Types of SEN
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Anxiety and Emotionally Based School Avoidance
Anxiety is a feeling of stress, fear or panic which can affect a person’s life in both physical and psychological ways. All children will experience some anxiety, e.g. about trying new foods, separating from parents or moving schools but untreated anxiety in children can result in extreme forms of avoidance, panic attacks and self-harm.
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Anxiety in Autism
Anxiety is common in Autism, with 40-50 per cent of autistic people thought to have a severe level of anxiety on a regular basis. Anxiety is a feeling of unease, which may present as worry, restlessness, fast heartbeat or breathing, hot flushes, even panic attacks
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Attachment disorder
Attachment Disorder (AD) arises when an infant or child under the age of five suffers an early life trauma and then fails to form normal loving relationships with their primary carers.
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Attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD)
ADHD is a behavioural disorder characterised by inattentiveness, impulsivity and hyperactivity. It may occur without the hyperactive element and is then described as ADD.
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Auditory processing difficulties
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a condition in which the brain does not process sounds in the normal way. APD can affect people of all ages, but often starts in childhood.
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Autism
Autism, or Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), or Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) - is a lifelong condition affecting how people communicate and interact with others and how they relate to the world about them.
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Challenging behaviour
Challenging behaviour is conduct that is either a challenge for others to manage and/or puts the young person at risk.
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Dual or multiple exceptionality (DME)
Dual or Multiple Exceptionality (DME) occurs when a child experiences high learning potential alongside a special educational need because of a learning difficulty or disability.
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Dyscalculia
Dyscalculia is a specific learning difficulty affecting the normal acquisition of arithmetic skills. It usually co-occurs with other specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia or dyspraxia.
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Dysgraphia
Dysgraphia is a common name given to Developmental Co-ordination Difficulties affecting writing. Unlike dyspraxia which can affect either gross motor or fine motor skills, it affects fine motor skills.
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Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling. It is a Specific Learning Difficulty and there are recognised overlaps with other conditions.
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Dyspraxia
Is your child's room a nightmare? Are you always buying plasters? Do you have trouble deciphering what they’ve written? Your child may have a Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD) known as Development Co-ordination Difficulty (DCD), often referred to as dyspraxia.
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Eating disorders
For some children and young adults, it is not the lesson times that cause most anxiety at school, but the lunch. When your child has an eating disorder, learning comes second place to battling with food.
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Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder which affects the brain and is marked by the tendency to have recurrent seizures.
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Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is the umbrella term for a range of defects thought to be a direct result of the mother drinking alcohol while pregnant.
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Fragile X
Children with Fragile X may be developmentally delayed and experience learning and behavioural difficulties. Fragile X is the second most commonly occurring inherited condition after Down’s syndrome.
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Gender dysphoria
Gender dysphoria is a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. The prefix ‘trans’ is often applied to people who have acted on their gender dysphoria and have taken steps to live as a member of the opposite sex. Most such people prefer the prefix to be kept separate from the noun, eg “trans woman”.
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Genetic disorders
A look at genetic disorders: Down's syndrome, Angelman syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, Williams syndrome, Rett syndrome. Down’s syndrome is a chromosomal disorder. About 600 babies with the condition are born in the UK each year. Diagnosis is confirmed via a blood test called a chromosomal karyotype.
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Global Developmental Delay
Global developmental delay is a term used for a pre-school age child who has difficulty in two or more areas of development. It may be a cognitive, communication, physical or social/emotional delay. The child is making progress at a slower rate than their peers and their progress may be uncertain.
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Identifying and dealing with PDA
The signs of PDA, and strategies for dealing with it at home and at school.
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Learning difficulties
A child with a learning difficulty or a learning disability will struggle to acquire new information, they may need help with independence and understanding complex ideas. No two people with learning difficulties are the same.
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
A person with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) experiences obsessive recurrent thoughts or images which disturb them and make them anxious. To relieve these unpleasant feelings, they may feel obliged to carry out repetitive behaviours.
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Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
All children disagree with their parents or teachers from time to time, but ODD isn’t a temporary phase. It involves extreme long-lasting, aggressive and defiant behaviour, often to people in authority.
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Selective mutism
The term selective mutism describes the behaviour of children who are able to speak but remain silent with certain people or in certain settings. It is a form of social anxiety.
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Self-harm
Self-harm is when somebody intentionally damages or injures their body. It's usually a way of coping with or expressing overwhelming emotional distress. Self-harm is particularly prevalent among young people with SEN.
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Sensory Processing Difficulties
Sensory Processing Difficulties (SPD) happen when a person’s brain has trouble receiving and interpreting messages from their senses.
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Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs)
Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs) is a name given to a range of conditions including dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia and can be linked to other conditions such as speech and language disorders and ADHD.
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Speech and language difficulties (Sp&LD)
When a child is noticeably behind their peers in acquiring speech and/or language skills, communication is considered delayed. This is referred to as Speech and Language Difficulties (Sp&LD) or Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN).
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Tourette syndrome
Tourette syndrome (TS) usually starts in childhood, around the age of 7. Symptoms of Tourette syndrome are usually facial tics such as rapid blinking or twitches of the mouth, but TS may start with sounds such as throat clearing and sniffing, or even with multiple tics of movement and sounds.
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Visual Impairment (VI) and Hearing Impairment (HI)
Visual Impairment (VI) and Hearing Impairment (HI) in childhood include sight and hearing difficulties and sometimes a combination of both (known as multi-sensory impairments).