Support for families of children with autism is often falling short of what is recommended by researchers, according to a leader in the field.

Professor Katrina Williams is director of Developmental Medicine at the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) which provides care for children with a range of disabilities and conditions, including autism spectrum disorder.

She said parents of children with autism often take their child to see a range of experts, with little coordination between them.

This meant some families were being put under unnecessary stress.

The numbers of people with ­autism eligible for the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme were “grossly underestimated” from the start.

When two Labor governments sat down to put flesh on the bones of an agreement to roll out the $22 billion national disability insurance scheme in South Australia the numbers of participants provided were demonstrably false.

The state insisted only 5085 places were needed. It could not afford to go any higher but it knew the federal government would bear the full cost of any overrun if the signed agreement was exceeded in any way.

Australian pediatricians are seeing more new patients with autism, accordin­g to a study that shows the proportion of first consult­ations taken up by the diagnosis has risen from 5 per cent to 15 per cent in just five years.

Associate professor Harriet Hiscock, from the Murdoch Child­rens Research Institute, yesterday said a follow-up to her previous study, which was published in theMedical Journal of Australia, found autism was taking up more of the pediatric workload.

In Sydney, Tina Lopez and her husband, Arron Dickens, are dipping into their savings to pay about $42,000 a year out of their pockets for their son James because a federal program stumps up only $12,000 over two years. In South Australia, where The Australian revealed children with autism now made up 46 per cent of the delayed, oversubscribed National Disability Insurance Scheme trial, the Andrews family had to fight to get a $40,000 package from the scheme for son David, 4.

Sean Parnell

Health Editor, Brisbane

Up to half of Australian children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder are expected to have higher needs warranting support from the National Disability Insurance Scheme, according to a leading academic.

Rick Morton

Social Affairs Reporter, Sydney

Children with autism-spectrum disorders have flooded the trial of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in South Australia and make up almost half of all participants, contributing to a blowout in the numbers which would be replicated across the country when the full scheme launches.

Editorial note: The conclusion reached in these these stories is contentious/disputed. Autism is not "swallowing up" other diagnoses as is suggested. Other information is available elsewhere, for example here, here and here.

The way autism is diagnosed has led to an apparent tripling in cases in recent years that does not reflect reality, researchers say.

Rather, more youths with intellectual or developmental disabilities are being reclassified as autistic, the United States-based study published in American Journal of Medical Genetics found.

University of Western Australia Telethon Kids Institute's Andrew Whitehouse said the trend was "almost certainly the same in Australia".

The prevalence of autism in the US was just one in 5,000 in 1975.

It leapt to one in 150 in 2002, and reached one in 68 in 2012, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This new research provides the first direct evidence that much of the increase may be attributable merely to a reclassification of individuals with related neurological disorders rather than to an actual increase in the rate of new cases of autism," the study authors wrote.

When human beings see a face and socially engage with another human, whether it’s a stranger or loved one, we get a hit of the feel-good chemicals oxytocin and dopamine. It’s fleeting and subconscious a lot of the time, but it reinforces us to seek out and enjoy that face again.

More than 80% of people aged 16-25 with autism or Asperger's in Wirral have been victims of so-called mate crime, a report has found.

Wirral Autistic Society said the number young people who had suffered from mate crime was "staggeringly high".

Victims of this type of crime - by people who claim to be friends - suffer verbal and physical abuse and theft.

The survey, carried out earlier this year, collated 141 responses, which were all submitted anonymously.