About Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND)
SEND is a term to describe children and young people who need extra support in their school or setting, compared to others of the same age.
All children and young people may experience challenges with their learning at some point. These are mostly overcome with support from school and home. However, children with SEND are more likely to need extra or different help to be able to learn.
The different types of SEND
The SEND Code of Practice (PDF,3.3MB) sorts SEND into 4 areas of need.
These are:
- Communication and Interaction
- Cognition and Learning
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health
- Physical and/or Sensory
Birmingham City Council have produced a lovely video (available on YouTube) about what it is like to be a parent or carer of a child with SEND. The video explains this from a parent's point of view:
Related information
Supporting children and young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs