Lachlan Roberts

The Ricky Stuart Foundation is looking to open a third respite centre for people with autism and other disabilities across the ACT border in Queanbeyan.

Having already established two respite houses – the Ricky Stuart House in Chifley and the Emma Ruby House in Cook, Canberra Raider’s coach Ricky Stuart is now hoping to establish the same service in his town of birth.

Ben Fordham

The amount of students with a disability in schools is on the rise and teachers aren’t properly trained to handle the increase.

Autism rates across NSW schools are climbing 15 per cent each year, but only nine per cent of teachers are equipped to support them.

University of Newcastle lecturer David Roy helped to develop a new disability scheme and calls for all teachers to be properly trained.

“We just want to help kids,” he says.

Jordan Baker

Schools in NSW are facing "unprecedented pressure" due to soaring disability rates, with the number of students with autism increasing by almost 15 per cent per year and those with mental health needs growing by more than five per cent.

Yet there are fewer staff trained to support them as the number of special education graduates fall and more than half of teachers admit to a lack of confidence in the area.

Agron Latifi

The University of Wollongong has joined the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC).

The new alliance will see the university contribute to efforts to translate research into real, positive benefits for people on the autism spectrum.

Two hundred children on the autism spectrum will enjoy the thrill of surfing when a special event is held at Cronulla for the first time.

Parents have rushed to register their children for the experience on Sunday, February 24.

Country Autism Network has joined Surfers Healing Australia to run the free event, which started five years ago and has been expanded this year to three beaches.

The 2018 event. Video: Surfers Healing Australia

For more than 20 years now, a former champion surfer has been using his love of the ocean to help children with autism.

Now, his surf camps are coming to Australia.

Israel ‘Izzy’ Paskowitz discovered the incredible healing power of the ocean through his own son more than 20 years ago.

While on a beach in Hawaii, Izzy was struggling to handle one of Isaiah’s meltdowns when he picked him up and tossed him in the water.

Isaiah popped back above the water with a huge smile on his face and Surfers Healing was born.

Anita Beaumont

THE “exhaustive” process of contesting a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan can eventually work, but only for those who are willing to wait, and able to fight, Hunter families say.

Anna Noon, of Speers Point, said it took 14 months to go through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) after her son’s plan was slashed by more than 70 per cent without warning.

Her son, Zach, became an NDIS participant during the trial of the scheme in the Hunter.

Gemma Bath

Zeke Harvey, 9, used to hate the beach. As a child with autism - the sounds, glare and movement were a sensory overload.

He spent most of last year’s nippers season distressed and upset next to a bin in the beach carpark.

If you saw him now, you wouldn’t think it was the same boy.

Angela Thompson

A magistrate is considering the fate of an Illawarra FaCs carer accused of assaulting a mute autistic boy, after the child’s parents took the extraordinary step of planting a recording device in their son’s bag in a bid to explain his bruises. 

In distressing audio recordings played to Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday, Lennard Michael Downes is heard calling the boy a "f---ing c---" and threatening to hit him if he doesn’t eat.