Glossary of terms: F

Facial recognition

NAS

Disturbances in gaze and patterns of facial interaction are prominent aspects of social dysfunction in autism; facial recognition is an aspect of visual data processing. It simply relates to the ability to recognise faces for what and who they are.

Facilitated communication

NAS

Approach to assist people with no speech or with dysfunctional speech to find alternative means of communication. The facilitator normally supports a client's hand, wrist or arm while that person uses a communicator to spell out words, phrases or sentences.

False belief

NAS

Theory of mind is defined as the ability to infer other people's mental states (their thoughts, desires, intentions, etc) and the ability to use this information to interpret what they say, make sense of their behaviour and predict what they will do next. The acid test of whether an individual is able to mind-read arises in situations involving false belief. 

False belief is simply believing something that is not true. A false belief test involves testing whether one person can understand whether another person has a false belief. This involves understanding that another's  knowledge and perceptions may be different from one's own.

Fragile X syndrome

A-Z reference book of syndromes

Learning disability due to a defect in a particular part of the X chromosome.

Functional analysis

Dictionary of mental handicap, M Lindsey

Careful observation of a previously defined behaviour in a previously defined environment to understand the relationship between the behaviour and the environment.

Related resources

• Education jargon (England and Wales)
  
• Education jargon (Scotland)
  

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