When Gay von Ess completed her training and started as a preschool teacher in the late 1960s, she felt an instant attraction to the two special needs children in her care.

''I really felt they were more interesting than the mainstream children,'' she said.

Jessica Hamzelou, reporter

One in every 38 children may have an autism spectrum disorder - more than double the current US estimate. The latest research in a South Korean population suggests that by overlooking children attending regular schools, previous reports wildly underestimated the true prevalence of the disorder.

Did you know there's an expensive policy proposal Tony Abbott isn't opposed to? When it lobbed last week both sides made supportive noises about it so, thanks to the perversity of politics, it slipped past without getting the attention it deserves. It's the Productivity Commission's draft report on the government's desire to establish a national disability insurance scheme.

The scheme would cover people with severe disabilities present at birth or acquired through an accident or health problem, but not due to ageing.

BY PHILLIP THOMSON 15 Oct, 2010

An inquest into the death of a profoundly autistic Canberra teenager at Canberra Hospital in 2008 has heard that a person may have committed an indictable offence that led to the tragedy.

NSW Deputy State Coroner Hugh Dillon yesterday suspended the inquest, which began at Queanbeyan Local Court on Monday, to allow the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate the person in question.

Support teachers for children with disabilities, and school counsellors, are among the jobs which would be axed under a draft plan by ACT Education to meet a 1per cent budget efficiency dividend.

Parents, teachers and the Opposition have accused the ACT Government of attempting to avoid scrutiny by releasing on the eve of school holidays a consultation paper which reveals details of the proposed cuts.

CONCERNED: Psychologist Sandra Kaye, with her daughter Elishia, 10, said a time limit was inappropriate for many children.

A Canberra psychologist and a disability support group have questioned the validity of last week's national literacy and numeracy tests, claiming inappropriate time limits were imposed on some disabled students while other parents were encouraged to keep children at home to improve a school's overall results.

The December 2009 edition of Autism Awareness is available for download.

The ABC's Stateline program in Canberra "has won a national award for a recent report. Sadly there have been no rewards for the family featured in that story although the Government rejects assertions that funding for autism has been reduced."

more? ... see http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2009/12/04/2762759.htm