Children with special needs can deal be vulnerable to Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB) due to the challenges they experience. These children have differences in understanding social cues, communications, and sensory processing which makes it harder for them to understand boundaries, consent, and act appropriately to others (Raising Children, 2025). Children with special needs then will be a higher risk of being impacted by HSB.

Often children with special needs get support and rely on adults for personal care, and there may be uncertainty with boundaries, particularly personal space and privacy (Subramanyam et al., 2024). If the children aren’t accessing developmentally, appropriate sexualised education they can increase their chances of vulnerability. They would miss out learning about consent, healthy relationships, and boundaries. As these children have special needs, some behaviours that seem sexual could be a way of that children dealing with their needs, rather than a conscious sexual action.

To be supportive to all students there needs to be explicit teaching of consent, respectful relationships, and safety, through many different ways to ensure all students understand. For example, using visual supports, predictable routines, modelling correct behaviour, and social stories to deepen understanding. Trauma informed strategies need to be implemented and adjusted to suit every students needs and learning so that they can feel safe, supported and included (Government of Western Australia, 2022, p36).