George Roberts

Brisbane performer Nikki Osborne has been dumped from speaking at a disability expo because her stand-up comedy routine makes light of what it is like to be a parent of an autistic child.

Ms Osborne faced a backlash even before the act's debut performance.

She said her comedy routine On The Spectrum is about how parents handle children who can be both brilliant and challenged at the same time.

Lisa Mayoh

When a child is diagnosed with autism, a family is changed forever. Everything is different. Everyone is learning to live a “new normal” that can take years to adjust to, and decades to master.

Careers, relationships, travel, goals: everything is put on hold while the child — their treatment, progress and needs — comes first, as most would agree they should.

But to raise a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), parents too must consider their own happiness.

Barbara Miller

"My favourite pizza is pepperoni pizza."

Kaspar has introduced himself to nine-year-old Joshua Whelan.

"Mine is cheese, feta and olives," said Joshua, encountering the tiny robot for the first time.

"Sounds yummy."

Kaspar is a moving, talking humanoid developed specifically for children on the autism spectrum, now being trialled for the first time in Australia.

John Elder Robison

Alan Howe

The images cramming the frames of Harrison Fischer’s first years are of a happy child, but one often distracted by commands only he could hear.

At two he wasn’t walking and had no language. He was restless, unsleeping, would turn lights on and off, taps too, and endlessly spin things — like the tops of pots — and scratch glass.

Rick Morton

Around the world right now ­researchers are beginning to wonder whether the concept of an ­autism spectrum is a mistake.

The “thought experiment” was floated by renowned developmental psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen ahead of a global ­research conference on autism in The Netherlands last month.

What if, he proposed, intro­ducing the spectrum of disorders under one umbrella in the latest diagnosis bible was a well-­intentioned but ultimately misguided move?

Work is under way to look at conditions around automatic entry to the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Daniel McCulloch

Senior officials from the National Disability Insurance Scheme are not ruling out tightening access to people with autism trying to access the $22 billion program.

Chief executive of the National Disability Insurance Agency, Robert De Luca, has confirmed work is under way to consider conditions around automatic entry to the scheme.