Glossary
Residential Advisor Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential residential advisor terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key residential advisor vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in residential advisor training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Bed check
- Overnight safety check.
- Behavior support plan
- A plan for managing behaviors.
- Curfew
- A required return time.
- De-escalation
- Calming tense situations.
- Direct support professional
- A worker supporting people with disabilities.
- Group home
- A residence for people needing support.
- House meeting
- A group meeting of residents.
- Incident report
- Documentation of events.
- Life skills
- Daily living skills.
- Mandated reporter
- Required to report abuse.
- MAR
- Medication administration record.
- Person-centered
- Focused on the individual’s goals.
- Respite
- Short-term relief care.
- Shift log
- A record of shift events.
- Transitional housing
- Temporary housing with services.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Residential Advisor practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Residential Advisor training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.