How to Get More Out of LocalScribe’s Reference Libraries

LocalScribe’s Reference Libraries give the app reusable context it can carry forward into drafting. The feature has two tabs, Terminology and Test Measures, and each one supports a different part of the writing process. Together, they help LocalScribe recognize your shorthand, use the right professional language, and handle assessments and other structured tools more cleanly in notes and reports. They also do not start empty. The Terminology side already includes built-in entries plus starter packs for multiple disciplines and therapy approaches, and the Test Measures side already includes 89 built-in measures that you can build on rather than recreate from scratch.

Terminology

The Terminology tab is for recurring language. A standard entry includes abbreviated term or terms, the full term, and an optional explanation or definition. This is useful for everyday shorthand, but it is also useful for the more specific language of a setting, service model, or specialty.

A basic entry might look like this:

Abbreviated term(s): FBA
Full term: Functional Behavioral Assessment
Optional explanation: School-based process used to identify the function of behavior and guide intervention planning.

Another simple example:

Abbreviated term(s): BIP
Full term: Behavior Intervention Plan
Optional explanation: Written intervention plan based on behavioral assessment findings and support needs.

Entries like these help when you type quickly in shorthand and want the final draft to come out in full professional language without having to restate the same meaning every time.

This can also be especially useful in a group practice that shares niche intervention language across clinicians. A practice may repeatedly use terms tied to a particular treatment model, internal shorthand for intervention moves, or common phrases that show up in notes and reports all day long. That might include things like RO-DBT, chain analysis, behavior shaping, exposure hierarchy, parts work, or other intervention-specific language the team uses constantly. In that kind of setting, the Terminology tab is not just for abbreviations. It is a way to make sure LocalScribe consistently understands the clinical language that is already part of the practice's day-to-day work.

To make this easier to start with, LocalScribe includes starter packs for a range of disciplines and approaches on the Terminology side. These are prebuilt sets of common terminology that give you a head start instead of making you build everything from scratch. There are starter packs for areas like music therapy, art therapy, dance/movement therapy, PT, OT, SLP, school psychology, neuropsychology, psychological testing, ABA, CBT, DBT, and ACT. In practice, that means many users will begin by importing what is already relevant, then adding the shorthand, intervention language, and practice-specific terminology their own setting uses every day.

This matters just as much for allied health and other specialties as it does for abbreviations. OT, PT, and SLP users can use the Terminology tab to carry forward the exact language of their discipline: functional participation, mobility and transfer language, AAC-related phrasing, sensory concepts, swallowing terms, service recommendation language, and the kinds of intervention names or shorthand that come up repeatedly in real documentation. The same applies in more specialized settings. A creative arts therapist may want the model to preserve modality-specific language. A school-based clinician may want the language of services, eligibility, accommodations, or classroom functioning to stay consistent with how that setting actually writes.

This tab also works well for the more specific language used in a field or setting. A school psychologist might add district-specific service terms, eligibility language, MTSS-related phrases, or wording tied to classroom functioning and intervention response. A psychologist doing formal assessment might add recurring interpretation language, report-section phrasing, and validity-related terms used across evaluations. A neuropsychologist might add terms related to effort, validity, index interpretation, cognitive profile descriptions, and recurring ways of describing patterns across domains. In all of those cases, the point is not just abbreviation expansion. It is giving LocalScribe better context for the professional language that should carry through the draft.

For example:

Abbreviated term(s): PLAAFP
Full term: Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance
Optional explanation: Summary section used in school documentation to describe current functioning, needs, and educational impact.

Or:

Abbreviated term(s): RTI
Full term: Response to Intervention
Optional explanation: Multi-tiered approach used to monitor response to supports and guide instructional decision-making.

Used this way, the Terminology tab supports both simple shorthand expansion and more consistent specialty language.

Test Measures

The Test Measures tab is for assessments and other structured tools that shape the writeup. These entries can include the name, shorthand, brief description, subtests or domains, scoring information, and optional custom notes. The shorthand field matters here. Users can enter the full name and the shorter version they actually type, and LocalScribe can recognize either one during drafting. That means you do not have to keep typing the full title every time if your normal workflow is to write the shorter form.

A lot is already in this library by default. The Test Measures side of LocalScribe ships with 89 built-in measures across multiple categories, so for many common instruments the best move is not to manually recreate them.

The library already includes public reference information like test names, subtests or domains, short descriptive context, and scoring types. That gives the model a clearer frame when score statements, interpretation language, and report content are being drafted, so it has better context for what kind of instrument it is working with and how that measure is typically organized. View all 89 built-in psychological tests.

