State, families cry foul over funding

Ashley Argoon

ALMOST $6 million has been stripped from the trouble-plagued National Disability Insurance Scheme in its rollout in Victoria, the State Government has claimed.

The families of Victorians with disabilities have accused the Commonwealth of harmful cost-cutting and of treating their vulnerable loved ones “appallingly”.

Parents are outraged children with special or behavioural needs at Lightning Reef Primary School have been put into a new “naughty-naughty classroom” and can no longer have play breaks with other students.

The parents say their children were exposed to violence when the new arrangements started this week.

At least one family has withdrawn their daughter from the school, saying she was “too scared” to return to the classroom.

Sarah Boseley Health editor

Symptoms improve after parents are trained to better understand and interact with preschool children, researchers say.

A new form of therapy has for the first time been shown to improve the symptoms and behaviour of autistic children, offering a potential breakthrough in care for millions of families.

Experts tell Darwin hearing that ‘again and again’ they find people who felt encouraged to serve brief jail time rather than claim they were unfit to plead

For the first time, the nation’s largest autism advocacy organization has revamped its agenda and one notable objective is no more.

Autism Speaks’ board of directors voted in late September to modify the organization’s mission statement, marking the first such change since the nonprofit was established in 2005.

The new iteration is shorter and strikes a markedly different tone. Gone are terms like “struggle,” “hardship” and “crisis.” Also absent is any mention of seeking a cure for the developmental disorder.

Carly Findlay

I've been struggling reading about the alleged murder-suicide that happened in Sydney earlier this week.