Welcoming the Executive's decision, Stephen Hart, national officer of the National Autistic Society (NAS) in Scotland, said the extra funds would help create an out-of-school club for 'autism specific' children - those with a higher level of need.
Part of the 192,000 given to the Dundee/NAS partnership from the Special Educational Needs Innovation Grants programme will go to children with a lower level of need through 'autism friendly' programmes being set up in four of the city's existing out-of-school clubs.
He said that while the project was geared to an inclusive approach, the needs of the individual child were paramount. 'Some of the most excluded children we have are in mainstream schools where they just watch the world go by and are lost. This initiative is vital in helping secure the right out-of-school provision for them.'
Last year AFASIC, a charity promoting the interests of children with speech and language impairment, joined forces with the Dyspraxia Foundation to produce guidelines about dyspraxia, or development co-ordination disorder (DCD), for primary schools in Scotland.
Now the project has been given more than 12,000 to evaluate the impact of the guidance, which was written by Edinburgh University academic Dr Christine McIntyre.
The project is calling a conference for next March when the evaluation will be complete, to bring together doctors, therapists, parents and teachers to promote wider understanding of DCD.
Ann Auchterlonie, director of AFASIC in Scotland, said, 'These funds will help our commitment to bringing professionals and parents together to raise awareness of this condition.'
Other projects set to benefit from the SEN innovation grants include the development of a national network of bilingual key workers, a volunteer befriending network in Dundee, Aberdeen and Edinburgh for children with social, emotional and behavioural problems, and support to teachers and parents striving for the educational inclusion of children with dyslexia.