Autistic boy falls victim to cut in special needs staff

ÁINE McLATCHIE fears that her autistic son, Daniel’s, progress could be reversed after his school was told the number of staff helping children with special needs is to fall from five to two next month, despite the Government insisting there will be no cuts to such services.

The seven-year-old was allocated a full-time special needs assistant (SNA) when he started at Lower Glanmire National School in New Inn just outside Cork city. But while he has excelled academically, the first-class pupil still has emotional problems which require attention.

“He is doing third-class spellings and he loves learning and reading books. But he gets very upset at least once a day at school and needs the SNA there to calm him,” explained his mother. “This cutback will mean he only has access to an SNA at the start of school every day, during breaks and at home time. I’m afraid to think of the state he’ll be in coming home from school, and he might not want to go to anymore.”