Special educational needs teacher
Also called SEN teacher, autism teacher, special needs teacher
Special educational needs teachers work with and teach children, young people, and adults with an intellectual or physical disability. They use a range of specialised concepts, strategies and tools to optimise learners' communication, mobility, autonomy, and social integration. They select teaching methods and support resources to enable individual learners to maximise their potential for independent living.
What you'd do
Special needs teachers · ILO- Assessing students' abilities and limitations with regard to intellectual, physical, social and emotional impairments, exceptional intellectual gifts, or other specific problems
- Designing or modifying curricula and preparing and delivering programmes, lessons and activities adapted to students’ abilities and needs
- Giving instruction on an individual or group basis using special techniques or aids appropriate to students’ needs
- Employing special educational strategies and techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, and memory
- Establishing and enforcing rules for behaviour and policies and procedures to maintain order among students
- Teaching academic subjects and practical and self-help skills to students with hearing, sight and other impairments
- Stimulating and developing students’ confidence interests, abilities, manual skills and coordination
- Conferring with other staff members to plan and schedule lessons for special needs students
- Preparing and maintaining student data and other records and submitting reports
- Administering various forms of assessment and evaluating progress of each student
- Conferring with students, parents, head teacher and other relevant professionals involved in the students’ care to develop individual educational plans designed to promote students' development
- Indoors
- A mix of sitting and standing
- Constant contact with people
- Some freedom to decide
- Usually 40 hours a week
- Deadlines now and then
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Yes, good prospects11 EU countries are short of special needs teachers now, but fewer jobs than in most work will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
About averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,700 a month (Hungary) to €9,900 (Luxembourg), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among professionals in the EU, women earn 21% less per hour than men. Professionals · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Usually a degreeA degree in teacher training without subject specialisation is the usual route.
823 institutions in the EU offer education bachelor's degrees. Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could take on part of some tasks, but none fully.
Average task score 0.28 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 11 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for special needs teachers. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).