Darren Cartwright

THE $22 billion-a-year National Disability Insurance Scheme is under fire for giving approval to a US program to treat autism that has not undergone scientific trials.

The program, called Neuro-Fit Systems, has been embraced by parents, but AMA Queensland has questioned its approval by the NDIS.

The Hon Jason Clare MP

Member for Blaxland

Speech: 12 Feb 2018

Tonight I want to talk about a beautiful little girl who lives in my electorate named Georgia.

Georgia is 9 and she has multiple disabilities.  She has autism, epilepsy and profound global development delay.

Georgia can’t dress herself, or brush her teeth or comb her hair.  She can’t shower on her own.

She has to wear a nappy 24 hours a day.  

She has to wear a onesie - otherwise she will put her hands in her nappy and smear faeces around the house.

Daile Cross

An alarming world-first study into the cognitive abilities of young people in detention in Australia has found evidence of severe neurodevelopmental impairment in almost every child assessed.

Researchers from the Telethon Kids Institute assessed 99 children aged 10 to 17 incarcerated at the Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Western Australia. The findings uncovered an unprecedented prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and severe neurodevelopmental impairment.

Saskia Adysti

Albany will be the first town in Australia to trial an autism alert card.

The card will help authorities and emergency service providers to better understand people with autistic behaviour, as most patients find it difficult to communicate with others about their disability, particularly during an emergency.

The card will also have two emergency contact numbers of the card holder.

Great Southern Police District Superintendent Dominic Wood said the card would provide better security to those with autism.

The children’s writer Michael Morpurgo has written a new novel inspired by his autistic grandson, which is set to be published later this year. Flamingo Boy is set in the Camargue in the south of France during World War II and features a boy who “sees the world differently”.

Sarah Collard

Eleven-year-old Charlotte Dainton and her nine-year-old brother Joseph are obsessed with iPads, miniature golf and cartwheels.

They also have speech and developmental problems stemming from autism and both struggled in mainstream education.

Their mother, Sonya Dainton, is now among a growing number of parents who are choosing to homeschool their children, because they say the education system is failing them and not providing the support their children need.