Ben Simpson was born with dyspraxia, a disability which means he is behind his peers in terms of development, has memory problems and finds writing difficult. He also finds it hard to communicate verbally - he didn't speak during his first three years at primary school.

In addition to these difficulties, Ben, 13, who lives in Glasgow with his mother and seven-year-old brother, Gavin, has been bullied since his first day at school. Abuse has ranged from being called a "spastic" in the playground to being beaten up by a gang of older pupils on the way home. Ben didn't know where to turn for help and wrote a letter to The Herald telling us what he was going through. All names and other personal details have been changed.

"Every morning, I dreaded the thought of going to school. On my way there, I'd think to myself: Here we go again'. I was bullied in the playground and sometimes in the classroom. The others took my money off me, they threw me to the ground - once they tore my jumper. Eventually, my teachers kept me in the classroom during breaks. I didn't have any friends. I was never invited to birthday parties. My mum moved me to another school in primary four because I was being bullied so badly.

"Moving to a new school was a bit scary. I hoped that the bullying might stop then but it didn't. It was OK at first but half-way through primary four, a new boy called Stewart joined the school. He picked on me because I had special needs. He called me names, hit me and kicked me. The other kids would join in, although some of the girls stuck up for me, which made me feel a little happier.

"The bullying stopped for a while when Stewart was sent away to a different school. That year was fantastic: all the boys became my friends. I had a really nice teacher, too, and I couldn't wait to go to school. When Stewart first came back, the boys were still friends with me for a few weeks but eventually made friends with him again because they were scared of him. He used to call me a "spastic". One time he threw a pen at my eye and I had to stay off school for a couple of days.

"I hated football but I used to play it at interval to be one of the boys. On the football pitch, they'd kick the ball very hard to me, trying to hit me with it. Once, in primary six, I was booted so hard down below that my mum had to take me to hospital. The tops of my legs were always bruised from being kicked.

"One day I was so depressed I walked out of the school. It was after five of the boys had punched me in the face and also damaged my phone. I was in so much pain I couldn't even stand up. After that my mum told me: If they hit you, you hit them back twice as hard'. On my second last day of primary school I'd had enough of Stewart and I pinned him against the wall. He was surprised, he didn't think I'd have the guts to do it and he reported me."

The harrassment caused Ben to become depressed. While still at primary school, he contemplated suicide. After a particularly upsetting day he took a kitchen knife to bed with the intention of ending his life. It is something he has done twice and which means that he now attends a child psychology unit. "I would lie in bed thinking about what had happened that day. I found it very hard to get to sleep. I'd sometimes wake up having nightmares about the boys from school. The night I went to bed with the knife, I was angry. I thought, I don't want to go through this ever again'. It was the thought of my brother which made me stop, because he looks up to me. I didn't want to let him down."

"Secondary school has been better. I've got friends now, some of whom are in my class. I've got a best friend who I met the summer before high school. But one day I was walking home from school and I crossed the road because some older boys from my school were calling me names. I looked back and there were around 15 of them. They jumped me. They got my phone and kicked it off me. I managed to get away and call the police."

A recent week at an outdoor activity centre was also blighted by bullies. "I was so excited to be picked to go on the course. Only two boys made my time at the centre really bad. When it was time for bed, one boy came out of bed . . . this boy held a lighter to my pillow and said he was going to set it alight when I was sleeping. Then all the boys started calling me names and locked the door so we couldn't get out."

Staff at the centre investigated and Ben was moved to a different room. "For the rest of the week, every time they passed me they said that one boy was going to get me. I was told by staff that if I felt frightened, then maybe I could go home."

"I don't want to be bullied all by myself, I don't want to have to stick up for myself - I want someone helping me in case I say the wrong things. I do that sometimes. I just want to know that I'm not the only person that this happens to. I am not like these bullies and I don't want to turn into them, but adults seem unable or scared to help or protect me.

"Do other children suffer like me? It seems to be the answer is to fight back. I don't want to fight. Can't some adults stick up for me apart from my mum?"

Kids are too frightened to stand up to a bully so they play a part in it'

She believes that peer pressure caused the children to gang up on Ben. "Kids are too frightened to stand up to a bully so they play a part in it. In the end, the teachers kept Ben in at lunchtimes, which amazed me. It seems to be that the way bullying is dealt with is to isolate the victim, not the bullies."

Since starting secondary, incidents have tended to be outwith the school grounds, often on the walk home, so Ben is now allowed to leave early to avoid trouble. "One of Ben's advantages now is that he's tall and he's got a sense of humour. Ben attends groups and youth clubs and they seem to be causing the problems now. He's meeting up with the other kids and some of them are making his life hell when he is there.

He is just at a point that he's had enough."

Professor Aline-Wendy Dunlop, chair of childhood and primary studies at the University of Strathclyde, says that the mistreatment of children with special needs is an issue of vulnerability. "It's a power issue. In a peer group of young teenagers, they would see who didn't fit and they would tease.

"The person with dyspraxia, with autism, with dyslexia doesn't look different. I think there is much more sympathy for the person in a wheelchair. I would call these hidden difficulties because these individuals look as if they belong in mainstream, and they do."

Under-developed communication skills, which are associated with several of these disabilities, can exacerbate the issues. "Sometimes with Asperger's Syndrome there is a real aspiration to make friends but not the understanding of how to do it. They can also make themselves unpopular because they are scrupulously honest and if the teacher asks who did such-and-such, the person with Asperger's would give the honest answer and that can also make them vulnerable."

Professor Dunlop believes that there is still a gap in understanding among teachers and pupils which needs to be addressed.

"Generally, in schools we need more understanding of the challenges faced by children with specific difficulties, including dyspraxia. Teachers find it very difficult to accommodate children with difference if they don't have an understanding of what the difference means.

"I think we need to grapple with what mainstream pupils need to know in order to help the inclusion agenda."