David Roy, University of Newcastle

Governments in Australia, New Zealand and the UK are failing children with disabilities by not providing necessary learning support and by allowing issues to permeate without intervening.

NATASHA BITA

State Education Minister ­Adrian Piccoli, a Nationals MP, said the federal government’s ­refusal to fully fund the Gonski ­reforms, worth $5 billion to NSW schools, was like stopping a new railway line midway through construction. “It’s like building a train line that costs $5bn and takes six years to build, but you stop building it halfway through,’’ he said.

“You’ve already spent $2bn or $3bn and no passengers have travelled on it.

For the first 14 and a half years of Gordy's life, Evan and Dara Baylinson had no reason to believe their son could comprehend anything they said: He had never spoken, and he couldn't really emote. They worried aloud about his future, not filtering what they said, because they didn't think he understood.

But Gordy was absorbing everything.

"My brain, which is much like yours, knows what it wants and how to make that clear," he wrote in a letter he sent to a police officer. "My body, which is much like a drunken, almost six-foot toddler, resists."

As the population of people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder keeps growing, so does the number of people with that diagnosis who aren't finding employment.

Though many young adults on the spectrum are considered high functioning, recent research shows 40 percent don't find work — a higher jobless rate than people with other developmental disabilities experience.

by  KATY HALL

Gold Logie winner Waleed Aly has opened up about his son Zayd’s autism, describing the nine-year-old as a “lovely little man”.

Paula Goodyer

"Boy recovers from autism after going gluten free."

"Gluten- free casein-free diet no remedy for autism."

Welcome to the conflicted world of diet and autism where opinion over the benefits of removing gluten (the protein in wheat, rye and barley) and casein (the protein in milk) from the diet is divided. Depending on which website you click on, the gluten-free, casein-free diet is either saviour or undiluted snake oil.

Cathy Pryor

I am a parent of three children, the middle of whom was diagnosed with high-functioning autism a year ago.

My son’s diagnosis, in previous diagnostic language, would have been known as Asperger’s. I still often use this term when explaining his differences, simply because most people’s notion of what autism­ is does not properly describe­ my son.

by David Roy

A quarter of children with a disability denied a place in their local school; Students are being bullied by teachers because of their disability; There are negative attitudes to children with a disability by schools, principals and some staff; No allowance made in learning for children with a disability. No training for teachers; Funding and schools not accountable.