SEND - The Broad Areas of Need
Communication and Interaction (C&I)
Communication and Interaction includes all children who have difficulty in communicating with others, either because they have difficulty saying what they want, understanding what is being said to them, or they do not understand the social rules of communication. This includes children with speech, language and communication needs and children with an autistic spectrum condition.
Cognition and Learning (C&L)
Support for learning difficulties may be required when children and young people learn at a slower pace than their peers, even with appropriate differentiation. Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs.
Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH)
Children may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which manifest themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, concentration difficulties, fatigue, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive, or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self- harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained. Other reasons why children and young people may have social, emotional, and mental health needs include experience of trauma, adverse childhood experiences, attachment difficulties or disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder.
It should be recognised that behaviour is a form of communication that the child is trying to tell the adult something.
Sensory and/or Physical (S&P)
Some children and young people require special educational provision because they have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of the educational facilities generally provided. These difficulties can be age related and may fluctuate over time.
Many children and young people with vision impairment (VI), hearing impairment (HI) or a multi-sensory impairment (MSI) will require specialist support and/or equipment to access their learning, or habilitation support.