Does your child have Special Educational Needs?
SEN, SEND, Special educational needs. This terminology is used to describe a relatively complex concept, and yet, rarely is this acknowledged.
So what are special educational needs (SEN)?
Contrary to some opinions, there is a legal definition.
A child or young person is regarded as having SEN if the child or young person requires provision which is additional to or different from that made generally for other children or young people of the same age.
The legal definition, is however rather complex, in that it requires you to know what provision is generally made available for other children or young people of the same age.
Historically, before 2014, the provision made available within a local authority was the benchmark. So, if a local authority decided to equip all students with an iPad, then a child that ‘needed’ an iPad in order to be successful in school would not have SEN.
Since the new Code of Practice came into effect in 2015, the benchmark is the whole country. So now, even if the Local Authority equips all children with an iPad, because that is not available generally, elsewhere in the country, if a child needs an iPad, that can be classed as a Special Educational Need.
The provision that is different from or similar to has to be required because without it the child or young person does not make progress at the same rate as children or young people of the same age.
The type of provision that may be included can be:
physical adjustments – for example, class sizes under 12 students, or a sound system to ensure a hearing impaired person can hear the teacher.
Additional support – having a scribe, extra lessons, small group or 1:1 tuition
Therapy – for example speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, counselling
A now-infamous illustration generated by Carl Froehle helps me to explain SEN.
In the first picture all the children have the same provision, however, the smallest child is unable to see the game, their equivalent at making progress at the same rate as other children.
In the 2nd illustration, the smallest child now has two boxes to stand on, and this is required in order for them to make progress (see the game) so they have Special Educational Needs.
There are some who would say the tallest child has special educational needs, in that they require no box at all. Unfortunately, the way the law works at present because this child can see over the fence, with the single box, despite not needing one, it is not classified as SEN.
That’s a blog for another day.
