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Disabled children get $130m in Budget

By bobb |

Samantha Maiden, April 24, 2011

FAMILIES caring for disabled children have won access to as much as $30,000 a year in the May Budget to help with early intervention and support.

The $130 million boost to early intervention will also include new support for autism and deliver on an election pledge to offer a $6000-a-year Better Start for Children with Disability Payment from July.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that 9000 extra families will now be able to secure up to $30,000 a year in assistance under the changes.

Disabled need legal protection says Marrickville resident

By bobb |

JOKES about people with disabilities are no laughing matter for Marrickville resident James Eggleton.

Australia has its racial, homosexual and religious hate-crime laws, but Mr Eggleton can’t understand why there are none for the disabled.

Mr Eggleton, who has a disabled family member, says he’s sick of seeing vilification of the disabled in the community.

Living with Autism

By bobb |

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: What would you do if your happy, promising child suddenly turned into a completely different person? A Sydney couple spent the past eight years grappling with exactly that question. When their only son was 18 months old he went into a rapid decline and was diagnosed with severe autism. Now the family's experience is documented in a new book, as Sarah Dingle reports.

KATHY CAHILL, MOTHER: I guess every parent wants to think that their child will be able to exist in the world, um, or have a place in the world.

Couple forced to give up son

By bobb |

Special Investigation Bill Hoffman

A SUNSHINE Coast family has made the heartbreaking decision to give up their disabled 15-year-old son to the state after battling for years to gain the help they need to support him at home.

Garry and Mary Taylor, of Pacific Paradise, refused to take Kenny from Nambour Hospital, where he was admitted on February 22, following his medical discharge on March 16.

They will be the 44th family in Queensland to take that step already this financial year and the 10th on the Sunshine Coast.

Autism Now: How Should We Address Deepening 'National Health Emergency'?

By bobb |

The PBS NewsHour is launching a special series of reports, both on-air and online, about a puzzling disorder that touches many lives across the U.S.: Autism Now will take a unique -- and uniquely personal -- look at how the condition impacts families, schools and communities.

see http://www.pbs.org/newshour/news/autism/

Facebook troll Bradley Paul Hampson seeks bail, appeal against jail term

By bobb |

Tony Keim

THE first Australian convicted of "internet trolling" by plastering child pornography on the Facebook tribute pages of two slain Queensland schoolchildren is seeking bail pending an appeal against his three-year jail term

Lawyers for Bradley Paul Hampson, 29, this morning told The Courier-Mail an application had been lodged by their client for Supreme Court bail pending an appeal against his sentence.

'No discrimination' of Asperger's boy

By bobb |

Selma Milovanovic Legal Affairs Reporter
March 25, 2011

A TEENAGE boy with multiple disabilities who was sent home during lunch and banned from school excursions has lost his discrimination claim against the Education Department.

The Victorian boy, whom The Age has chosen not to name, has Asperger's syndrome (an autism spectrum disorder), dyslexia and attention deficit disorder.

Lions support early intervention

By Anonymous (not verified) |

Dear Friends of Preschool Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

I am delighted to advise you that the 59th Multiple District 201 National Convention of Lions Clubs International in Launceston, Tasmania on Sunday 17th April passed the following Motion, NM 10.

“That this Multiple District Convention adopts the Preschool Autism Spectrum Disorders Education and Therapy Project as a Category “B” Project for a term expiring on 30th June 2012”.

This means the following:

World Autism Awareness Day

By Anonymous (not verified) |

Today is World Autism Awareness Day, an opportunity to raise community awareness and show support for people with the condition, their families and carers.

Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin and Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers Senator Jan McLucas said today was an opportunity to show support for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), their families and carers.

The joys and challenges of raising an autistic child

By Anonymous (not verified) |

By Kerry Warren Friday, April 1, 2011

When Julie Hawkins' third child was born, she and her husband thought they had "struck gold".

Unlike her two older siblings, baby Sarah was quiet, laid-back and had no problem sleeping for hours on end. But as their "perfect child" started to grow up, Julie began to notice that something might be wrong.

"With our older children, they had so many sleep problems and Sarah was the baby that was happy, seen and not heard," Julie says. "We initially thought we'd struck gold and had the perfect child.