Is using the term 'special needs' offensive now?

[STOPSCRATCHINGTHECRADLECAP]

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?

Everyone is offended by everything these days.

Convey

sinkgirl I have had that issue before, it’s great that some adults with autism don’t class themselves as being disabled but it is exceptionally offensive when they start trying to play down the impact that it has on many others.

I think in a way the very vocal autistic community have done a lot of harm to the wider community because we are increasingly getting to a point where wider society has a “well x can do this” and expectation that means everyone with autism can. Personally I am not sure the new thing of celebrities being open about their autism is acrually helping the wider autistic community much.

Unfortunatly it has become a bit of an insult now. I have heard people saying 'hes a bit special'

That insult has been around since I was at school in the late 90s.

I agree with others though, it is the attitude which needs a shift otherwise we will continue in a cycle of inoffensive terms becoming used as insults and needing to be swapped for something else.

"Special needs" isn't necessarily an offensive term but it is really condescending. My child and brother aren't "special" also it usually comes with a head tilt and a "poor you" tone. I prefer the term "additional needs" or "additional support needs" it's just a bit more factual. "Special educational needs" is no better if you ask me and pertains only to people with a learning disability but there are many types of additional needs so I prefer to stick with that.

Quite agree Sirzy ,on a Facebook discussion someone was saying autism isn't a disability and everyone with autism is very clever ,my son is nearly nine and can't speak so for him it very is a disability.

I didn't realise special needs was an offensive term tbh.
Our DS has complex needs, severely autistic, adhd, lots of severe coordination problems etc and I normally say he has additional needs even though he is 'classed' as severely disabled.
Genuinely surprised at this.

"Learning disability" and "specific learning difficulties" are two different things. Learning disability relates to a persons IQ (anything under 70) whereas a person can have an average IQ or low IQ or even a very high IQ and still have specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia or dyscalculia.

My son has severe special needs and I don't find it offensive in the least

@sinkgirl an issue I've had with some people in the ASD community that can't see past their own child. I think people in general have a fixed view of what disability is. And I think there is a bit of an agenda in some parts of the ASD world.

My son has ASD but he functions well enough in the mainstream world to pass as just a bit 'quirky'. Contrary to you experience I've had people insist that because he has autism he will never live independently, get a job or have successful adult relationships, ie make him more ' disabled' than he actually is. He will be able to do all three. I've never used the word disabled to him because I don't think it would help him.

My usually supportive boss is outraged that he receives DLA, particularly the mobility component because as far she is concerned mobility is about physical mobility. She just sees a young man who cycles to school, not the fact that he is only allowed to cycle ina group for safety reasons or that when he did bikeability training I had to pay privately for him and that it took him three times as long as the usual course.
I've personally shifted to additional needs because we are an adoptive family and many of his needs stem from recovering from his past.

I think in the modern world the concept of disabilty is shifting. I wonder if those people would object to the use of the word disabled to describe your children if their disabilities were as a result of another condition? My son and I watch a lot of athletics - I look at some of the paralympians achieving things I could never do as a supposedly able bodied person, but they are still 'dis' abled in other aspects of their life wheras I am not.

If adults with ASD, or any other condition choose not to decribe themselves as disabled, then thats up to them, similarly parents with children with higher functioning ASD. But I don't understand how they could view individuals with the level of need your children have as not being disabled

Autism isn't a learning disability, some Autistic people also have a learning disability but not all. It is a neurological condition which can be disabling so I would classify myself as disabled with additional support needs but I sure ain't special.

as a person with a brother with special needs I call it just that.

Yes there is one or two words or phrases I hate being used, but not special needs as that is what he has.

Maybe SEN is more to do with kids in main-stream school who need a bit more help?

My 4year old has SEN and goes to a specialist school. I wouldn’t be offended if someone said he had special needs at all. I might think it odd if a professional wasnt up to speed on the current parlance but not a friend or a family member.

I think special and special needs almost became mocking and pejorative in a playground way. Like spastic and retarded did in the 80s.

Very true Ted, absolutely agree. One of my boys has a disorder of visual development (his optic nerves aren’t fully developed) and that’s automatically considered a disability / sight impairment but so far (touch wood) it hasn’t really stopped him from doing much of anything and we can’t really be sure how much he’s affected until he can participate in an eye test.

If they couldn’t talk or understand words due to a physical impairment then there’d be no question of them being considered disabled.

It’s fantastic that there are so many adults with ASD living brilliant lives with few issues, but it seems very unlikely that this is on the cards for my brilliant boys. I respect everyone’s rights to use the terms they feel suit them, I just wish they didn’t try to define me or my children.

I have a son with SN and I often hear people saying their similar children that they have SEN .. I have noticed when I say SN people wince but I don't get it ... yes he has SEN but he also has SN .. weird world 🤷‍♀️

I had to go and visit a local college to investigate an assault on a classroom assistant who worked with students with what I (essentially a layman- I do not work in education or healthcare) would term to be SE Needs. I had to meet with a number of college staff, including the woman who ran the scheme.

As I said I have zero experience in this area but tried very hard to be sensitive- I drew upon my MN-reading so used the term "pupils with Special Educational Needs" (i.e., putting the person first, challenge second) but she sneered at me, cut me off mid-sentence and said "It's actually term I've never heard of before or since students". She was incredibly rude and abrasive throughout the interview, and seemed to take great offence at a term I'd seen used on here countless times by people with personal experience. Not everyone gets the memo when someone decides that a term is on its way out, and people generally do not mean to cause offence or be insensitive.

The term you should be using is 'a child with additional needs.'

Also if you did use the words 'Special needs' saying a child HAS special (additional)needs is different to saying he or she IS special needs. Ditto a child HAS dyslexia rather than IS dyslexic.

I've been put of education for a while now but am bit gobsmacked

SENCO is a job!

www.theschoolrun.com/how-a-senco-could-help-your-child

SN includes physical disabilities and is usually, in schools anyway, SEND.

If you can't recognise a need and label it how can you offer support? It's different from say the child IS SEN

I think I give in... anonymity and no direct eye contact... pull lid on over self!

The bit in bold was agreeing with someone else but I forget who I was quoting now.

I tend to say Disability/Disabled or additional needs which covers a lot of conditions and problems we don't use the term SN in Scotland in Schools etc , but if somebody is upsetby a term like SN I guess wecould apologise and not tut about the world gone mad.

I have been hearing/reading differentlyabled as in we are all differently abled I would be insulted if somebody tried to relate to me like that,

As an adult who uses a wheelchair I dislike the term special needs but
I’m not going to be insulted if you use it.

I just think it’s a bit woolly and doesn’t convey what that person needs and how much impact that has (e.g. is it would like to have X adaptation because it’ll make life so much easier in their circumstances or is it has to have Y adaptation because it’s the only way they can access whatever?)
I’d much rather impairment (not necessarily diagnosis) specific language such as disabled person, wheelchair user, physically disabled was used. I think it makes more sense.

And for the love of god, refer to me by name not “the wheelchair”

My 3 year old has several diagnosises. Her Nursery describe her as Complex Needs as her needs are both education/learning difficulties AND mobility issues.

I'm not offended by people saying she is SEN or SN though.

I think the umberella term of SEN doesn't really cut it a child with down syndrom is going to have diffrent needs to a child who has autisim and these kidsgrow up leave school go into the world imo SEN doesn't apply

@mrsjayy have you heard the term “diffabilities”? That’s the latest trendy term to pop up.