Phil Hickey

An educator says she was left "disturbed" by a conversation she had with a school psychologist who is on trial accused of assaulting a young student with autism.

The boy was 12 when the alleged assault happened at the school.

Agni Angelkovska, 50, is on trial in the Perth Magistrates Court accused of slapping the male student and throwing a cup of water at him at Christ Church Grammar School in 2014.

The Honourable Paul Fletcher MP

Minister for Families and Social Services

The Honourable Sarah Henderson MP

Assistant Minister for Social Services, Housing and Disability Services

Dear Ministers

Your media release (10/12) on increased pricing to support people with complex needs is disappointing for the following reasons.

People with disability with complex support needs are set to benefit from improved support under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Minister for Families and Social Services Paul Fletcher today announced new pricing arrangements under the $22 billion scheme. 

“The pricing increase recognises that people with complex needs require higher levels of skilled supports in their NDIS plans,” Mr Fletcher said.

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.

Children with autism will be given the opportunity to meet with Santa away from the noisy crowds this Christmas to ensure their wish list makes it to the North Pole.

Ocean Keys Shopping Centre has had a quiet word to the elves and has organised Father Christmas to meet with children on the autism spectrum in a calm, quiet environment.

People on the autism spectrum can find noisy and crowded places unduly stressful, making Christmas crowds particularly difficult.

Daile Cross

The young Perth man confined to a dingy bedroom in a Department of Communities house will be allocated an extra staff member to support him during the night.

Cathy Pryor

The realisation that my son Lucien saw the world in a different light came slowly, but there were small clues along the way.

Once, when asked to describe the colour of a banana, he answered white, not yellow. (When you think about it, he could well be right: while the skin is yellow, the flesh is much paler than that.)

And then there was the endearing way he followed the squares on a rug when he was learning to walk.

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In 1960s Australia very few people had even heard of the term autism, and with next to no supports available, families were pretty much on their own.

Kristelle Hudry, La Trobe University and Cathy Bent, La Trobe University

Much of the research about including children with autism in mainstream classrooms is focused on school-aged children. Growing numbers of children with autism are diagnosed in toddlerhood, so there is increasing relevance for the early-childhood sector. Our new research shows, with support, educators can effectively include and teach children on the spectrum in mainstream childcare, alongside their non-autistic peers.

Programs to support learning in key areas - language, cognition and independence skills - have been found to be effective for many children with autism. But we need options that are also affordable and accessible within children’s local communities. Many families ferry children around to appointments with different professionals, employ therapists to come into the home, or travel long distances to specialist centres.