Special Educational Needs (SEN) is a term you hear mentioned frequently, but most people don’t fully understand what it means. This blog aims to eliminate some confusion and clarify precisely what a ‘Special Educational Need’ is.

Why choose the term ‘SEN’ for this blog?

‘SEN’ is the most commonly used phrase in education circles and one that most people recognise. For this reason, I will use it in this blog when discussing students who require additional support in school.

Why are there so many terms used to describe ‘special needs’?

Many feel that the phrase ‘SEN’ is somewhat outdated and has unfortunate negative connotations. The stigma around the SEN ‘label’ is often why students go without the support they need. Parents, too, don’t want this negative label hanging over their child’s heads. 

As a response to this, the term ‘special needs’ has been modified over the years to include more positive language. So you may hear phrases such as ‘additional support needs’, ‘additional educational needs’, ‘learning support needs’, and ‘additional challenges’ being used instead of ‘SEN’.

A student is identified as having a special need if they:

• Are having significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age
  Or
• Have a barrier or challenge which prevents or hinders them from making the same progress as students of a similar age. This progress could be academic, personal or social development, or all three.

How is this special need revealed?

A student with a special need shows a gap between where they should be in their learning and/or social development and their actual attainment. This is called the ‘Attainment Gap’. Usually, a student will complete an assessment to identify their cognitive abilities. If the student performs better in this assessment than in their school studies, this indicates there is indeed an attainment gap to be closed.

What areas does SEN relate to?

SEN can cover a broad spectrum of difficulties and challenges. A student may have wide-ranging or specific problems, e.g., a child might have difficulty with one area of learning, such as letters or numbers, or they might have a broader issue due to a problem with language acquisition. In some cases, a student’s difficulty may not be with their academics but with relating to other children or adults. Whatever the specific challenges, the result is that the student is not making progress.

By ‘not making progress’, we mean the student:

• Is at a significantly slower rate than their peers starting from the same academic baseline. 
• Fails to match or better their previous academic progress
• Is not managing to narrow their attainment gap

Points to Remember about SEN

The term ‘SEN’ is often used when a child is not doing as well in school as expected. A student’s progress should be measured by how well they are moving forward in their learning, compared to their peers. Any lack of progress should not be based on simple observations but on robust assessments by teachers that give evidence of the student not keeping pace with age-expected progress.

Advice for parents who are concerned that their child might come under the banner of SEN

Ask yourself or the school the following questions:

• Is my child’s progress lagging behind their peers? Where are they positioned in terms of their class?
• Are there any skill areas or specific subjects where my child is not making progress?
• Are there any common behaviours that the school is regularly flagging?
• Do I see similar behaviours at home?

If you answer yes to any of the above, your child MAY have a barrier to their learning, i.e. a Special Educational Need (SEN). If this is the case:

• Please seek professional help from your child’s school. They should put you in touch with a specialist, such as an SEN teacher or manager or an educational psychologist who can further investigate what your child requires to succeed in school.
• Early identification is always advisable. The earlier a need is identified, the quicker the attainment gap can be closed.