Types of SEND

Special Educational Needs (SEN) are generally grouped into the following four areas of need and support:

Communication and interaction

Children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) find it hard to communicate with others. They might have difficulty saying what they want to, understanding what is being said to them or they do not understand or use social rules of communication. The needs of each child with SLCN is different and can change over time. They might have difficulty with different aspects of speech, language or social communication at different times of their lives.

Autistic Children and young people with a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Asperger's Syndrome or Mild to Severe Autism, are likely to have difficulties with social interaction. They may also experience difficulties with language, communication and imagination, which can impact on how they relate to others.

Cognition and learning

Support for learning difficulties may be required when children and young people do not make expected progress over a period of time.

Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs, often grouped by moderate, severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties. Children with severe learning difficulties (SLD) are likely to need support in all areas of the curriculum and associated difficulties with mobility and communication. Profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) are severe and complex learning difficulties as well as a physical disability or sensory impairment.

Specific learning difficulties (SpLD), affect one or more specific aspects of learning. This encompasses a range of conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.

Social, emotional and mental health difficulties

Social and emotional difficulties can show themselves in many ways. It might include becoming withdrawn or isolated, or as displaying behaviour that challenges, disruptive, or disturbing behaviour.

These behaviours may be as a result of an additional need or related to an underlying mental health difficulty. For example anxiety, depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained. Children and young people may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) or attachment disorder may also need support with their social and emotional behaviour.

Sensory and/or physical needs

Special educational provision is needed when a disability which prevents a child or young person from making use of the ordinarily available educational facilities. These difficulties can be age related and may fluctuate over time. This includes vision impairment (VI), hearing impairment (HI) or a multi-sensory impairment (MSI) which requires specialist support and/or equipment to access their learning, or habilitation support. Children and young people with an MSI have a combination of vision and hearing difficulties.

If you are a young person with special education needs and disability (SEND), or the parent/ carer of a child or young person with SEND in Surrey, and would like to contribute your experience to creating resources about your SEND condition, please get in touch using the contact form.

Local support groups and activities listed by additional need

Our directory has listings of local groups who can support your family and who host activities for children and young people with additional needs. We have created a several shortlists below to help you with your search.

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