Show news for a region of your choice (mostly Austraian news).

Big spend to protect vulnerable

By bobb |
  • Paul Austin
  • May 5, 2009

A $925 million social welfare package to help Victorians hit by the global recession will be a centrepiece of today's state budget.

...

The program, "A Fairer Victoria", is designed to help the state's most vulnerable citizens — including new migrants, Aborigines, families with disabled children and people with a mental illnesses — who are likely to suffer most as unemployment rises and the economy slows.

Autistic kids 'have enlarged amygdala'

By bobb |

May 7, 2009 - 10:44AM

 

Young children with autism appear more likely to have enlarged amygdala - the part of the brain associated with registering faces and with expressing key emotions, according to a study released on Monday.

Described in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, the study compared the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results of 50 autistic children and 33 control children.

The children's brain scans were taken at age two and again at age four.

No security for teachers of special needs pupils

By bobb |
  • Anna Patty Education Editor
  • April 29, 2009

ELIZABETH GAWTHORNE has spent 11 years working with children at Marrickville High School yet is still classed as a temporary employee.

As a school learning support officer, she works alongside classroom teachers, helping children with special needs.

While satisfying, the job provides no security from one year to the next. Further training opportunities are limited.

"I have 11 years of experience and can be told I'm not wanted next year," she said.

Cuts to specialist services hit hard

By bobb |

from The Age, Letters

ONLY parents of children with disabilities and their advocates would spot the irony in Bronwyn Pike describing students with disabilities with challenging behaviours as being "through no fault of their own" (The Age, 22/4). Ms Pike's descriptions seems to be at odds with typical school responses to these behaviours — detention/ suspension/expulsion.

Right to an Ordinary Life - National Press Club

By bobb |

Hon Bill Shorten MP

Member for Maribyrnong
Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services

Bill Shorten spoke on the 01/04/2009 at the National Press Club. The publicity (see http://www.npc.org.au/speakerArchive/bshort.html) said:

The Rudd Government has put the social inclusion of disadvantaged groups – including people with disability – at the core of its vision for Australia.

British boy 'too scared to travel to UK'

By Anonymous (not verified) |

April 20, 2009

 

A teenage British boy with a form of autism is stranded in Australia because he is too scared to travel by air or sea home to England.

Thomas Hill's family moved to Sydney in January 2008 to start a new life but decided to return recently because they were homesick.

But 16-year-old Thomas, who has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, is still in Sydney with his mum Lisa because he has panic attacks about travelling.

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