Anita Beaumont

IF Luke and Katrina Horn both worked nine-to-five jobs, they say there is “no way” they could cover the care of their 18-year-old son under his latest National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan.

Dillon Horn, of Newcastle, has autism and epilepsy, and he is non-verbal.

Until now, Dillon has not needed “a lot” in terms of his NDIS plan because he was attending a special development school, full time.

Rick Morton

An autism advisory group that will provide feedback to the managers of the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme has been ­established after revelations in this newspaper of a crackdown in support.

Social Services Minister Dan Tehan announced the group yesterday following reports in The Australian that began when the National Disability Insurance Agency accidentally published a new list of conditions that gain automatic entry to the scheme and which excluded level-two autism.

Elizabeth Fortescue

If you bundle a child into a jumper and beanie for a chilly night out at Vivid Sydney, you’ll soon be treated to a stream of chatter about the sparkly blanket of magic cast over the city by the lights and projections.

But when an excited Charlie Isackson turned to his mum at Vivid and told her, “I like it”, it was the only thing he said all night. In fact, it was the only sentence Charlie has ever said in all his seven years.

Lisa Mayoh

When a child is diagnosed with autism, a family is changed forever. Everything is different. Everyone is learning to live a “new normal” that can take years to adjust to, and decades to master.

Careers, relationships, travel, goals: everything is put on hold while the child — their treatment, progress and needs — comes first, as most would agree they should.

But to raise a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), parents too must consider their own happiness.

Alan Howe

The images cramming the frames of Harrison Fischer’s first years are of a happy child, but one often distracted by commands only he could hear.

At two he wasn’t walking and had no language. He was restless, unsleeping, would turn lights on and off, taps too, and endlessly spin things — like the tops of pots — and scratch glass.

Rick Morton

Around the world right now ­researchers are beginning to wonder whether the concept of an ­autism spectrum is a mistake.

The “thought experiment” was floated by renowned developmental psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen ahead of a global ­research conference on autism in The Netherlands last month.

What if, he proposed, intro­ducing the spectrum of disorders under one umbrella in the latest diagnosis bible was a well-­intentioned but ultimately misguided move?