DESPERATE FOR HELP: Mandy Lovelock with sons and daughter Alicia (30410/1)CHIPPENHAM NEWS: A SINGLE mother is desperate for help for her seven-year-old autistic son, who has been refused teaching support.

Mandy Lovelock, 28, of Pockeredge Road, Corsham, has four children under the age of 10, including a one-year-old baby.

Her four-year-old son Adam has special needs and her seven-year-old son Danny has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism.

Danny, who also has a clinical bowel problem, is taught in a mainstream class at Corsham Primary School with other children his own age. Miss Lovelock believes he should have his own support teacher in class.

He has been tested twice by Wiltshire County Council but has not qualified for extra help.

Miss Lovelock said: "I had a meeting with the headteacher and we all agree that he needs his own support teacher."

Fiona Allen, headteacher at Corsham Primary School, said: "He does need help, there is no doubt about that, and as a school we are giving him a huge amount of help from one of our teaching assistants which means that other children are having their help withdrawn.

"We have been pushing for him to receive extra help since he came into school."

She said there was just one teaching assistant working with four Key Stage One classes but the majority of her time was spent with Danny.

"The educational psychologist came and did an assessment on a day that Danny was having a good day and it was just a fluke that he passed," she said.

"I have never seen him like that before. They said he had made significant progress even though his chronological progress is well below that for his age."

She said Danny was a lovely child who was capable of learning within a mainstream school, but added: "I think the support services are tied by the protocols and by the criteria."

Miss Lovelock, who has lived in Corsham all her life, said Danny had been difficult to deal with since he was a baby but it took many years for Asperger's Syndrome to be diagnosed.

"He used to scream constantly and threw things at me. He was always throwing chairs at me," she said.

"I knew there was something wrong and his pre-school did as well but the doctors said he was fine.

"Then he went to school and they said there's definitely something wrong. Last year the doctors finally said he has Asperger's. It took six years."

Now the exhausted 28-year-old, who said she does not even have time to keep her house clean, does not know where to turn to get help.

A spokesman for Wiltshire County Council said: "We haven't received a request from the school or the mother for an assessment for Special Educational Needs."

He said in order for Danny to be considered the school would have to provide proof of a need for him to be assessed.