that looks at what works in health and social care. They write guidance about how services should work.   
• Non-verbal communication - Different ways of communicating that don’t include the actual words said.  These can include facial expression, gesture, eye contact, touch, the way we say our words , space and touch 

O

• Objective - An opinion based on observation, data or fact 
• Observations - Something you see, hear or notice 
• OCD / Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - A mental health condition where a person has unwelcome thoughts or worries and completes repetitive activities to try and reduce the anxiety caused by these thoughts. 
• Over–sensitive - When someone feels something strongly  
• Overwhelmed/overwhelming - A strong emotion that you do not know how to manage 

P

• Peers - Someone like you in age and status for example someone else in your year at school. 
• Periods - A period is when blood comes out of a girl’s or woman’s vagina, this usually happens once a month and will last for a few days. A girl will start getting a period between the age of 9 and 16 and it means that a girl is growing up into a woman. Women use sanitary products to protect their clothes from blood 
• Permission - Agreeing to something  
• Personality disorder - This is when someone feels, behaves or relates to other people differently from the average person.  There are different types of personality disorder.  
• Practical strategies - Things you can do 
• Prescribe - When a doctor writes down the medicine that you should have 
• Post-diagnosis - The time after someone has been told that they have autism. 
• Puberty - Boys and girls bodies change as they grow up into men and women. This happens on the outside and inside the body. Puberty starts from when a child is around 10 years old until they are 16 years old. 

Q

• Quality - The good standard of something 
• Questionnaires - A questionnaire is a form which asks you questions about you. Lots of people are asked to fill in these forms. To help us understand you better. 

R

• Reasonable adjustment - Changes that are made for fairer access to people with disabilities. Examples could include changes to the environment or extra support so that remove or reduce.
• Referral / referrals / referral form / referred - This is the information that is sent to us to ask us to assess you for autism. 
• Report - This is when a professional writes about the assessment.  It will say if you do or do not have autism. 
• Reproduced - Copied 
• Research - Studies looking for new information.  Research helps people know more and develop their understanding  
• Researchers - Someone who completes research  

S

• Sanitary products - Products such as sanitary pads or tampons which soak up the blood that comes out of a girl’s or woman’s vagina when she has her period. 
• Self-aware - The ability to understand your own actions, thoughts and emotions
• Self-esteem - How someone thinks about and values themselves  
• Self-guided course - learning by yourself   
• Sensitivity - How someone reacts to an event or sensory experience 
• Sensory information - Information that we get from our senses like things we see, hear, touch, taste and smell.  Also how we understand information from inside our bodies like the feeling of being hungry  
• Sensory sensitivities - Every day sensory experiences may be intense and feel uncomfortable or painful  
• Sensory overload - When you get more sensory information than your brain can cope with at one time 
• Sexual contact - Any contact with the breasts, bottom, groin or genitals (vagina, penis or testicles) 
• Signpost / signposting - This is when we tell you about other services that may be able to help you. 
• Small talk / “chit chat” - Polite conversation about topics that are not very important and are unlikely to cause any disagreement. 
• Social communication - How and why we communicate with other people 
• Sociable - A friendly person who likes the company of other people 
• Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) - A national charity working to improve the lived experience of people using social care. 
• Social exhaustion / exhausting - Feeling tired, exhausted, or run down after spending time with others 
• Social interaction - Interaction that happens with two or more people.  
• Social rules - Unwritten rules about how to behave or interact when with other people.  Social rules can be difficult for some people to understand 
• Soft truths or white lies - An opinion based on both fact and opinion and is changed to fir social rules and as a kindness, thinking about another person’s feelings 
• Stress / stressed - How someone reacts when they feel threatened or under pressure 
• Subjective - An opinion based on beliefs, thoughts and feelings 
• Support worker - Someone who supports someone else in their everyday activities.   

T

• Treatment - This means something that happens to help improve the problem/s.  This could be things like medication, talking or developing strategies. 

U

• Under sensitive - When someone does not feel or notice things as easily as other people  
• Undermining - To weaken or damage someone’s authority, power or status.  This could include making fun of someone, refusing to co-operate with someone or trying to make their job more difficult. 

V

• Video Call - This is a way to see and meet with other people over the internet. There are different names for this like Teams / Microsoft Teams 

W

• Waiting list - We assess lots of people for autism. While you are waiting to meet with us your name will be on a list. When you reach the top of the list it is your turn to be seen. 
• Webinar - When a group of people come together and talk about different subjects and learn together over the internet 
• White lies or soft truths - An opinion based on both fact and opinion and is changed to fit social rules and as a kindness, thinking about another person’s feelings