SEN is Important. Why?

   Special educational needs is much more than it's label.

Back in the 80's I don't remember SEN being part of the classroom. Anyone with a disability was usually in a different school to us, or we didn't see them at all. Dyslexia was just starting to be recognised but that was about as far as it went. 

In my school I remember a couple of boys who had a lot of difficulty behaving in an appropriate manner. The teacher sat them together at the back of the room. Looking back, I now recognise their behaviour as a likely symptom of ADHD. I don't ever remember the teacher including them in the class, only sending them to the head teacher or to sit in the corner of the room. I was also subjected to corner sitting. I spent a lot of time (well, it probably wasn't but when it happens frequently, it seems like an eternity) in the corner of the room facing the wall. This was due to my inability to sit quietly, talking too much or because I didn't understand something. The 3 of us shared a lot in common, only the boys were sat at the back of the room and I wasn't. 

When we think about ourselves and the way in which we conducted ourselves at a young age, sometimes we realise that we had to mask our symptoms just to fit in. That was certainly true for me. Nobody had the sense to ask why. Why is she so talkative? Why can't she just sit still? Why doesn't she understand? Why can't she organise herself properly? Why does she keep forgetting things? Nobody took it upon themselves to look at the bigger picture. That didn't change for another 30 years at least, and there are still improvements to be made but at least now there is recognition for behaviours that don't seem to be "acceptable" in terms of what its considered the norm. 

We can define ourselves into 2 groups, "neurotypical" and "neurodivergent". These are phrases that evolved to exist in our society to define those of us with a spectrum condition and those who do not. Those who can exist in a society that is made for the beige brain can get on easily, but those with the multicolour brain have challenges in every day life. It's just not that simple. 

I will explain a little more about special needs and try to describe some conditions, so that those who are NT (neurotypical) can make sense of our colourful lives. SEN or Special Educational Needs, covers a spectrum of conditions which affect people in every day life at school. We can use this term when we attend school, but there are other terms adults might like to use. I won't refer to them in this entry, so we will talk to day using SEN as a blanket term even though we know it is differentiated. Herein lies the label.

At school, SEN means that someone may have:

• dyslexia, a learning challenge that affects not just reading and writing, but organisation, short term memory, comprehension and so on. 
• dyscalculia, the "dyslexia of maths" in simple terms. Similar to dyslexia, though the concepts of numbers are difficult and students may struggle with subjects like maths and physics. 
• dyspraxia, a condition commonly associated with coordination problems but it also covers areas of short term memory, the time it takes to learn information, organisational skills (timekeeping, for example), multitasking, among others. 
• other spectrum conditions such as autism, ADHD etc. These may overlap with other diagnoses, and when this happens, they are often known as "co-morbid". It just means you have more than one diagnosis of something that share similar symptoms. 

What's important is that our schools, colleges and universities open their minds to helping people to manage their symptoms. The brilliance of ND (neurodivergent) minds is that we are able to think way outside the box. We are the epitome of "square peg, round hole" but it's always left up to the NT's to go figure it out. Surely it would make more sense to design the system around ND's so that the NT's can just fit right in. 

One thing I've learnt as an educator is that my teaching methods, designed for the ND brain, can be applied across the board within the class setting and everybody benefits from it. Why? 2 reasons. Firstly, it means that everyone can adapt and flow with the class and nobody knows that my teaching methods are geared towards the ND brains. Secondly, and probably more surprisingly, there will always be someone who doesn't know why they're struggling, who doesn't have a diagnosis nor that their difficulty even has a name. So in effect, we can tailor our education system to work for everyone. These labels mean that we, as educators, can learn a great deal about the diversity of our minds, how we learn and the whole psychology behind educating the populace. 

Neurodivergent people are innovators. They are inventors, mathematicians, artists, architects, film directors, entrepreneurs. The world is full of incredible people who spent so many years being told they couldn't do something or that they will never be a <insert job here>. 

Being part of education shows that SEN is absolutely vital for the development and evolution of our education system. We have to learn from the brilliance of dyslexic minds, of the foundations of structure behind autistic minds, and the incredible ways to harness the energy and open-mindedness of ADHD. Those labels, as annoying as they are to some, are the signposts to our future. We can turn labels on their heads and revolutionise the education system so that it benefits everyone.