Samantha Maiden, April 24, 2011

FAMILIES caring for disabled children have won access to as much as $30,000 a year in the May Budget to help with early intervention and support.

The $130 million boost to early intervention will also include new support for autism and deliver on an election pledge to offer a $6000-a-year Better Start for Children with Disability Payment from July.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that 9000 extra families will now be able to secure up to $30,000 a year in assistance under the changes.

JOKES about people with disabilities are no laughing matter for Marrickville resident James Eggleton.

Australia has its racial, homosexual and religious hate-crime laws, but Mr Eggleton can’t understand why there are none for the disabled.

Mr Eggleton, who has a disabled family member, says he’s sick of seeing vilification of the disabled in the community.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: What would you do if your happy, promising child suddenly turned into a completely different person? A Sydney couple spent the past eight years grappling with exactly that question. When their only son was 18 months old he went into a rapid decline and was diagnosed with severe autism. Now the family's experience is documented in a new book, as Sarah Dingle reports.

KATHY CAHILL, MOTHER: I guess every parent wants to think that their child will be able to exist in the world, um, or have a place in the world.

Key findings 

This review has produced an estimate of the annual economic costs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Australia, updating a previous study completed in April 2007. 

This review has produced an updated estimate of the annual economic costs of ASD in Australia, including the burden of disease, of between $8.1 billion (low prevalence) and $11.2 billion (high prevalence), with a mid-point of $9.7 billion (all estimates are in December 2010 dollars). 

Special Investigation Bill Hoffman

A SUNSHINE Coast family has made the heartbreaking decision to give up their disabled 15-year-old son to the state after battling for years to gain the help they need to support him at home.

Garry and Mary Taylor, of Pacific Paradise, refused to take Kenny from Nambour Hospital, where he was admitted on February 22, following his medical discharge on March 16.

They will be the 44th family in Queensland to take that step already this financial year and the 10th on the Sunshine Coast.

Wandering is a critical safety issue for children with ASD.

The Interactive Autism Network (IAN), www.ianproject.org, the nation's largest online autism research project, reported this week the preliminary results of the first major survey on wandering among individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Approximately half of 800 parents who completed the survey reported that their child leaves safe places, with the behavior peaking at age four. Among these families, nearly half say that their child has gone missing long enough to cause significant concern about safety.

The PBS NewsHour is launching a special series of reports, both on-air and online, about a puzzling disorder that touches many lives across the U.S.: Autism Now will take a unique -- and uniquely personal -- look at how the condition impacts families, schools and communities.

see http://www.pbs.org/newshour/news/autism/

Tony Keim

THE first Australian convicted of "internet trolling" by plastering child pornography on the Facebook tribute pages of two slain Queensland schoolchildren is seeking bail pending an appeal against his three-year jail term

Lawyers for Bradley Paul Hampson, 29, this morning told The Courier-Mail an application had been lodged by their client for Supreme Court bail pending an appeal against his sentence.

Selma Milovanovic Legal Affairs Reporter
March 25, 2011

A TEENAGE boy with multiple disabilities who was sent home during lunch and banned from school excursions has lost his discrimination claim against the Education Department.

The Victorian boy, whom The Age has chosen not to name, has Asperger's syndrome (an autism spectrum disorder), dyslexia and attention deficit disorder.

Dear Friends of Preschool Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

I am delighted to advise you that the 59^th Multiple District 201 National Convention of Lions Clubs International in Launceston, Tasmania on Sunday 17^th April passed the following Motion, NM 10.

“That this Multiple District Convention adopts the Preschool Autism Spectrum Disorders Education and Therapy Project as a Category “B” Project for a term expiring on 30^th June 2012”.

This means the following: