---
title: Rehabilitation and Therapy Terminology
description: Use this glossary to explain common terms patients, families, and healthcare professionals may hear when discussing recovery, function, therapy services, and rehabilitation goals.
---
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# Rehabilitation and Therapy Terminology
## Rehabilitation helps people regain, maintain, or improve abilities needed for daily life. It may address movement, communication, swallowing, thinking, self-care, and participation.
### Services and professionals
- Rehabilitation: Care intended to improve or maintain function after illness, injury, disability, or treatment.
- Physical therapy: Treatment addressing movement, strength, mobility, balance, and physical function.
- Occupational therapy: Treatment supporting participation in self-care, daily activities, work, and other meaningful tasks.
- Speech-language therapy: Services addressing communication and, when appropriate, swallowing difficulties.
- Cognitive rehabilitation: Treatment supporting thinking skills such as attention, memory, planning, and problem-solving.
- Cardiac rehabilitation: A supervised program supporting recovery and health following certain heart conditions or treatments.
- Pulmonary rehabilitation: A program supporting function and symptom management for people with certain lung conditions.
- Physiatrist: A physician specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation.
### Function and movement
- Mobility: The ability to move or change position.
- Gait: A person’s pattern of walking.
- Range of motion: The available movement of a joint.
- Endurance: The ability to sustain activity over time.
- Balance: The ability to maintain a stable body position during rest or movement.
- Transfer: Moving between surfaces or positions, such as from a bed to a chair.
- Weight-bearing status: Instructions specifying how much body weight may be placed through an affected limb.
- Assistive device: Equipment used to support mobility, communication, or another activity.
### Treatment and progress
- Therapeutic exercise: Planned exercise used to address functional or physical treatment goals.
- Home exercise program: Exercises prescribed for practice outside therapy sessions.
- Functional goal: A defined activity or ability that treatment aims to improve or maintain.
- Caregiver training: Instruction to help another person support care or daily function safely.
Therapy terminology, professional roles, and rehabilitation plans may vary by location, specialty, and patient needs. The treating therapist can explain the applicable goals, precautions, and exercises.
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