ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns children who in the United States of America would be considered to experience ‘moderate to severe cognitive impairment’ and who in England would be said to have ‘severe learning difficulties’. To take another example, in Canada, Australia and Malta, the term ‘moderate to severe intellectual disability’ is used. Terminology as reflected in the names of organisations is changing in some countries, for example the former American Association of Mental Retardation is now the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (www.aaidd.org). I mainly use the term ‘moderate to severe cognitive impairment’ and where comments or research applies specifically to only moderate cognitive impairment or only to severe cognitive impairment, this is made clear.
