Drive to help autistic children

1.20.44pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 31st Oct 2006

A campaign has been launched with the aim of improving the education offered to children with autism. It is claimed many youngsters fail to receive what they need and are misunderstood and confused.

The National Autistic Society launch came on the same day inspectors released a report on the standard of education for autistic children. The campaign, entitled "make school make sense", calls for children to go to the school that is right for them. It also wants more training to be made available to staff.

Almost 50,000 families in Scotland are affected by autism. Those people affected often have problems socialising and could also have obsessional interests. The National Autistic Society maintains that the Scottish education system can add to these problems. Most autistic children go to a maintsream school but some go to special schools.

The society has found that one third of children have to wait a year for enough support and the same number are bullied.

It also believes two thirds of schools fail to understand autism.