By Irena Ceranic

Jemma Victoria Lilley, 25, and Trudi Clare Lenon, 42, were charged after police found the body of Aaron Pajich under a freshly laid concrete slab in the backyard of their home on Broughton Way in Orelia.Two women accused of murdering an 18-year-old man in Perth's southern suburbs have appeared in court.

The Perth Magistrates Court was told Mr Pajich, who had Asperger's syndrome, was killed on June 13, the same day he was last seen at a taxi rank at the Rockingham City Shopping Centre.

Lilley and Lenon were not required to enter a plea and have been remanded to face Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court next Wednesday.

One of the accused women had studied with Mr Pajich at an educational facility in Kwinana.

Timna Jacks

By the age of six, Brandon* had been bullied so cruelly in the playground that he told his parents he wanted to die. 

His distraught parents, Travis and Samantha, battled the Education Department for years for support for their traumatised autistic son, and even submitted a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission. But finally, with help from the right school, his parents have turned their son's life around. 

Donna Sharpe

A Maitland mother has gone to the Human Rights Commission claiming her special needs child has been bullied and discriminated against because of a massive gap in the education system between children with and without disabilities.

The mother, Robyn, who requested we only use her first name, said her son, 13, had been the target of discrimination, excluded from school excursions and continually bullied.

Norman Hermant

Parents of disabled people in group homes say they are concerned a culture of covering up serious incidents and avoiding police scrutiny pervades the sector.

from the United Kingdom

Baker Small apologises after series of tweets appeared to gloat at parents who failed to win funding of their children’s special needs provision

A law firm that specialises in contesting claims for children with special educational needs (SEN) has apologised after publishing a series of tweets that appeared to gloat at parents.

Belinda Hitchcock knew instinctively something was different with her baby.

Her placid son Bradley, who started talking when he was 18 months old, had regressed to incoherent babbling. By the time Bradley was two he had lost the ability to speak. 

His mother was fobbed off again and again by doctors as she desperately tried to find answers. 

Jane Hansen

PARENTS of autistic children are spending millions of dollars a year on bogus treatments in the hope of a miracle “cure”.

Now there are fears the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be ripped off by these charlatans, who are ­already preying on desperate parents.

Diane Verstappen from Aspire Early Intervention, an evidence-based program, said parents with self-managed funds from the NDIS would be a prime target.

The centre behind an successful early intervention program for autistic children in Tasmania's north-west hopes to expand its services to other parts of the state.

University research has found children at the Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centre in Burnie have experienced big improvements.

Data collected from 98 children over four years showed most had improved in behaviour, communication, language development and motor skills.

The centre has been running for the last six years and is the only regional autistic learning centre in Australia.