NICHOLETTE ZELIADT

Although the number of people diagnosed with autism is on the rise, the proportion with severe features has declined since 2000, according to a study of children in Western Australia¹.

3 February 2017

Families of young children with disability can continue accessing support and advice through the Australian Government’s early intervention programs until the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) reaches full scheme in 2019-20.

Emily Willingham 

In a strongly worded statement dated February 1, the board of directors of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) has expressed its “unanimous denunciation” of what it calls “restrictive immigration policies” as laid out in what is likely Donald Trump’s most controversial executive order (EO) to date. The complete text was posted to INSAR’s website January 31.

GEMMA Foxall and Liz Martin were teaching colleagues, then friends, then found out within a week of each other that their sons had severe autism.

Living in the relatively isolated town of Bunbury, three hours south of Perth, the two mothers quickly found they had to rely on each other even more.

They quickly discovered that without constant fighting on their part, simply living in regional Australia could be devastating for their children.

An autistic teenager, who studied at Hobart College last year, received his TCE in the mail only to be told a month later that it was a mistake and he hadn’t passed.

That was after a year of misinformation from the college, about whether Jacob O’Beirne would receive his tick for numeracy through a Ticket To Work program.

Having made no progress on this issue, here is a letter that I sent to the Prime Minister:

Dear Prime Minister

Since June 2016 I have been unable to access my son’s myPlace webpage via the myGov website.

I have raised this several times. Yesterday, I spent about 2 hours mostly on hold with the NDIA and the myGov helpline.

The NDIA said their system is working perfectly and that the problem is with the myGov website. The myGov help people check out their system and said the problem is the NDIA’s myPlace system.

Parents of children whose federally funded support for autism therapy is set to expire are facing a frustrating reality.

The Anne McDonald Centre made an alarming submission to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Services for People with ASD.

It alleges inappropriate testing of non-verbal children, many of whom have ASD ... and subsequently, inappropriate and ineffective teaching in Victorian schools.

The submission can be downloaded from http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images…;