Is using the term 'special needs' offensive now?

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I've just witnessed a FB conversation in which a mother with children with special needs says that 'special needs' is offensive and it's now 'special educational needs'.

This is new to me, I've not heard of this.

How long has this been the case?

SN doesn't offend me. I use additional needs though IRL out of habit.

The ‘correct’ terminology has changed several times within the lifetime of my sister who has Downs. Frankly, my parents are struggling to keep up and have pretty much stuck with ‘special needs’. They, she and most of her peers of the same age (late 20s early 30s) don’t find it pejorative at all. Whatever term is used, as long as it is said with respect and positive intent then I find it hard to get my knickers in a twist. My granddad still says ‘handicapped’ but that pales into insignificance when compared to the compassion and love he has shown to the disabled community over the years.

Special needs and special educational needs mena seperate things. One refers only to children who have difficulties with learning, often referring to issues such as dyslexia and dyscalculia. The other refers to children with a wide range of "disabilities" which may or may not involve issues with learning.
Whether or not the term is offensive depends on how it is used and how the person hearing responds to it.

To be honest as the mother of children with both SEN and SN I would prefer people stopped trying to be politically correct and instead worked a bit harder on treating children as individuals and trying to meet their individual needs. I find inadequate help and treating children as if they are all the same (or if they have the label of X they are like every other person with X) - far more highly offensive.

I don't find that particularly offensive; what does annoy me is when people say someone is special needs, rather than has special needs.
As someone said upthread, one of the older terms was 'mentally handicapped'. My brother was older and was labelled as 'educationally sub-normal'. Thank God times have changed.

Why do all disabled people have to be labelled as 'they are special needs' as has already happened in this thread. Just say they have a condition and state what the condition is.

I understand why saying “they are special needs” is a problem but sometimes stating the exact nature won’t be appropriate or possible. For example a school saying that they have a coordinator (whether that’s called a SENCO or an INCO, as pp has mentioned) they can’t say “we have a coordinator for this list of disabilities”. So I guess what the OP is mainly talking about is the collective term for the services/support provided, are they special needs, or special educational needs.

Unutterable How refreshing to read your sensible post, especially the bit about the loving and kind granddad.

Not all people with Special Needs have special EDUCATIONAL needs though!

What if they're an adult? I say additional needs as it seems to cover more.

Additional needs probably makes more sense. At school many of my students have additional needs but not all of them to do with education. For some the additional need is as simple as having a medical pass to use the toilet urgently or needing rest breaks in exams. Yes these things affect them in school but they do not mean they need extra help in the classroom.
I have taught several children with physical disabilities that affect their mobility but not their academic ability so calling them all SEN doesn't really make sense.

All of these words which someone decides are offensive drive me potty! As regular as clockwork it is decided that a particular term which has been used for ages is wrong. An alternative is given and then that is considered demeaning. I have a daughter who Is SEN - I don't like it but have to accept it. If as much thought was given to helping people in need as to deciding what to name them next it would be a vast improvement.

I agree with bekabeech, instead of figuring out how not to upset me by terminology wasting resources changing terminlogy now it is deem offensive. Put the money towards support for these children so I don't spend literally years trying to access the help my child needs,

Baffling. My brother has special needs, and that's the language we use. Yes he has some education needs, but he also has communication and social needs - so for us anyway, special needs works.

Additional needs can also work.

My brother isn't special needs - he HAS special needs, language is important.

Agree with beka. We get more and more euphemistic till no one understands and mistakes a 'normalising' term for something it doesn't mean. Inclusion is not justabout disability or special need unless you count language issues, povert, sexual orientation, ethnicity......
Might as well go back to lunatic, mongol or spastic. Allmwords reflect attitude. People have a terrible attitude to anyone different but esp disabled ppl. That needs to change, government not helping

I'd love to know who it is who is offended by these terms.
People who understand that language defines a society and it's perception of people. Remember the term 'spastic' and how that became pejorative, 'mongoloid features', well the same thing has happened to special needs.
Your dismissive attitude does little to help those in need of additional help.

I have a child with different needs which aren't education, so special needs fits better, though additional needs is fine too. I agree with posters who say the intent makes a difference.

This reminds me of the bit in the fantastic "There she goes" where the dad of the daughter with special educational needs can't get the right term and his woke friend has to supply it for him.

I think the way some people use the term can be a bit dehumanizing by using the disability as the only defining feature - I don't know whether it is the thread you are talking about it but there was one I read recently that used phrases like "he's a special needs" rather than a person with special/additional needs.

I have also seen US sites that use terms such as "retarded" which would be deemed offensive in the UK

educational, sorry

I have twin toddlers, one has ASD and the other has ASD plus three other conditions.

I use additional needs generally, although SEN sometimes when relevant. I don’t think special needs is especially offensive but it can be at times depending on context.

Words and phrases become offensive because people use them in an offensive way.
Some people use the term "he/she is a bit special needs" as a way of insulting people (people without additonal needs).
I think that's why what is acceptable has to change with time, because people insist on using the acceptable phrase in an insulting manner.

I have no idea what terms to use these days.

SEN is fine within a school, but doesn’t adequately describe the whole child, as life is more than education. And some special needs children’s needs are not educational. And many special needs persons are not children!

Additional needs doesn’t quite fit with my DD, either: she has ASD and OCD and her needs are different rather than additional.

As for offensiveness, we’ll as has been mentioned above, surely the intention of the person using the terminology is key here. The well intentioned person inadvertently using an outdated term is not in the same league as the person using the same term to insult or cause deliberate offence.

Sorry it's not entirely related but it's funny, in Denmark there was a recent TV series called "Denmark's hottest spazz (spastic)" and it was created by a woman with cerebral palsy, and then when the live show came on they had changed the title to "Denmark's hottest: with a handicap" and essentially censoring this woman and the contestants (who were all supportive of the original title) because of a fear that they might offend people who have a disability.
I think we should give the power to the people, so whichever term they want to use to describe themselves, let them.

I think it's not a great thing to censor words and your own speech and when it's something as harmless as "special needs", and where does it all end?

To answer your question OP, I don't know if it's seen as offensive by some, but should it be considered offensive?

I'm in Scotland and professionally and personally have always used Additional Support Needs. This comes from the Additional Suport for Learning Act (2009) which specifically includes the concept of support being needed for any reason.
So, I don't like SN or SEN. My boy has lots of additional support needs, but they're not all, or even mostly, educational.

As a parent of two children with SN/SEN/AN/disabilities/whatever you call it, I frankly can't get that hung up on it. I do try to be alert for whatever term is being used by people when I'm speaking to them and mirror that term (as long as it's appropriate, obviously).

I've had people correct me using various terms, including telling me that if my children have autism, they're not technically disabled. I've seen the impact it has on their daily life, and it's massive. I feel that qualifies as disabled. That's without adding in their hypermobility, etc.

I don't correct others on what terms they use unless they are saying words like "retarded" or "special" (in that drawn out, rude way that's meant to be offensive).

My younger dc's former school took ages pointing out why they switched over to the term inclusion coordinator as opposed to SENco, yet they couldn't be bothered to actually provide the support to allow inclusion to occur. I'd have rather seen less talk and fussing around with correct words/titles and more support being put in place to help my dc.

I thought it was the other way round, it used to be SEN and now it's SN.

It's been additional needs for a few years in my experience. I'm in Scotland. I think its the word special that grinds on people, it has a bit of a patronising connotation to some. I wouldn't worry though op. Language is always changing, at least your bothered enough to adapt.

We still say SEN in confusingly on literature etc Who makes these rules?