Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia

A GOLD COAST paediatrician who hogtied a seven-year-old patient has been acquitted of assaulting the boy on appeal.

Neville Goodwin Davis was last year found guilty in Southport Magistrates Court of assaulting the child during an October 2012 consultation during which he tied the boy up with rope.

Dr Davis specialised in behavioural conditions and had been consulted by the boy's mother to see if he had Asperger Syndrome.

He said he initially tied the boy to a chair to occupy him so he could talk to the mother

By Louise Milligan

A private school for children with autism is being investigated after allegations a boy at the school was being held unsupervised in a lockable fenced structure he called a "cage".

Key points:

• Lynda Jordan says she saw her son, Toby, locked in "the cage"
• School investigation disputes Ms Jordan's interpretation
• NSW Greens say dozens of parents have similar complaints

Emma Macdonald 

Disturbing new details of a Canberra school placing a 10-year-old boy with autism in a cage have come to light, as the case spearheads an investigation by the United Nations into potential human rights violations of 55 students with disabilities across Australian schools.

While the boy's parents do not wish to make a public statement and do not want their son's identity or school revealed, Fairfax Media can confirm that the boy was forcibly placed in the cage on a handful of occasions early last year.

A summary of dozens of cases of students with disability who were restrained in Aussie schools and reported to the United Nations shows autism/ASD was the predominant disability among the students.

The report, entitled Summary: Human Rights Violations of Disabled Children in Australian Education settings, is available from https://www.scribd.com/document/3188645… or the links below. 

Henrietta Cook

The United Nations has been asked to investigate dozens of incidents in which children with disabilities were allegedly assaulted, locked in dark rooms and restrained in Australian schools.

The request, which was made on behalf of 55 families by a group of disability organisations, cited "widespread and grave" violations of students' human rights.

The group is seeking international intervention because it claims Australia has failed to act.

People shed tears at a Sydney hearing as they watched a young man with autism become agitated as he slowly typed about being abused at a NSW disability centre.

The royal commission into child sexual abuse showed videotaped evidence from the now 20-year-old on Tuesday during a hearing into how service providers The Disability Trust and Shoalhaven Interchange, both in south Sydney, handled allegations of abuse.

The man, known as CIE, uses a QWERTY keyboard to communicate.

The Conversation is producing a series of articles on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

By Annabel Crabb

The very existence of the National Disability Insurance Scheme - to begin national operation this Friday - is a powerful rebuttal to that contemporary whine about big policy reforms being too hard for our short political attention spans, writes Annabel Crabb.

Being sick of this election campaign is now the leading sentiment on which Australians of voting age most fervently agree.

A new study has found many Australian children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may not be diagnosed until long after initial signs appear, prompting calls for improvements to the diagnostic process.

Researchers from QUT's School of Psychology and Counselling conducted a national study of paediatricians, psychologists and psychiatrists to investigate issues related to ASD assessment and diagnosis in children.

The NDIA has released some new information  about how it will deliver Early Intervention for children. I surmise that the approach described in the NDIA's Market Position Statement for South Australia (June 2016) will apply pretty generally. This information is aimed at service providers, not at (prospective) NDIS participants, so it does not really explain the new approach for that audience. 

On page 22, the document says: