Funding for Young Children Expanded

by Seana Smith on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Here’s a press release about the Helping Children with Autism package- this will be welcome news to many families.

Media Release    Date: 22 September 2009

JENNY MACKLIN MP - Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

BILL SHORTEN MP - Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services

Autism services expanded across Australia

Around 1400 children with Autism Spectrum Disorders will have easier access to early intervention services, following changes to the Helping Children with Autism package.

The changes will increase the number of service providers and allow families more time to use the $12,000 over two years available under this package.

This funding gives children with Autism Spectrum Disorders the chance to benefit from a range of early interventions, including one-on-one intensive activities and tailored group and individual programs.

From 19 October 2009, new arrangements will allow additional speech pathologists, occupational therapists and psychologists to participate in the autism program, subject to quality requirements.

Under the previous requirements, individual professionals could only be approved if they formed or joined consortia and operated as part of a team. Now these providers can join the program, increasing the number of service providers families can access across Australia .

Under the changes, families with children approved for early intervention funding will also be able to access early intervention funds until the child’s seventh birthday.

This has been increased from six years, and will give families an extra year to access autism services.

Families will still need to have their child diagnosed with Autism before their sixth birthday and see an Autism Advisor to access early intervention funding.

Parents who have since lost access to their approved early intervention funding because their child turned six, will be given an additional 12 months to use the funding.

Due to significant demand, some families have experienced waiting lists and have been unable to utilise their full funding package before their child had their sixth birthday.

Since October 2008, more than 3700 children have accessed services under the $190 million Helping Children with Autism package, the first national initiative to help families deal with this challenging disorder.

Currently there are almost 350 service organisations delivering early intervention in 536 locations across Australia .

Helping Children with Autism is making it easier for parents to access early intervention services for children with autism.

11 COMMENTS

Three websites worth a look

by Seana Smith on Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Until a nanosecond ago, I was going to write a blog called “Five Websites Worth a Look” and then I thought… hold on… five is too many to hit myself with at one time and I’ll bet other people feel the same way. Late of an evening I do still love to trawl through new websites, but three is the maximum I can deal with before either:

a)  sensory and mental overload kicks in and I need to reach for a glass of wine.

b)  I’m overwhelmed by exhaustion and need to reach for a glass of wine.

So lets wind back and let me present:

Three Websites Worth a Look

1.     www.servam.com.au

SERVAM is essentially a new Australian digital handbook for families, described by its authors as :  “An easy approach to integrating therapy and education in your family life.”

SERVAM is an arconym which stands for:

- Sensory considerations

- Environmental management

- Routines and planned change

- Visual supports

- Autism friendly communication

- Motivation

The handbook aims to assist families to work with their children and the team of professionals they use.   It is written by two experienced practitioners withj many years experience working with children on the spectrum.   It’s a new Australian resource worth knowing about, take a browse through the website and have a squizz.

2.   www.teaching.com.au

MTA stands for Modern Teaching Aids, and this website sells educational toys and resources for early childhood, primary and secondary students.  Your preschool or daycare facility will usually buy their toys from websites like this as will your schools.  The online brochure is HUGE and quite overwhelming, but worth getting to know.  It’s a terrific resource for when you are setting up therapy at home and just for good quality toys as presents.   Enjoy a pre-Christmas browse!

3.  http://www.blogher.com/identifying-and-avoiding-autism-cults

Autism mum Shannon Des Roches Rosa has written a long post on her blog about her own experiences with what she describes as “autism cults.”  It’s worth reading her opinions and point of view, and although she has tailored it for readers whose children are recently diagnosed there is still food for thought for those of us whose children were diagnosed long ago.

She’s written it as a cautionary tale and I can relate to that since I wrote my own biomed journey up as a Cautionary tale in our book.  I am not quite so anti-complementary medicines as Shannon seems to be, just a believer in one thing at a time and really trying to track whether changes are genuine or imagined.  Anyway, this American’s mom’s point of view is worth a read.

16 COMMENTS

Podcast – fascinating listening for ASD families.

by Seana Smith on Friday, August 28th, 2009

I am a great lover of radio, mainly because I can listen to really interesting things as I do housework.  After mastering iTunes and iPod, I now catch up on a whole range of programmes whilst tidying up the kitchen, which is a job done many times a day in my house.   Loading the dishwasher, washing up the pots and pans and wiping down the tops, tidying up the general family debris has become (almost) a pleasure thanks to the hard workers at the ABC and the BBC.

Occasionally a podcast mentions autism/ASD, and fairly often I’m disappointed by the quality of the research.  Not so in the podcast you can find at:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2009/2567806.htm

This is from the excellent show “All In The Mind” – the ABC’s weekly show about the brain and mind. In this episode,   Autism: genetics, early detection and the ethics of screening newborns, presenter Natasha Mitchell interviews two American neurologist/paediatricians and also Assoc. Proff Cheryl Dissanayake, who is a developmental psychologist and is Director of the new Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre at Latrobe University.

Dr Dissanayake does research into the early detection of ASD, and talks about the effects of beginning treatment very early.

As a parent, I feel sure that studying the very early signs of ASD, and then trying to treat children in infancy, is a crucial area which will answer some of the toughest ASD questions: What causes ASDs?   What are all the different types of ASDs   Can any be prevented?

Whilst these questions do not press upon my mind as harshly as they did when my son was first diagnosed, I do hope one day to know for sure the answers to them.   The volume of research being done on ASD is truly enormous, and we hope in this blog to bring to light some of the most interesting findings.

55 COMMENTS