A mother of a child with autism says it's an 'emotional day' as schools reopen for children with additional needs.
Thousands of children across the country are returning to classrooms today for the first time since December.
Dedicated special needs schools are the first to reopen, with more classes set to return on a phased basis over the coming weeks.
Jane Johnstone's son Daniel was diagnosed with moderate autism when he was just three years old.
At that age, Daniel was 'highly intelligent in some ways' but had profound difficulties communicating - only speaking around ten words by the time he started school.
Speaking on The Pat Kenny Show, Jane said her son - now 16 - has come on in 'leaps and bounds' as a result of school.
She said: "What special needs teachers and assistants have given to my family is the ability for my sons to cope with their level of disability."
She said she 'completely understands' why lockdown has happened, and it's something the family takes very seriously.
However, she said Daniel understands the world through 'routine and familiarity'.
She observed: "When we take away that routine, he no longer understands the world. So you see him going back and withdrawing into himself… you see challenging behaviours that we don’t see at other times returning.
“Once he gets back into his routine, he’ll start communicating with us again… even his little quirky sense of humour will come back. He’ll start to learn again - he’s has learned to read and write, which is something my late husband and I could never have envisaged.
“He has come on in a massive way, but he does go back when we take away his routine."
In terms of the return to school today, Jane said: “It’s been a difficult morning from an emotional point of view, but I’m really glad to see him going back to some level of routine and his teachers and SNAs.
"It doesn’t get away from the fact that this has been significantly more difficult on children and adults with disabilities, and their family carers."
Jane has previously called for family carers to be added to the priority vaccine list.
