The world’s understanding of special educational needs is growing all the time so whether you are new to the concept of SEN or a seasoned veteran, there are always new words and terms to become familiar with.

With that in mind, we have launched our first SEN glossary to help parents and carers tackle those tricky acronyms and confusing terms so that they can be fully informed and support their child with confidence.

Accessibility – making learning materials, environments and resources usable and understandable by all, regardless of their individual needs, including those with SEN.

Accommodations – adjustments made to a learning environment, teaching methods or assessments to support students with SEN to reduce or remove any disadvantage caused by their SEN or disability.

ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurological condition characterised by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.

There are two types of ADHD presentation:

ADHD-Hyperactive presents as excessive movement, trouble sitting still, high energy levels and impulsivity.

ADHD-Inattentive presents as difficulties with organisation, forgetfulness and challenges with maintaining focus and following instructions.

Alexithymia – difficulties identifying and describing our own emotions.

Allistic – someone who is not autistic

ALN – Additional learning needs. A term used in Wales to describe someone who may require more support to learn than the majority of their peers. It’s called SEN (special educational needs) in England.

ALNCO – Additional Learning Needs Co-ordinator. The Welsh equivalent of a SENCO in England. A dedicated member of staff at a school who is there to support students with additional learning needs.

ALP – additional learning provision. This is the Welsh term that refers to the extra support provided to a pupil with additional learning needs to help them learn.

APD -Auditory processing disorder is a condition in which a person has difficulties understanding sounds, including spoken words.

ARFID – Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. A serious eating disorder, common amongst autistic people, characterised by an avoidance of certain foods, having a restricted food intake or both.

ASC – Autism Spectrum Condition. This term is being increasingly used by autistic individuals and their families in place of the medical term autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Many prefer this as it identifies autism as a difference rather than a disorder.

ASD – Autism Spectrum Disorder. This is the medical and diagnostic term used to describe the range of conditions that fall under the criteria for autism/ASC.

AuDHD – A popular, unofficial term used to describe someone who is autistic and has ADHD.

Autism – A neurodevelopmental condition that affects how people communicate, interact and process information.

Autistic – A term used to describe someone who has autism spectrum disorder/autism spectrum condition.

Autistic burnout – a chronic and prolonged state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion that can be experienced by autistic people.

Autistic inertia – refers to the difficulty autistic people experience in starting, stopping or moving between tasks.

Autistic joy – a feeling of intense happiness and excitement that autistic people experience.

Autistic traits – a term used to describe a wide range of characteristics related to behaviour, interaction and communication displayed by an autistic person.

Body doubling – a strategy employed by people with ADHD to improve their productivity, focus and motivation. A ‘body double’ is someone who sits with a person to help them finish a task they might otherwise find challenging.

CAHMS – Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, an NHS service that provides support and treatment for children and young people with mental health difficulties.

CP – Cerebral palsy, a group of lifelong conditions that affect coordination and movement.

DCD – Developmental Coordination Disorder (also known as dyspraxia) affects a person’s movement, perception, language and thought. They may have difficulties with everyday tasks like getting dressed, using cutlery, playing sport or writing.

Demands – can include everyday tasks like eating, dressing or sleeping, but also expectations like attending school or social events.

Demand avoidance – a persistent resistance to doing something that is requested or expected of you, which is common amongst autistic people.

Disability – a physical or mental impairment that has a “substantial” and “long-term” adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

Down’s Syndrome – a condition where you are born with an extra chromosome.

Dyscalculia – a learning difference that causes people to struggle with understanding numbers, arithmetic, patterns, money and telling the time.

Dysgraphia – a neurological coordination condition that affects a person’s ability to recognise and decipher written words.

Dyslexia – a learning difference that causes challenges with reading, writing and spelling primarily.

Dyspraxia – also known as DCD (Developmental Coordination Disorder) affects a person’s movement, perception, language and thought.

Dysregulation – the inability to respond to and manage your emotional state, resulting in intense emotional reactions. Also known as Emotional Dysregulation.

