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

@Onionpatch

The special refers to the educational needs not the child. And the special means the needs are different to normal rather than better.

Omg don’t say the n word (normal) that’s a whole other can of worms people get offended by

I prefer to say child with SEND and never say SEND child as the child comes first. In the same way, I cringe when I read things like 'my ADHD/ASD child'. I have three kids who are neurodiverse and I am too. I am happy and comfortable using the SEND term as it describes that they have special educational needs (in addition of course to the fact that they have a lot of brilliant abilities such as amazing maths skills). I tend to say 'my child has autism' but also happy to say 'my child is autistic'. Each to their own.

@Morph22010 i was going my dictionary's definition of the word special cos i thought 'actually what does it mean?'

My child has a lot of issues not just one it's easier to type sen/send

Who decided that I cannot do this? You? What makes your opinion matter more than mine when discussing myself and my child

I think only on mumsnet is it rife. Generally in RL you rarely hear about kids with insert correct term here and they're in the minority.

@underneathleaf I agree with you there. Lots of people are not special needs academically - but in every sphere of their life, or in only a specific area of life which does not necessarily affect their education.

But then on the other hand, ‘Special Needs’ seems to have a negative connotation, almost like the term blames the individual for being different to the norm/education system, whereas SEN puts the onus back on the education system as having created the norm in which certain people don’t fit
🤷🏼‍♀️

Lots of people are not special needs academically
Did you do this on purpose?

Sorry I forgot to add the 😂. I just thought it was funny after all the posts commenting that kids aren’t SEN they have SEN

OR just say what the specific issue is rather than using an umbrella term which is pretty meaningless eg Down Syndrome, ADHD, FAS, Autism etc which will give people more insight into the child's condition.

I can't really understand the issue with using the term SEN.
Surely it's MEANT to be a catch all term for children with special educational needs, without going into the specifics of each diagnosis? I think it's a helpful "shortcut".

Everyone knows roughly what SEN means. Why confuse the general public with a whole dictionary of other terms? It may not be the ideal way of describing you child's needs, but it's understood.

It's just plain bad grammar to say that a child 'is SEN' rather than that they 'have SEN'.

But beyond that I can't get worked up about it. My DC has SEN. We don't yet know the cause, but the needs exist so it really is the easiest term to use. 'Additional needs' is also fine with me but takes longer to type.

I read this and my brain which may or may not be neurotypical went to adults being described as SEN

-especially when it's people complaining about their partners or parents and people comment with 'do they have SEN?' -usually when people are describing people with possible autistic traits (or people who are being absolute arseholes)

When people describe arseholes and then someone says 'are they Sen/ could they have Sen?' This can be damaging for someone with ASD etc for a whole host of reasons

This is what I interpreted from the original post -especially as the OP refers to using the term SEN in an educational setting

I think terms change so much that what once was offensive is now offensive, no one can keep up.

I will say though that I find the word 'crippling' to be very offensive.

I’m more familiar with the term “specific learning differences”.

My DD has SEN.

I find that term a lot easier to use than listing all her actual needs. There's no reason for the vast majority of people to know more details than the general term SEN. Her actual needs are private medical information and only those who need to know have more specific details about her health and requirements.

Autism is probably almost as broad as SEN by the way. It covers a massive range of behaviours and needs.

I always thought SEN was a valid term?
I’m autistic and have ADHD, I didn’t attend a SEN school and went on to study veterinary. SEN likely wouldn’t apply to me.
Am I disabled? Yes. Could I have benefited from more support? Yes. Likely around my self esteem and confidence.

Some children do have higher support needs than I did and they require special/extra help during education. Why is it not a valid term anymore?

Having educational needs is different to having behavioural issues even if the two often do co-exist. I find the distinction helpful especially when making adaptions to accommodate difference.

You can have SEN without being in eduction, it means that you would struggle if you were in mainstream eduction, not that you are in mainstream eduction.

i use severely disabled as dd has cp and is severely disabled.
I was once told of for using that as the poster felt her dd was more affected......!!!!!

@JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue

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

How did you find out your son had a strange form if deafness. DS had his hearing tested and they say he can hear but I'm starting to believe he can only hear certain things. No one believes me when I say I'm sure he can't hear our voices properly and that's what is stopping him from talking.

My child has Sen
He is neuro diverse
He is autistic

I'm fine with all. I tend to say autistic if I'm talking about him specifically. I use Sen if talking in a general term about people with additional needs. Although when talking with other autistic people I tend to say neuro diverse.

@Morph22010

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,

Autism is a part of a person not separate . So A is autistic rather than A has autism .

I generally refer to my daughter as disabled, she has autism, I posted on an autism group if it’s ok to refer to her as that and most people said it wasn’t, got really offended that I would refer to my autistic daughter as disabled and said they would never dream of saying that about themselves or their children and a lot of people seemed offended by the term, which I never knew so many people seen it as a negative thing and there is still a huge stigma around it. So you can’t win 🤷‍♀️

My son has autism. My daughter does not.

However both have SEN. My daughter no longer does and hers were not a disability. So SEND wasnt appropriate either.

My son is happy with SEN as he has several needs and doesn't always want to give a descriptor of what those needs are. So when it comes to my child, I will continue to use it.

Send is so helpful in regards to education.

So I'll say my ds has an EHCP to support his SEND.

I'm pretty sure if I said he has HSP (possibly silver syndrome) with fault on the BSCL2 gene and he's also autistic no one would have any idea of what that actually means in terms of the support he needs anymore than saying he has send!!!