Life online for children with SEND
How children with additional learning needs interact on social media
This report summarises the findings of the workshops and extensive consultation that we carried out with young people, parents, carers, and teachers to help us to create resources for children with SEND.
What’s on the page
What’s in this report?
This is a report about differences and commonalities. About how children with additional needs use social media in the same way as their non-vulnerable friends, with potentially different and unconsidered consequences.
About how parents and teachers of these children, who they describe as “innocents online” are profoundly concerned about their online lives. About the gap between what young people are doing online and what parents think they are doing.
Read the full report
Explore the full report findings or summary of perspectives below to understand how children with SEND can benefit from the use of online resources.
“Wanting to fit in is an instinctive human drive, that becomes more acute in our teenage years. Unsurprisingly, therefore
this was a key theme for the young people when discussing social media. Using social media as a form of social validation and popularity ran deep throughout many discussions.”
“The young people felt that social media was an amazing outlet for them to make friends and to be accepted. However, they did not feel safe from bullying and they argued that the lack of accountability and increased anonymity was a catalyst for
negative social interactions. For this reason, they felt more
vulnerable to being bullied/rejected socially. They reported the bullying, and it seemed to have a serious impact upon their psychological wellbeing.”
“All of the parents, teachers and carers told us that connectivity and social media brought good things to their children’s lives. Themes emerged around the benefits of connections with
others – either friends from school who live too far away for real world contact to the freedom of being online without being known as someone with ‘additional needs’. Parents also saw being online as a place where young people could develop
skills and find supportive and nurturing environments.”
“The level of concern and the intensity of feeling expressed in both groups was salutary. These are families for whom many things are already harder than perhaps they should be. They are already struggling with the education system, with being
accepted in society, with funding cuts, and for many of them, social media has layered on another strata of issues to deal with, which can become a daily battle ground.”
“Parents were keen for there to be resources for them, which would provide insight and advice in bite sized chunks, and stark, factual, crisp resources for families to explore together. There was a strong sense that parents and carers don’t have time to wade through long reports, but they do need actionable accessible information.”
Supporting resources
Neurodivergent children guide
Supporting neurodivergent young people who game
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