For my thesis I have tried to untangle the current policy process and hope to recommend a consistently better way of doing things that includes the lived experience of people with autism and their families. I’ve got a way to go yet but here is a summary of what I’ve found out.

New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline initiatives

Much of the current concern and awareness of ASD goes back to the death of a teenage autistic girl in 1997. Since then there have been large numbers of papers and reports, committees and research projects mainly from the Ministries of Education and Health. This work culminated in the publication in April 2008 of the New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline, with over 300 recommendations based on best practice knowledge from around the world. It was a world first in that it took a whole of government, whole of spectrum, whole of life approach to ASD (although the adult section was particularly light as least work had been done in that field).  The Labour-led government gave $17.5 million in 2007 for this work over 4 years. This has almost run out but hopefully some funding will be ongoing.

A contract was won by the New Zealand Guidelines Group to work on implementation. They set up a group of people including people with autism, parents and ASD professionals as their Implementation Advisory Group*. It is chaired by Matt Frost (who has written for humans). This group has its last meeting next week and an ongoing cross agency group will keep monitoring work programmes. (There is also an ongoing Living Guideline Group which is updating evidence and they first worked on ABA and are now examining medication.) 

In the last two years the NZGG’s IAG, and their sponsors in the Ministries of Health and Education, have been very busy. They started by sorted all the recommendations into five priority areas 

• Assessment and diagnosis
• Support to strengthen families
• Interventions
• Respite
• Coordination

Several initiatives have resulted. They recommended putting more funding into programmes that were already working well. An example is the training for parents of pre-schoolers with ASD. Autism NZ has been given more money to take their Earlybird course to parents in most of the North Island. Idea Services won the contract for their new ASD Plus parent education course in Northland and the South Island.  Tips is a school based programme that was boosted.

Respite was another urgent area and contracts have been given to groups in various parts of New Zealand, and work reviewing respite is ongoing.

A big need was support for families through the diagnostic pathway and a tender was announced earlier this year for ASD coordinators in the DHBs for people under 19. There was not enough money for all the DHBs to have one each so they were encouraged to work collaboratively. The successful tenderers have not yet been announced, and it is possible that some regions will miss out. There is also the issue of people over 19 to address, and currently there is no pathway for diagnosis in the public system. For children and young people there are still long waits up to a year in many regions for diagnosis and as most Needs Assessment and Service Coordination agencies only work with people with ASD plus intellectual impairment (ie not Aspergers) there needs to be a cognitive assessment as well to determine whether the child has intellectual impairment (which may take another 18 month wait). Education has its own diagnostic and support pathway and their assessment process means a child may or may not get help with a teacher aide in pre-school or school.

However, some good news is that resources about ASD have been developed for GPs, health professionals and others (called recognisers and referrers). These have been developed jointly by the Werry Centre, Altogether Autism and the NZGG, and there is now a website where they can be found (as well as a hologram of IAG chair and Aspie Matt Frost) www.asdguideline.com

Behaviour support is a big issue for some autism families and Idea Services recemtly won a contract for services in the Auckland region. A tender for services in the rest of New Zealand has closed and the successful group or groups will be announced in a couple of months.

Apart from all of this the Ministry of Education Special Education is developing a network of ‘go to’ ASD experts so there will be regional expertise available through their 14 Group Special Education offices. 

Overseeing all this is a senior officials groups with representation from several government departments as well as Health and Education, including Work and Income, Minstry of Social Development, CYFs and Justice.

Threats

However, while the ASD Guideline work is rolling out new and enhanced programmes, other parts of government are facing cuts and we need to be alert to these.

