No more ‘SEN’!

[LookAroundYou]

Please can people stop using the term ‘SEN’. People are not SEN, they have Conditions or disabilities that mean they Have educational needs different to ‘the norm’. Also a blind person is going to have different needs to a dyslexic and lumping different support needs into one big Category is not helpful and just enforces Sigma against disability and neurological differences.
I am also fed up of seeing the The term being used as a euphemism for ‘Autism’. Is it really that difficult to just say the word; or neurodiverse (if talking about more then one condition).
I just wish people would stop talking about us (usually in a passive negatively tone) in language that is really dangerous for us.
Unless specifically talking about different needs in an education setting, please can we try and refrain from ‘SEN’ (the correct phase being SEND) and if we are talking about autism, to just say the word.

Kind regards
A very exasperated ‘SEN’ Neurodivergent MNer

Okay

It says SEN here -
www.gov.uk/children-with-special-educational-needs/special-educational-needs-support

Tbh I get more passed off with terminology being policed particularly when I'm talking about my own child people have different preferences it's hard to keep up .

a child can have SEN
I agree they are not SEn they are a child first.
I stopped using that (term and sn) when they left education.
but if someone wants to say their child has sen . thats up to them not anyone else.

My son has autism, severe learning difficulties, is non-verbal, and has a strange form of deafness that means he can hear some frequencies but not speech.

My son has SEN.

Let's just say, the latter is far easier to type when the exact nature of his disabilities does not have relevance

OP’s sleeping off the rant I take it.

I agree that the child should come before the SEN, but the correct term is SEN.

Your preference is not necessarily the preference of others. You don't speak for the entire community. I use SEN in a professional capacity but also to describe my son, who has SEN.

Feel better now OP, always get shit off your chest My kid has SEN. I usually say ASD. I don't like it when someone tells me what language to use, I have enough of that from men.

If I use neurodiverse or divergent I'd shorten them because I dislike typing the words and not everyone knows what ND means.

I’m no expert but referring to “a dyslexic” sort of undermines your point. If you want to lecture others on the language they use you better make sure you’re getting it right

Genuinely trying to understand this point, perhaps you can help. A poster yesterday took exception to her child being described as having SEN and said they had SN. As far as I am aware this was because they managed fine with the academic side of school. However, in schools SEN can describe children who are academically able but have other additional needs. Do lots of people disagree with this?

I’m fed up off seeing people with dyslexia described as ‘a dyslexic’, as if that were their sole defining characteristic, but what can you do, OP? People are SO thoughtless about the language they use

My son has SEN, he has multiple special needs including autism, dyspraxia and dyslexia. I’m happy with the term SEN.

@x2boys

Tbh I get more passed off with terminology being policed particularly when I'm talking about my own child people have different preferences it's hard to keep up .

Me too. 100% this. I'm so tired of being told how to describe my own child's needs & chastised by people for the language I choose for my own child.

I take your point, Op but tbh most parents of kids with disabilities are fighting bigger battles - trying to get their kid's assessed, fighting for EHCPs, fighting for DLA, struggling to find appropriate school settings etc. Honestly, I'm too exhausted to worry about it most of the time. I pick my battles and arguing over the semantics is not high on the priority list.

You can’t win, I help run a local fb group where we share events, groups etc. Different people get offended at use of Sen, send, disability, disabled, inclusive, autistic child v child with autism etc etc,

Conditions or disabilities that mean they Have educational needs different to ‘the norm is a bit bloody long to type each time.

@Titsflyingsouth

I take your point, Op but tbh most parents of kids with disabilities are fighting bigger battles - trying to get their kid's assessed, fighting for EHCPs, fighting for DLA, struggling to find appropriate school settings etc. Honestly, I'm too exhausted to worry about it most of the time. I pick my battles and arguing over the semantics is not high on the priority list.

Defiantly this, it’s hard enough fighting for support and managing child on a day to day basis, dealing with how people react to them in society, I personally have no energy to waste on getting offended on terminology

Blindness is not classed as SEN though - it’s a disability.

Like @JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue, my son has multiple learning disabilities and autism. I frankly haven’t time to list them all out every time I discuss it with someone, and take no issue with the term SEN. The E in SEN doesn’t refer purely to academic achievement - it’s education in the sense of cognitive processing, which all the conditions that fall under the SEN banner do share aspects of.

You use neurodivergent in your post - that too can refer to multiple different conditions so how is that any different?

And i don't really like neuro diverse when describing my own child as he has extremely complex needs and is very disabled by his autism and learning disabilities and I feel the term minimises his needs but I only speak for him

I was asked by another mum if my children "are SEN" because she wanted to recommend a LD cheerleading group that her daughter, outgoing and not shy with learning disabilities, likes.
She got very huffy when I said I didn't think there was a cat's chance in hell my DS who hates large groups and wouldn't do anything in public (and doesn't have learning disabilities) would ever go.

@DiscoBadgers you’re wrong. The legal definition is here from the children and families act…

“A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her”

Forgot the link I was going to post:
www.bristol.gov.uk/web/bristol-local-offer/what-are-special-educational-needs-sen-and-disability

Blindness is a sensory issue.

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross

I’m fed up off seeing people with dyslexia described as ‘a dyslexic’, as if that were their sole defining characteristic, but what can you do, OP? People are SO thoughtless about the language they use

I remember the same point coming up for autistic/ person with autistic with people making your point about the defining characteristic, the nas then did a survey about it amongst actually autistic people and it came back that more preferred autistic than person with autism, so while it may be your preference it’s not everyones

Sorry that should say autistic person/ person with autism