PIAC has commenced a discrimination test case on behalf of an eight-year old girl who has an autism spectrum disorder, after she was expelled from her primary school in Year 2.

PIAC’s client, Hannah Blundy, says that her daughter, Catherine, was expelled after her school failed to provide a range of supports and adjustments recommended by health professionals in time to keep her educational and social development on track.

The relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to autism and traits of the condition have held steady over multiple decades, according to a large twin study ¹.

Among tens of thousands of Swedish twins born over the span of 26 years, genetic factors have consistently had a larger impact on the occurrence of autism and autism traits than environmental factors have. The study suggests that genetics account for about 93 percent of the chance that a person has autism, and 61 to 73 percent of the odds she shows autism traits.

Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych.

The Washington Post's depiction of autism has shifted over the years from a focus on "cause and cure" toward one of acceptance and accommodation, say the authors of a study that examined 315 articles published from 2007 to 2017.

Grace Tobin

The Australian chapter of an international church selling and promoting bleach as a cure for COVID-19 has been issued infringement notices totalling $151,200.

Autism researchers are starting to think that autistic and non-autistic faces may “speak a different language” when conveying emotion. This could mean the “social difficulties” often associated with autism may, at least partly, result from differences in the facial expressions produced by autistic and non-autistic people. It means we may need to re-think the idea that autistic people have difficulties with expressing their emotions and instead consider that non-autistic people may have trouble reading them.

Ry Crozier

Brings five consultants onboard initially.

Woolworths has kicked off a six-month “pilot program” employing five autistic technology consultants to work across several quality assurance and software delivery projects.

The program is enabled through a partnership with auticon, which has been in Australia since November last year, and coincides with World Autism Awareness Month.

Jake Dietsch

An aspiring Bouvard rapper who has racked up hundreds of followers in the past month says living with autism was a help, rather than a hindrance, to his creativity.

Lachlan Brownlie, 18, always received As in English, despite struggling in other subjects, and started experimenting with poetry at the age of just four.

“I started mixing words together and that’s how I developed my creativity,” he said.

Tita Smith

An Australian dad is pleading for help after his son was taken by child protection services because his autism was mistaken as a sign of psychological abuse.  

Conrad and Katya den Hertog lost their son Martin, now seven, to Dutch authorities during a night-time raid of their home in Amsterdam in February 2018.