In education the cuts to community education and restrictions on entry to universities are very negative for people with autism as many have had bad experiences at school and need a pathway back into education such as through night classes. The Training Incentive Allowance which helped people on benefits access tertiary education has gone. There used to be funding for a cluster of schools to get together and employ an ASD specialist who would work across schools in the area and do such things as staff training (including all school staff). A very successful programme ran in the Wairarapa a couple of years ago and is now underway in the Upper Hutt area. However, funding for this was cut for new ventures in last year’s Budget.   The special education workers in the Ministry of Education are not considered front line and there have been several staff cuts including to pre-school autism advisors and people who liaised between families and schools. I have also heard of cuts to speech therapist positions. Other staff, already busy, will apparently also take on these jobs. This will probably mean that families have to tell their stories over and over to new staff.  My opinions on national standards can be found in earlier posts on humans. A review on Special Education has been underway over the last few months and they will report soon.

Welfare and employment are big issues in ASD. Getting the Child Disability Allowance (not means tested) has been almost automatic for any child with ASD under 16. It is now much harder and parents have to prove that ASD means significant extra costs. On turning 16 a young person with ASD could go on the Invalid’s Benefit even if they were still at school, and they wouldn’t need to keep proving they still had autism. The criteria are being tightened and many people with ASD on the IB are being put on the sickness benefit and work tested. Most people with ASD are willing and able to work but this may require significant support and employers and workplaces to understand about ASD, for example the sensory issues, the need for order, clear instructions and quiet spaces. But funding for employment support has been cut.

Changes to the Needs Assessment and Service Coordination system are likely with current work happening in the Ministry of Health looking at alternative systems such as the Local Area Coordination and Individualised Funding. These will be made public later this year.

However, there are organisations around New Zealand providing information and support. Autism NZ (www.autismnz.org.nz) is running a conference in Wellington in September which includes a stream run for and by adults on the spectrum. ANZ also have branches around new Zealand and some employ field workers and information staff. Altogether Autism (www.altogetherautism.org.nz) also provides information. The Ministries of Health and Education have ASD information about services on their websites. You can also get a free copy of the ASD Guideline or the English or te reo summary through the Ministry of Health and access regular ASD update newsletters.

There are also several facebook pages and websites relating to autism and Aspergers. The current estimate of one percent of the population on the autistic spectrum means many families, schools and communities will have autistic members.

(*Disclosure: I was part of the group which bid for that contract and am a member of the NZGG’s Implementation Advisory Group)

Sean has Asperger’s. Or is that Had Asperger’s? It is very hard for us to tell anymore. I hope this story will offer some hope for those parents who are willing to love their children unconditionally, nurture them unfailingly, and believe that we all have a place in this world.

Sean is our third child. He has an outspoken older sister – state competitor in track, homecoming queen; an introspective older brother – Eagle Scout, bass player in a band. We, his parents, are college graduates – self employed professionals. We are junkies of ‘positive mental attitude’ with our mantras being “there is no difference between the mind and the body” and “whether you think you can or think you cannot – you are right.” We have seen most of the big names in that industry: Chopra, Dyer, Canfield, Tracy and others. We were all of this before Sean was born, thank you God.

Sean had tendencies at an early age: he would not step on the cracks in the sidewalk, he would only wear sweatshirts with hoods and most of the time he had them up. He pumped (flapped) his fingers at most things he watched. He did everything in a routine. He hated bugs! And loud noises.

He had a very hard time with transitions – any transitions, places, people, clothes, food, everything. He had tantrums.

But he loved books, music and games – logic and spelling games on the computer at a very young age were his favorite. He could make his way through the steps of any game and could spell virtually anything. We discovered he could read when he was 3. When listening to music we would ask him “what note is this song?” He would go to the piano and without hesitation plunk the key that the song was in, also when he was 3.

When we discovered something called Asperger Syndrome we were terrified. Of course he had this! He had most of the signs & symptoms. What do we do?! Well, our beliefs and training told us to focus on the positive. Sean had so many positive qualities. Maybe he really didn’t have this Syndrome… then, yes, he really does.

We did not seek any medical advice. Not to diagnose, treat or even to ask questions. We sought out no help, no medication, no alternative care treatments, no parent groups, no books, not even any seminars or tapes. We went forward with these thoughts: Sean is our son and we love him just as he is. He has so many wonderful qualities and talents we are going to focus on them and deal with the rest keeping this in mind – Sean is our son and we love him.

