Anna Patty Education Editor, SMH August 15, 2009

SCHOOL funding for students with special needs will be capped and no longer distributed according to the number of individual students, under NSW Department of Education proposals.

Principals and teachers are concerned that funding for students with autism and mental health disorders will be capped for the next three years at 2009 levels. The State Government plans to allocate grants based on the prevalence of disorders in the wider community.

THE Computer - aka Taylor Fry Consulting Actuaries - was disappointed in the performance of its AFL model this year. It now has experience over the 2008 and 2009 seasons. Last year, the model scored 128 points over rounds 1 to 22 compared with 117 this year. However, it is good news that the decline in its own performance is a win for charity. At the start of the season, Taylor Fry promised to donate to charity $500 for each tip it was behind the leader after 22 rounds.

THE person most qualified to help Ms Simonovska's autistic son (The Age, 22/8) learn to communicate is a speech pathologist. Having just qualified at the only university in the state that offers this course, I am less than optimistic about his chances of getting the help he needs and deserves. Funding the therapy is great: finding the therapist can be tricky.

JULIA MEDEW
August 22, 2009

Liljana Simonovska and her son Filip. Photo: Luis Enrique Ascui

LILJANA Simonovska wants nothing more than to hear her son Filip speak. In recent years, her five-year-old boy has blurted out odd words here and there, but none of them have ever really made sense.

JULIA Medew (The Age, 22/8) highlighted the need for speech therapy for children with autism. But speech therapy is an issue for all children with disabilities and their families. Children with autism actually have access to more than twice the funding for therapy than those with other disabilities.

Warning: do not read on if you are at all sensitive to distressing news.

Tristan Swanwick, September 01, 2009 12:00am

INTELLECTUALLY impaired residents of a Queensland care home were locked in cages, tied to toilets and struck with fly swatters by staff, a court heard yesterday.

Susan Beryl Lister, 60, yesterday pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane District Court to charges of deprivation of liberty and assault.

Join Roy & HG as they host a night full of laughs as some of Australia's best loved comedians give something back and support Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) for a fun-packed comedy show. Comedians from around Australia will come together to help raise money to provide more services for people with autism and their families.

La Trobe University has been chosen by the Federal Government as Victorian service provider under its new national Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centres program.

In partnership with the Royal Children’s Hospital, the University will receive $4 million over four years to develop such a centre, co-located with its Community Children’s Centre on the main Melbourne campus at Bundoora.