When Chris Varney was in Year 2 he presented his teacher with an incredibly detailed visual chart of the royal families of Europe from the 14th to the 19th century.

“I just felt I had found a new way of seeing the last millennium. No wonder we have so many revolutions and conflict, these families were way too connected, small community, completely out of touch,” he quips during his TED talk Autism: How my unstoppable mother proved the experts wrong.

Melanie Stephens is caught up in Administrative Appeals Tribunal case after being denied funding for a device to help Ella communicate

A Victorian mother is locked in a battle with the National Disability Insurance Agency over her daughter’s “voice”. At least that’s how Melanie Stephens describes the “talker” device her daughter Ella has been using for four years.

Ella, 11, lives with autism and the rare genetic syndrome cri du chat (5p-), which causes delayed physical development and intellectual disability. She is non-verbal.

Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

Why we need to start talking about the risk of trauma for those with autism.

It is a sad truth that the majority of the early research into autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was done with young children, most of whom were boys. It is hard to find research into the lives of adults with autism before 2000 and virtually impossible to find research on adult women with autism. As an autistic woman, it is frustrating for me to know that the quality of life of adults with autism was ignored for decades. This has led to several massive problems that are only now coming to light. One of these problems is the extraordinarily high number of women with autism that have been through serious trauma and meet diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Jo Abi

My son Philip has developed a terrifying habit. He'll shake me awake in the dead of night to tell me what he scored on his most recent university assignment.

In his defense, he got a pretty awesome mark.

Sophie Landau

Jesse Cross has a knack for coding, but it's not just a past-time or a hobby, it's a profession. 

Anna Christian

Autism CRC, an independent national research organisation focusing on best practice in relation to autism, has released a draft version of the first ever Australian national guideline to supporting autistic children and their families.

Once finalised, the National Guideline for supporting the learning, participation, and wellbeing of autistic children and their families in Australia will be used to ensure children can access the safe and effective supports that they want.

Draft release for public consultation

Ryan Young

A psychologist who threw water at a 12-year-old boy with autism and said older students would pummel him has learnt her fate.

A Perth psychologist who was allowed to continue working despite receiving a conviction for assaulting a child with autism in 2014 has finally been suspended from practising.

Agni Angelkovska was the director of psychological and counselling services at the prestigious Christ Church Grammar School when a magistrate found she “lost the plot”.