We would be lying if we said everything went great. School was a challenge in the social aspect, which is classic. Sean had a great friend early in elementary school, but once they hit middle school his friend realized he could have just as much fun with kids who played sports and didn’t get so upset at seemingly small things. We confronted each issue as it came along doing the best we could to find a resolution he and we could be happy with, if even just for a moment. We had to be brutally honest with Sean at a young age. In third grade he was having break downs at school and the teacher called our home several times. Finally, we sat with him and said “Here’s the thing – we know the naughty kids make you mad, we know you don’t like milk, we know you know all the answers, we know you hate gym, and everything else but you have got to make it through the day without falling apart. You have to. Mrs. Smith’s job is to teach all the kids. You have to let her do her job. Your job is to do all the tasks she asks of you, the ones you like and the ones you don’t like. Our job is to love you and we do! We don’t want to say this, but you have to hold it in. You have to.” The teacher did not call again.

Over the years we have learned to help Sean deal with things one at a time and that seemed to help but we chaperoned most school trips just in case. We adjusted our working hours so dad could take the kids to school and mom could pick them up and one of us was always home. This reaped rewards beyond measure with our other children as well. As Sean matured he learned, with some help from us, to acknowledge when things started to bother him – even the kids at school learned that if he just had a second to decompress he could go on. That all seems like ancient history now. I suppose if we had written it all down we would have proof of how very difficult it was at times. The times we cried and broke down ourselves. But we didn’t keep track of the bad, only the good. Always, always, we focused on the positive – music, books, scouts. Family.

Tonight Sean will drive himself to church for Confirmation practice and after he and some friends will head to Subway to eat. So, it’s like this – does he or doesn’t he? If he was never diagnosed then maybe he never needed a cure. So we just don’t mention it. And everyday he still hears I love you.

Jamine & Brian Deal

 So began a lifetime of therapy. Getting him out of hospital was hard enough, as his feeding was very difficult to establish, and we were mostly feeding him expressed milk through a nasal gastric tube. But we stuck at it, and finally got the little man home.

 Auckland hospital provided a physiotherapist who came to the house, as it was seen as highly likely Marcus would need extra care. Likely turned to certain as he developed, and continued to be well below his age for weight and gross motor development. We were encouraged to learn as much as possible from the therapist who opened our eyes to the tender art of weaving therapy into every activity.

 Curiously, the underdevelopment of gross motor led to heightened development of other areas. Marcus never crawled, probably on account of weak arm and shoulders, so he spent a lot of time sitting in one spot playing intensively with toys, and learned very quickly that he could use his mouth to get various things. He talked well before he walked.

 Because the cause of his stroke was never known for sure, and could not be attributed to a pre-existing condition, we were encouraged by the obstetrician to make an Accident Compensation Commission claim for him. I’m often struck by just how different things might have been in a country where medical accidents can only be compensated for by suing the doctors, who are likely to deny that it was an accident to whatever extent they can – but here the very doctor who delivered him was instrumental in pushing for the successful claim, and Marcus now has lifelong coverage for pretty much all costs which are linked to his accident.

 Upon the acceptance of the claim, the level of care for Marcus jumped hugely. He started to receive regular visits from physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and dieticians. He has made huge progress in every area, putting on weight, gaining strength, learning to crawl, walk, run, climb, use toys that require hand and finger strength, learned to talk about what he is doing, what he has done, and to plan what he will do.

 But he has shown for over a year now some features that led his pediatrician to give a tentative diagnosis of  ‘on the autism spectrum’. This manifests in familiar ways, that he prefers highly repetitive activities, loves to repeat long lists of things he has learned by rote, takes very little notice of other children, and generally avoids contact with them. For instance, he would often sit and play with the telephone book for up to an hour, just flipping through the pages. Or he would speak to anyone who would listen at great length about ‘Mouskatools’ which he had seen on TV, pretty much repeating the lists over and over. Or he will just stand giggling and flapping his arms, staring at a wall, for many minutes at a time.

