Holly Hughes

Note: given the strong pro-government stance in this article, Ms Hughes should have also disclosed her affiliation with the Liberal Party - see http://www.afr.com/brand/rear-window/election-2016-connie-fierravantiwe…;

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a game changer for people with a disability and everyone who loves and supports them. Families will finally have effective choice and control over who provides the services that they actually want and need.

When you’re a parent of a child with high-functioning autism, you learn to make allowances. But should borderline arachnophobe Ian Rose allow his son a pet spider for his birthday?

Ian Rose

Spiders. Why did it have to be spiders? The latest in a series of obsessive enthusiasms that have characterised our son’s early childhood, the spider is not a beast to which I’ve ever warmed.

Amanda Erickson 

In Australia, there used to be widespread agreement that vaccinating children against fatal diseases was a good thing. Kids got shots, and the rate of childhood diseases plummeted.

But then things changed. In 1994, a group calling itself the Australian Vaccination Network launched a campaign claiming the risks of vaccines (which are essentially nonexistent). Its core mission: “to ensure that vaccinations are never made compulsory for Australian children." (Years later, the group was forced to change its name to the Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network, or else be de-registered.) The group seized on a fraudulent, wholly discredited paper linking the MMR vaccine to autism.

By Nicolas Perpitch

The Western Australian education system is failing to meet the needs of some highly disabled children because of inflexibility and a lack of expertise, according to an experienced educator.

Stephen Breen, the immediate past-president of the WA Primary Principals Association and a teacher and principal for 42 years, has been joined by disability advocates in criticism of the Education Department's inclusion practices.

Can a new clinical approach end a pattern of failure and frustration?

RACHEL ZAMZOW

Taylor Stevenson’s family never left him out of conversations, but they never expected him to participate, either. His contributions, if he made any, were a few random words—gibberish or a Big Bird quote.

Margaret Prior

The disability support industry is facing a dramatic shortage of trained carers, leaving thousands of families without regular care and much needed respite.

Lateline spent a day with Fiona Hough and her five-year-old son Charlie, who has autism, to see how they cope when the carer doesn't come.

"Not having that person there, it's amazing how quickly you can get down into really dark territory," Ms Hough said.

Disability agencies say they are struggling to recruit staff and keep up with the demand from families in need.

Typo in Pediatrics inflates increase in autism

by F. Perry Wilson MD, MSCE

The paper contains a jarring statement: the rate of autism spectrum disorder rose by "almost 400%" from 2007 to 2011, but the statement is wrong.

The paper in question is published online today by Pediatrics, but a close review of the data revealed that the number was drastically inflated.