Kerrie Curtis with son Harry and daughter Isabelle.
Photo: Simon Schluter

Jewel Topsfield Education Editor for The Age, 24 September 2012

AS THE mother of three children on the autism spectrum, Kerrie Curtis is a veteran of battles with the Victorian education system.

Her latest fight is to get special VCE exam provisions for her oldest son Liam, who has Asperger's, an anxiety disorder and a learning difficulty. Ms Curtis' frustration is not with his school, RMIT, which she says has been absolutely superb.

However she says the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority has been ''extraordinarily inflexible''. Just weeks away from VCE exams she is still trying to apply for him to use a laptop in exams.

Meanwhile, she is fighting to get her son Harry's primary school to pay for the speech therapy and assistance with emotional regulation and social skills that medical experts say he needs.

THE NSW Director of Public Prosecutions has dropped investigations into the death of profoundly autistic Canberra teenager Jack Sullivan more than four years ago.

Almost two years since the case was passed to the DPP, the public prosecutor says it does not have enough evidence to press manslaughter charges against a person whose name has been suppressed.

Since Jack's death, his mother, Esther Woodbury, had assumed her son drowned in a bath after an epileptic seizure while in outside care.

By Louise Milligan
Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Why is the number of children with autism doubling every five years? For Louise Milligan, the quest for an answer is deeply personal.

There is no other way to describe the feeling, except to say I felt I had been shot. We were sitting in a psychologist's office, being told that our son, our delicious three-year-old boy, had an autism spectrum disorder.

By Emily Bourke

Thousands of Australian children with autism could miss out on government-funded support and services because of changes to the way autism is diagnosed.

The manual of medical disorders known as the DSM 5, used by psychiatrists around the world, is being updated.

The updated American guidebook for mental disorders is expected to be released in May next year, but already it has many people nervous.

THOUSANDS of children diagnosed with autism could lose access to thousands of dollars in federal support and other subsidies under changes planned for the manual of medical disorders used to guide psychiatrists worldwide.

Autism patient advocates say the first Australian research on the likely impact of the changes suggests 23 per cent of those who qualify as having a form of autism would no longer do so.

The Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, La Trobe University, has developed an online resource for ASD students, parents, and tertiary staff. The website development was part of a larger project which aims to support tertiary students diagnosed with ASD.

Here’s the link: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/otarc/info/support

Briefly, each section contains the following information:
• Students: transition and orientation, disclosure, what to expect at university and TAFE, learning at university and TAFE.

Hamish Fitzsimmons

A leading expert on autism is warning of the long-term costs if funds to assist the education of children with autism spectrum disorder continue to be cut.

Researchers say autistic children who are bullied at school often do not receive any help until the abuse becomes physical.

A study of 50 autistic primary and secondary school students by Bond University on Queensland's Gold Coast has found 80 per cent of them have experienced bullying without their teachers knowing.

Dr Vicki Bitsika from the Centre of Autism Spectrum Disorders says it often takes a long time for a child with autism to realise they are being mistreated.

Sandy Guy
July 2, 2012

Opinion

LAST Tuesday I received a phone call from a former Yooralla regional manager. She said police were going to the home of my 31-year-old son, who is severely disabled, to interview him and the other five residents of the house, which is run by Yooralla.

Stunned, I asked her what was going on. She replied that a Yooralla casual carer was in police custody charged with alleged abuse. I asked her when the police were going to my son's house. She said they were already there.