SEN Teacher: How to Use It for Special Needs Education

SEN Teacher
Blockly Games (Image credit: SEN Teacher)

SEN Teacher is a veteran when it comes to resourcing special needs teaching. The online platform has been running for 25 years now to support teachers and students with special needs.

When you land on the website you may get the feel that it hasn't been updated much in the quarter century it's been around. That's not a bad thing and is largely because this keeps everything minimal and clear for ease of use.

The site is built to be accessible to all, with no need to give any personal details or pay for anything to get going. Extras are available if you want to create an account, but more on that below.

This guide aims to clarify all you can get from SEN Teacher so you can assess how it could work for you.

What is SEN Teacher?

SEN Teacher Overview - YouTube SEN Teacher Overview - YouTube
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SEN Teacher is a dedicated website that caters to special educational needs. Specifically, it's a support for teachers who want to access resources for students with special needs.

The website is simple but comprises digital and physical resources aimed at use by teachers. That means a host of printables as well as a selection of apps that are designed to work both online, on laptops, and on smartphones and tablets.

The site has its own search section but since everything is helpfully laid out in drop-down menus, with useful subsections, chances are you will rarely need to type a search. Although if you have specifics in mind, this could be helpful.

SEN Teacher printables

SEN Teacher printables (Image credit: SEN Teacher)

How does SEN Teacher work?

SEN Teacher lays out everything for you to access right from the home page. You are met with the printables section available for instant access.

Navigate to the top left burger menu and you can select from printables, apps, and search tools. Click each and you are given sub-sections, such as Mathematics, Literacy, and Social in the printables section.

Navigate in and you're met with a selection of resources to use. In the case of apps, you're give a description as well as license details and publisher. Each platform it's available on is also listed, with links to download.

You also have the option to login, should you wish to create an account. More on why you might want to, below.

SEN Teacher apps

SEN Teacher apps (Image credit: SEN Teacher)

What are the best SEN Teacher features?

SEN Teacher is super clear and simple as well as free. A good selection of printables is available, with a helpful "Most Popular" option to quickly be presented with some of the favorites. Click to select the quality you want, color or black-and-white options, and even hit the "Magic" button to vary the output and style.

Other adjustables for printables include the ability to vary the activity, perhaps by changing shapes. Or edit the color options with tabs and lines variable.

A helpful list of certificates is available with lots of options to edit these and personalize as needed.

The apps are varied and generally come on many platforms to suit your need at the time. These are specifically designed by need with tools such as SENSwitcher, which is made for those with profound and multiple learning difficulties. This uses high-contrast graphics and sound with lots of variations to adjust as needed for progress.

The ability to create an account login allows you to have a My Stuff section where you can save favorites for quick access in future. You can also save your custom word lists and card sets here.

SEN Teacher app

SEN Teacher app (Image credit: SEN Teacher)

How much does SEN Teacher cost?

SEN Teacher is totally free to access and use. You don't need to sign up to begin using everything available here immediately.

An account creation option is available, but this only requires you to use an email address to be up and running right away. This option allows you to organize your favorites for easy recall.

SEN Teacher best tips and tricks

Create an account
Make this free and powerful resource space yours with an account so you can organize everything for quick access when needed.

Get appy
Find apps that work and use these across devices to help students work with different devices, while sticking with apps they know.

Play with printables
Show students how you edit and adjust printables so they can begin to understand the mechanics of how it works before using the output.

Luke Edwards is a freelance writer and editor with more than two decades of experience covering tech, science, and health. He writes for many publications covering health tech, software and apps, digital teaching tools, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and much more.