BY MONIQUE EBRINGTON — 28 Sep, 2010 12:00 AM
WESTERN suburbs parents have welcomed state government funding for a feasibility study for an autistic school catering for prep to year 12 students.

At present, Western Autistic School has campuses in Deer Park and Niddrie, but children can attend for only four years before going into mainstream or special schools.

Altona North resident Mark Websdale said a recent meeting with Education Minister Bronwyn Pike was a step towards a new school.

Mr Websdale is a member of Autism Schools Action, a group of parents in the western suburbs who have been lobbying MPs on the issue for several years.

"We have been quite frustrated over a long period of time to get no apparent result," Mr Websdale said.

September 29, 2010 Carol Nader

AFTER five years of struggling with the relentless demands of a little boy with severe autism, Anna finally snapped. She drove him to a hospital and asked child protection workers to meet her there and take him.

They came and collected her boy. She returned home to a strange quiet in the house. She thought it would be for the best, that he'd be somewhere safe.

Jewel Topsfield September 10, 2010

A 17-year-old student with autism is suing the Education Department for discrimination because his teacher refused to modify questions in his maths tests.

Lewis Walton, who received an A-plus in general maths and B-plus in maths methods in year 11, said his scores plunged in VCE specialist maths because his language difficulties meant he struggled to interpret open-ended questions that related to real-life situations.

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.

• Paul Austin
• May 5, 2009

A $925 million social welfare package to help Victorians hit by the global recession will be a centrepiece of today's state budget.

...

The program, "A Fairer Victoria", is designed to help the state's most vulnerable citizens — including new migrants, Aborigines, families with disabled children and people with a mental illnesses — who are likely to suffer most as unemployment rises and the economy slows.

from The Age, Letters

24/4/2009

from The Age

• Carol Nader and Farrah Tomazin
• April 22, 2009

Meredith Ward with her son Grant. Photo: Angela Wylie

GRANT can tell that he is different from the other kids he goes to school with. The 13-year-old has moderate autism, interfering with his ability to learn.

from The Age, Letters

ONLY parents of children with disabilities and their advocates would spot the irony in Bronwyn Pike describing students with disabilities with challenging behaviours as being "through no fault of their own" (The Age, 22/4). Ms Pike's descriptions seems to be at odds with typical school responses to these behaviours — detention/ suspension/expulsion.