 The therapists have generally sought to discourage this kind of behavior, typically by encouraging him to do something else more ‘constructive’. They even made the harsh call of suggesting we take books away from him for a while, because they were distracting and he was not using them as books, but as tactile toys. A bit of soul searching was required for that. This worked out very well in the end, though, his range of play expanded very rapidly after the week or so it took him to get over the fact that there was not a book to be found anywhere. We’ve given them back now and his obsession with flipping the pages is gone.

 It is always hard to know just how much of the improvement comes from therapy, both direct from the therapists, and what we have learned to apply, and how much of it comes directly from Marcus, who has a stubborn nature which enables him to persist at tasks until he attains some kind of mastery. My opinion is that it is all of these things, that therapy has helped a lot, that his persistent nature could be nature’s response to his accident, as well as somewhat innate, and that our trust in the therapists and attempts to incorporate their teaching into everything we do with Marcus, have all contributed to his ongoing improvement. I’m very hesitant to generalize anything about Marcus to other autistic children, and can only say what we’ve done that has helped to encourage development towards a stronger, more able child who can handle socialization.

 It’s been very hard for me to finish this story, the above paragraphs were written months ago, and yet I could not commit to publishing it. I guess I have to be honest that I’m conflicted about the condition itself. Marcus is only ‘mildly’ autistic, and it’s possible that love makes me blind, so that I only see the things he does that indicate autism as parts of his character. It seems rough to want to train these things out of him. And yet, the training has seemed to work, the features that seemed autistic being generally discouraged (usually by changing the focus of the activity when he seems to have fixated on something), has expanded his range of play, talk and movement. I have no idea how much of this would work with other autistic children, in whom the condition is more innate, and more severe. Each child is different, but all are beautiful, all need the time and love of their family. However they turn out.

Ben Wilson

Together they have formed a research team to look at how young people with intellectual impairment like them can have more control over the transition process and resolve barriers many face in going on to work or independent living.  The statistics reveal that, compared to people without intellectual disability, people with an intellectual disability are more likely to be unemployed, have fewer qualifications, have fewer friends and live at home or with caregivers.  And there is a big gap between government policy and what actually happens.

So what can be done to address this? Their research questions include asking how young people can have more choice and control over their lives in this transition from school to post school lives.  Their focus groups include those with answers: young disabled people both at school and school leavers, famlies, educators and employers.

They have been jointly involved in research design. I asked what themes are emerging from their research as to what young disabled people want? After carefully explaining to me that there are ethical and confidential issues around their research which means they can not tell me what individual people might have said, they can reveal that some of the things the young people want are real jobs which pay proper wages, friends, to go flatting, to get married and have a family (ie the same things non-disabled young people want).  The researchers want to be valued for who they are and what they do and this, of course, includes wanting to have their research valued, to make a difference and to be paid, professional researchers. Colin is applying for funding so this can happen.

These two young people are impressive presenters on their topic and I’m sure are very skilled and polite facilitators of the focus groups.

When those with insider knowledge and lived experience conduct research it is very powerful.

Best wishes to them all.

(This was one of several papers presented at the New Zealand branch of ASID (the Association for the Study of Intellectual Disability) in Hamilton 26-27 August on how people with intellectual impairment can be central to the research process.)

I attended a very interesting conference last month in Sydney, which, although initiated by Australians, was aimed at developing collaboration among those involved in disability studies in the so-called ‘Global South’. That includes the countries in the Asia/Pacific including Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Its purpose was to set a disability research agenda for our region which has some significant differences from the Global North (mainly the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe). It was also a gentle challenge to the hegemony of disability scholarship from the North.

