The whole document is horrific but this particular bit riles me especially:
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
Children and young people with SEND may need additional support in understanding or accepting their own identity, learning about those who are different to them, and understanding that difference is to be respected and celebrated.
Staff, parents, carers, and wider professionals may need support in understanding that a child or young person with SEND is just as likely to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or gender exploring as any other person. There is developing research showing that there is a higher prevalence of autistic people who are gender exploring or who have gender identity differences. There is likely to be a range of reasons for this.
The National Autistic Society includes articles on its website about this.
It is important that a child or young person’s words or actions are not automatically attributed to their SEND, for example, preferences for clothing types or hair length being seen as a sensory need, or behaviours described as a new special interest, fascination, curiosity or phase. Whilst this may be true in some instances, it is important to listen without judgement so that expressions of questioning gender identity are not dismissed.
Emotions related to gender identity are complex for anyone to understand and express, and this could be exacerbated in those with communication and interaction difficulties.
Some children and young people with SEND may not see the need to communicate and may not understand that others don’t already see them in the same way as they see themselves or know themselves to be. This could obviously lead to increased frustration and anxiety and impact negatively on well-being and mental health. Providing one-to-one support for the child or young person to explore issues in a non-judgmental, safe way with conversations that go at the child’s pace will be important.
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Differences in social understanding, empathy and communication may mean specific support is needed. Tools such as Mind Mapping, Comic Strip Conversations and Social Stories may be useful to support communication and understanding.
In addition, there may be potential increased vulnerabilities of a young person with SEND. Staff will need to give increased support as needed and teach children about safety including online.
Stonewall has resources to support SEND children and young people on their website.
Support is also available from the Brighton & Hove Inclusion Support Service (BHISS) and Allsorts Youth Project.
So basically use social stories and comic strip conversations, which I've used, to groom and gaslight vulnerable children.