CHILDREN with autism or dyslexia attending mainstream primary and secondary schools will get more in-class help next year.

The help will come in the form of 'special-needs officers', who will complement the class teacher's lessons with small-group remedial lessons or skills-training for students with mild to moderate learning difficulties.

For instance, they may work with the subject teacher to repackage a topic, either by simplifying it or by making it more visual, so it is easily grasped by a child with a learning disability.

At the moment, 103 schools have such officers. By middle of next year, 25 more primary and eight secondary schools will have them.

A batch of these special-needs officers will begin training at the National Institute of Education (NIE) in July.

Mainstream teachers are also being given training to deal with special-needs children in schools.

To date, about 1,200 teachers have been trained in special needs and an additional 800 are undergoing training this month.