EBSA – Emotionally-based school avoidance. This happens when anxiety or other kinds of emotional distress prevent a child from attending school. It is more common amongst children with special educational needs who are not having their needs met at school.

Echolalia – the repetition of words, phrases, or sounds, often as a response to something heard.

EHC assessment – a process carried out by a local authority to assess a child’s education, health and care needs ahead of the issuing of an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP).

EHCP – Education Health Care Plan (also known as EHC plan) is a legal document for children/young people up to 25 years old with SEN and disabilities who need more support from their nursery/school/college than is available through SEN support.

Emotional Regulation – the process of managing your emotions and responses to them.

EOTAS – Education Other Than at School is a specialist education provision for a child provided and funded by their local authority outside of school.

Equality – for children/young people with SEND, this means ensuring they have the same rights, opportunities and access to services as everyone else.

Equality Act 2010 – a UK law that prohibits discrimination, harassment and victimisation based on nine protected characteristics, including disability.

Executive function – the cognitive process that organises thoughts and activities, prioritises tasks, manages time and makes decisions.

Fawning – a strategy used by autistic people where they abandon their own needs to ‘please and appease’ others in order to avoid conflict and to be liked.

Fine motor skills – the ability to make movements using the small muscles in our hands and wrists, such as holding a pen or using scissors.

Food chaining – a strategy used to help people with the eating disorder ARFID introduce new foods to their diet and increase food intake.

GAD – Generalised Anxiety Disorder is a mental health condition characterised by long-term excessive and persistent worry that is difficult to control.

GDD – Global Development Delay is a term used when a child is significantly delayed in meeting their developmental milestones at an expected age.

Gross motor skills – big movements that involve the whole body such as jumping, running and throwing.

HI – Hearing impaired, someone who has a degree of hearing loss from slight to profound.

Hyper-fixation – an intense and extreme focus on an activity, person or subject, usually experienced by autistic people and those with ADHD.

Hyperfocus – a state of intense and prolonged focus to the point where everything else is ignored.

Hyperlexia – advanced reading skills and abilities in children way beyond their age. Usually associated with autism.

Hypersensitivity – an intense over-sensitive response to sensory input such as touch, taste or sound.

Hyposensitivity – an under-sensitive and lower response to sensory input such as light, touch or sound.

Inclusion – including and accommodating people regardless of differences such as disability.

IDP – Individual Development Plan is a legal document in Wales that describes a child’s additional learning needs, the actions that must be taken to support the child in their education and the outcomes they would like to achieve.

Information processing – the way our brain deals with the information coming from the environment around us.

Interoception – the response to signals and sensations inside our bodies like needing the toilet, hunger or thirst. Interoceptive difficulties can also include confusing sensations, such as mistaking hunger for a stomach ache.

LA – Local authority, an official organisation responsible for governing a specific region of the country.

Mainstream school – one that is not specifically designed for a student with SEND.

Masking – a strategy used by autistic people, consciously or unconsciously, to appear non-autistic and to ‘blend in’ with those around them.

Meltdown – an intense, uncontrollable response from an autistic person’s nervous system to sensory or emotional overload. It may include crying, screaming, repetitive movements, throwing things, hitting or even self-harm.

Monotropism – a theory/processing style that describes people who focus strongly on a small number of things and miss things outside of their immediate attention. Common with autistic people and those with ADHD.

Needs assessment – a process carried out by a local authority to assess a child’s education, health and care needs ahead of the issuing of an Education Health Care Plan. Also known as an Education Health Care Needs Assessment.

Neurodivergent – describes someone whose brain experiences things differently from what is considered typical, such as someone with SEN.

Neurodiverse – a term generally used to describe a group of people whose brains experience things differently from what is considered typical, such as those with SEN.

Neurodiversity – the concept that everyone’s brain is unique and that brain differences are natural variations not impairments.

