Catherine Heuzenroeder

Cinemas are turning the volume down and leaving the lights up during special 'sensory-friendly' film screenings designed for children with autism.

Kirsty Johnson has never taken her youngest son to the movies.

Dan Conifer

Sonya Ludlow is a strong woman. When you're bringing up seven children, resilience and thick skin are almost compulsory.

But the Adelaide mother was left feeling "absolutely awful" after a review of her seven-year-old son Samuel's funding National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan.

"[The NDIS representative] more or less said, 'by my sixth child I should know how to be a parent and how to look after my children'," Mrs Ludlow said.

Jon Ovan

As part of autism awareness month, members of the Eylward family who live in Cummins, will each walk 10,000 steps a day to raise $500 for a charity helping those with autism.

The Walk for Autism aims to raise awareness and funds to support people who are on the spectrum.

The 10,000 step challenge began on Sunday and will finish on April 15.

Tayla Eylward was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome and said she had a hard time at school and after finishing.

Tim Williams

HE was dux of his Year 12 class, is starting a double degree in law and international relations, and wants to be a prosecutor — yet as a young boy growing up with Asperger’s, Connor Pangallo couldn’t stand school.

CONNOR Pangallo was dux of his Year 12 class, is embarking on a double degree in law and international relations, and has his sights set on becoming a prosecutor.

Luke Michael

Disability advocates remain frustrated with the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in South Australia, despite the federal government making an “extremely overdue” announcement that $72 million would be provided for frontline NDIS services across the state.

Elvira Brunt, from St Morris’s popular Fravira Clinic, has a long history of charging vulnerable people for false cures.

She has been criticised for giving people false hope and dangerous advice.

The Advertiser has revealed in the past that she has been accused of telling parents to deny their children treatment or even painkillers, in one case suggesting a girl with leukaemia eat KFC instead.

Inspired by his son, Flinders optometry researcher Dr Paul Constable has commenced working with Yale Child Study Center and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital to research links between autism and the eye’s response to light.

Supported by a $US50,000 donation from the Alan B. Slifka Foundation, the research will look into the incidence of reduced light adapted electro-retinogram (ERG) b-wave amplitude in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Tim Williams

A DISTRESSED mother says she only discovered an out-of-school-hours care worker repeatedly kicked her autistic, intellectually disabled son in a fast-food restaurant because the woman confessed to her – one term later.

Jordy Bonser, of Woodcroft, is furious that the southern suburbs school failed to tell her the worker, who was employed by the governing council, allegedly attacked her son on a vacation-care excursion to the McDonald’s restaurant on South Rd, Darlington, in January.

A Naracoorte child psychologist says children on the cusp of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be missing out on vital early treatment because parents or educators may not realise a child needs specialist intervention.

"The earlier the detection, the better the outcome," said Lana-Joy Durik, one of only two psychologists who specialise in early childhood intervention operating in South Australia's south-east.