Isabel Bird

A Tasmanian mother is hoping to promote social acceptance of autism with a picture book that teaches children and their parents about autism.

Katt Strachan has written Poppi Lou is Different which features Poppi, her nine-year-old daughter who is on the autism spectrum.

Ms Strachan said she started writing the book after Poppi came home from school sad and upset because other children did not want to play with her. 

Ellen Coulter

A mother in northern Tasmania has raised concerns about the standard of training for teachers working with children who have disabilities, saying her daughter, who has autism, was traumatised and teased after being placed in an open box in her classroom.

Ellen Coulter

A mother in northern Tasmania has raised concerns about the standard of training for teachers working with children who have disabilities, saying her daughter, who has autism, was traumatised and teased after being placed in an open box in her classroom.

Frances Vinall

A new exhibition at Kimono Lounge showcases the works of Launceston artist Damian Colpo. 

The Kimono Lounge, a former church, is a gallery and shop in the home of Sarah Trousdale. She doubles as an art therapy teacher, and her gallery is a space for people of all abilities.

Colpo, who has autism, is a student of Trousdale’s, and has found art as a way to show his creativity, unique worldview, and love of animals. 

Rhiana Whitson

A Hobart grandmother has accused a not-for-profit disability services provider of housing her 15-year-old grandson in substandard conditions, with the organisation telling the ABC people with profound autism can be "volatile and destructive" towards furniture and property.

The grandmother, who the ABC has renamed Kathleen for legal reasons, also alleged the state of the boy's accommodation shocked even an employee of the organisation.

WE all know them — the shy schoolboy who sits alone studying maths while the other kids frolic in the playground, the teen girl who simply will not stop talking despite the obvious signs of boredom from her friends, or the majestically gifted musician who fails to pass a single subject at school.

Chances are that if any of these people sought specialist help because they felt they were struggling to “be like everyone else”, they could be diagnosed with a degree of autism or Asperger’s syndrome.

Hayden Johnson

It will be some time before the National Disability Insurance Scheme fully services the needs of Tasmanians living with a disability, the chief executive of Autism Tasmania has declared.

The comments of Terry Burke, head of the state’s peak not-for-profit group for people living with autism, come one day after it was revealed a Giant Steps’ program would close.