The real value comes from reviewing what is already there, then adding the measures, forms, and internal tools that are specific to your setting, workflow, or specialty.

A custom example might look like this:

Name: Classroom Observation Form
Shorthand: classroom obs
Brief description: Structured classroom observation used to document attention, behavior, peer interaction, work completion, and instructional context.
Subtests/domains: On-task behavior, transitions, response to redirection, peer interaction, academic engagement
Scoring: N/A
Custom notes: Emphasize classroom functioning, response to prompts, and patterns that support discussion of educational impact.

That kind of entry helps LocalScribe handle a tool that may be central to your workflow even if it is not a classic published measure.

The same structure works for tools that are important in practice even if they are not classic standardized tests. Many documents are shaped by structured forms, logs, and internally used tools. Adding them here gives LocalScribe better context for how they function and what tends to matter in the writeup.

This is especially relevant in school psychology, testing-focused practice, and neuropsychology. Those workflows often rely on more than just published instruments. They also involve observation forms, rating scales used in a particular program, intake packets, structured interview formats, symptom trackers, effort or validity-related tools, and setting-specific forms that repeatedly shape how a report gets written. When those tools are defined clearly in the library, LocalScribe has a much better chance of organizing the writeup in a way that reflects how the clinician actually thinks about the case.

For example, a clinic-created tool might look like this:

Name: ADHD Intake Form
Shorthand: ADHD intake
Brief description: Structured intake form used to gather referral concerns, developmental history, school concerns, family observations, and prior supports.
Subtests/domains: Referral concerns, home functioning, school functioning, developmental history, prior intervention history
Scoring: N/A
Custom notes: Prioritize referral question, functional concerns across settings, and any history of previous supports or evaluations.

A progress-monitoring tool might look like this:

Name: Daily Report Card
Shorthand: DRC
Brief description: Structured school-home form used to track target behaviors across the day.
Subtests/domains: Task completion, rule-following, transitions, peer behavior, teacher comments
Scoring: Custom or N/A
Custom notes: Focus on frequency, consistency across days, and whether patterns suggest improvement, persistent difficulty, or context-specific problems.

A protocol example might look like this:

Name: Return-to-Play Protocol
Shorthand: RTP
Brief description: Staged progression used to monitor readiness for increasing physical activity after concussion or related injury.
Subtests/domains: Symptom status, exertion tolerance, stage progression, activity restrictions, clearance status
Scoring: N/A
Custom notes: Focus on symptom recurrence with exertion, current stage, and whether progression, pause, or regression is indicated.

A post-injury support example might look like this:

Name: Return-to-Learn
Shorthand: RTL
Brief description: Structured concussion support process for returning to school with symptom-based accommodations and gradual increase in academic demands.
Subtests/domains: Symptom monitoring, school supports, activity tolerance, workload adjustments, classroom accommodations, ongoing team review
Scoring: N/A
Custom notes: Focus on how symptoms affect school functioning, which accommodations are needed now, and whether tolerance for academic demands is improving. CDC recommends supports be based on symptoms and adjusted as recovery progresses.

These examples show the range of what can live in this tab. It can support formal assessments, district forms, clinic-created tools, observation forms, behavior logs, daily report cards, intake packets, rehab checklists, and other structured materials that repeatedly shape documentation. It can also support more procedural workflows by giving LocalScribe better context for how a tool is used. An ADHD evaluation process, a school psych assessment sequence, a concussion return-to-learn workflow, or a discharge planning process all become easier for LocalScribe to write about when the relevant tools are defined clearly in the library.

Why this helps in practice

The value is that you enter recurring context once, and LocalScribe can reuse it across many kinds of writing. That can improve evaluation reports, treatment plans, consultation notes, parent letters, referral summaries, school documentation, and other drafts that depend on consistent language and structured source material.

Terminology entries help LocalScribe understand how your setting talks. Test Measure entries help it understand the assessments, forms, and tools that shape what gets written. Including shorthand in either library also matters because it lets users write the way they normally write. If you usually type BASC instead of BASC-3, or classroom obs instead of Classroom Observation Form, LocalScribe can still connect that shorthand to the fuller reference entry and use it appropriately during drafting.

Closing

The Reference Libraries are simple to start using, but they become more useful as they reflect the real materials and language behind your documentation. The Terminology tab supports recurring wording, abbreviations, and specialty language. The Test Measures tab supports assessments, forms, and other structured tools, including the shorthand names users actually type. Used together, they give LocalScribe a stronger base for producing drafts that are more accurate, more consistent, and more usable from the start.