Special Educational Needs

Who is a student with special educational needs (SEN)

Pupils with SEN are those who find it harder than other peers to make progress in their education. This may be due to a specific learning difficulty, some kind of disability (such as hearing or visual impairment), emotional or social difficulties, or speech and language difficulties, etc. Some pupils may only be classified as SEN for a short time, others may remain so for the rest of their time in school. These pupils need some kind of support in education that should be mostly recommended by the school councelling facility.

What kinds of SEN can be found in school?

Special educational needs are individually conditioned and usually are linked to one or more of the following disadvantages:

• physical impairment
• visual impairment
• hearing impairment
• intellectual and mental disorders
• communication disorders
• autistic spectrum disorders
• developmental learning difficulties
• behavioral and social disorders

In these cases, the pupil may need some extra support in a range of areas such as:

• reading, writing, mathematival skills or understanding information;
• expressing themselves or understanding what others are saying;
• making friends or relating to adults;
• behavior in school;
• organising;
• sensory or physical needs which may affect their learning.