Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Downloadable PDF - Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Traditionally, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) is used as a broad term that includes children and adults that:

• have a learning difficulty or disability which makes it harder for them to learn than the majority of other pupils of the same age

• have behaviour difficulties or socialising difficulties, for example they struggle to make friends

• have reading and writing difficulties, for example because they have dyslexia 

• have difficulty understanding things 

• find it hard to concentrate, for example because they have ADHD

• require special educational provision to be made for them because they have a disability that prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools 

Information above adapted from BDA

However, a shift is taking place where SEND is now looked at in terms of SpLDs and Neurodivergence.

SpLDs (Specific Learning Differences, instead of difficulties) and neurodivergence (whereby a person may exhibit differences in social preferences, ways of learning, ways of communicating and/or ways of perceiving the environment). The focus is therefore shifted from a disability model to a difference model where adaptations need to be made to meet the needs of an individual rather than focusing on making the individual fit pre-existing norms and ways of learning. 

Neurodivergence also helps to promote the view that neurological differences are to be recognised and respected as any other human variation. It is used to counter negative social connotations that currently exist and to make it easier for people of all neurotypes to contribute to the world as they are, rather than attempting to think or appear more 'typically'. Neurodiversity encompasses all specific learning difficulties (SpLD), many of which co-occur or overlap. 

Whilst considering people in terms of difference and neurodivergence is important to framing needs more constructively and avoid stigmatizing others, it is also important to remember that the experience of many of these differences is challenging and, at times, emotionally and physically distressing. This is why inclusion needs to focus on adaptation of the environment to meet the needs of different people rather than 'force' them to manage an environment that does not suit them. When this is not possible, teaching students to understand their needs and advocate for them, as well as having coping strategies, is essential.