Neurodiversity paradigm – views neurological differences like autism as natural variations in the human brain, just like other forms of human diversity, rather than disorders.

Neurotype – describes the kind of brain someone has and the way it learns, communicates and develops.

Neurotypical – a way to describe someone whose brain processes information in a way that is seen to be standard, i.e. not autistic.

Non-verbal – describes someone who does not speak or can only say a few words. They may communicate through other means.

OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a mental health condition that causes a person to have uncontrollable obsessive thoughts and compulsive (often repetitive) behaviours.

OT – Occupational Therapist, works with an individual to improve their ability to do everyday tasks they have difficulties with.

Panic attacks – brief but very sudden and intense feelings of fear that cause physical symptoms like breathing fast, sweating or a racing heart.

PDA – Pathological Demand Avoidance/Persistent Drive for Autonomy is a behavioural profile that sits on the autism spectrum, but it is not clinically recognised in the UK. It is characterised by an overwhelming need to resist to avoid demands and some autistic people are described as having a ‘PDA profile’.

Proprioception – the body’s ability to sense its own movement, force and position. It’s important for balance and coordination. Also known as kinaesthesia.

Reasonable adjustment – a change or accommodation made for a child or young person that aims to reduce or remove a disadvantage caused by their SEN or disability to ensure they have equal access to educational opportunities.

RSD – Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, a condition linked to ADHD and autism that causes a person to experience severe emotional pain if they feel rejected or that they have failed.

SALT – Speech and Language Therapy.

Selective/situational mutism – an anxiety disorder that causes a person who can normally speak to not be able to speak in certain environments or with certain people.

SEN – Special educational needs, refers to a learning difference that requires special educational provision, such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, DCD, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and Tourette’s syndrome.

SENCO – Special Educational Needs Coordinator, a dedicated member of staff at a school who is there to support students with SEN.

SEND – Special educational needs and disabilities is a broader term that includes those with SEN and those with disabilities that impact their learning, such as physical, sensory and mental health conditions.

Sensory avoidance – the act of avoiding experiencing sensory input (such as touch, light or taste) as it is too overwhelming. Most sensory avoiders have hypersensitivity.

Sensory input – refers to the information your body receives from your senses, including sight, taste, touch, hearing, smell, vestibular (balance), proprioceptive (movement) and interoceptive (internal).

Sensory overload – occurs when our brains take in more sensory information than they can cope with processing, and it triggers intense physical or emotional reactions.

Sensory processing – the way our brains organise and interpret information received through our senses (as above) which determines how we interact with our environment.

Sensory seeking – the act of seeking out more sensory stimulation like touch or taste. Most sensory seekers have hyposensitivity.

Shutdown – an uncontrollable response to the extreme overload or stress experienced by an autistic person. Unlike a meltdown, it is not an explosive or physical response. It is a muted response – a ‘freeze’, instead of a ‘fight or flight’ reaction.

SPD – Sensory Processing Disorder/Difficulties is when the brain has difficulty processing sensory information leading to challenges dealing with sensory inputs like touch or taste.

Special educational provision – provision that is different or in addition to that usually available to pupils of the same age.

Special interests – activities or topics that an autistic person finds enjoyable, fascinating or compelling and spends time learning about, thinking about or doing.

Special school – a school designed to meet the specific special educational needs of its students.

Stimming – regular, repetitive self-stimulating behaviour, such as arm or hand flapping, rocking, spinning, jumping or repetitive use of an object like twirling a piece of hair or stroking a fabric. It could also be a repetitive sound.

Tics – quick, repetitive movements or sounds that your body makes involuntarily. Tics often begin with an unpleasant sensation or urge that builds up in your body.

Tourette’ syndrome – a neurological condition that causes a person to make involuntary sounds and movements known as tics.

Transitions – the process of moving from one state or environment to another. Many autistic people find transitions difficult.

VI – visually impaired, a reduced or total loss in the ability to see.

If you require support with your child’s or young person’s journey through education, you can contact our friendly team of education law specialists.