As part of the EPSEN Review, it is recommended that the name of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) be examined to see whether it would be more appropriate to use “additional needs” rather than “special needs”.

The language, words and terminology we use to talk about the support needs of children and young people is of great importance. The views of respondents to the EPSEN Review have highlighted the following.

Almost all stakeholder groups chose ‘additional educational needs’ as their preferred option over ‘special educational needs’ as given in the EPSEN Review. Students were less likely to choose this option, not because they preferred another term but because most said ‘it doesn’t make much difference to me’. Very few other stakeholder groups chose one of the options ‘Learning disability’, but twenty per cent of students chose it.

It was suggested that the term “additional” should be considered instead of the term “special”, as this emerged as the preferred term.

Here in Gaeloideachas, we plan to reflect on and review the terminology and language we use based on these suggestions.