A keynote was given by Dr Martin Sullivan who teaches New Zealand’s only dedicated Disability Studies course, at Massey University in Palmerston North. His paper ‘Thinking disability studies in Aotearoa in the 21^st century’ paid tribute to disability research pioneers who died last year: Professor Anne Bray from the Donald Beasley Institute in Dunedin and Dr Christopher Newell, from the University of Tasmania. They had also both supported the idea of a collaborative trans-Tasman disability studies journal. Dr Sullivan’s talk promoted the Treaty of Waitangi – with its principles of partnership, participation and protection – as a partnership model for collaboration between government and disabled people, and considered the 2001 New Zealand Disability Strategy as an example of a ‘treaty’ between government and disabled people. He suggested that disabled Maori people identify as Maori first and it is not appropriate for pakeha to research the experience of Maori disability.

Reactions to his talk illustrated cultural differences between New Zealand and Australia. The Treaty of Waitangi principle of ‘protection’ was problematic for Australians. In New Zealand it means protection of citizenship rights, but its Australian connotation is the paternalistic justification for the stolen Aboriginal children. However, conference attendees were very interested in our NZ Disability Strategy and the fact that government departments have to report against it and each objective every year (see the reports on the Office for Disability Issues website www.odi.govt.nz).

How we might jointly monitor the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was a topical subject for the conference. Lana Moriarty from Victoria University gave a paper on her recent research into New Zealand’s contribution to the development of the UN convention for which she had interviewed several of the New Zealand participants.

Highlights of the conference for me included presentations from researchers with intellectual impairment. Exciting self- advocacy research projects are happening in Victoria and New South Wales. In Geelong a café and catering company employs many people with intellectual impairment, and also provides training and support for employees to move into mainstream employment. The workers are also involved in governance and management of the operation, and also research and evaluation projects. (I would love to develop this model for an Aspie café and research enterprise in New Zealand. They were very keen to come over and help!)

Another presentation outlined research on disabled childrens’ use of a playground which included revelations of the rich imaginary world of the apparently loner autistic child.

A new field of disability (and cultural) studies is called ‘Listening’ which has been aided by technological developments enabling people with sensory and other impairments to tell their lived experience and have more agency over their own lives. Professor of Digital Communication at the University of New South Wales, Dr Gerard Goggin, has led research on this. I see great potential here for encouraging us non autistics to listen to what non verbal and other autistic people have to say about their lived experiences and how we can support them as experts on their lives.

The third day of the conference was a workshop for the non Australian attendees. This included participants from countries including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Samoa, Solomon Islands. (Unfortunately, Swine flu fears had prevented others from attending). Although they were academics in the field of disability studies, many also had personal or family experience of disability. This was a fascinating day for me as I learnt so much about the challenges of disability research from around our region, for example the vital contribution of NZAid to disabled women’s organisations in the Pacific. One man worked with an international organisation promoting the right to play for disabled children in Beijing. I participated in a discussion on inclusive education. This is an area we all wanted to see implemented, and we agreed that inclusive education should be universal, life-long and benefits the whole society. But the reality is that for advocates in many countries there are sizeable challenges getting disabled children to school at all. Sharing success stories and using role models might be one way we can help each other across the region. Hopefully, international research collaborations will come out of this seminar day.

I also found that everybody, regardless of country, is knowledgeable about, and fascinated with autism. It seems to be a growing policy and service challenge everywhere. There was a great deal of interest in our New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline. Our centralised system of government has certainly helped getting us this far. Most countries have more fragmented systems of public governance, such as the lack of consistency between Australian states.

The conference was sponsored by the Disability Research Centre at the University of Sydney and the Australian Government’s Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. This conference showed the value of such opportunities to share research and innovations. The next step is hopefully the establishment of a collaborative Disability Studies journal.

One new term for me, and apparently the next big thing, is ‘cosmetic neurology’. I don’t really understand what it is but it sounds like something that autism advocates should be wary about.

Danish Thorkil Sonne has built up a successful company, Specialisterne, which employs people with autism in IT and product testing. He is coming to Sydney for the APAC09 conference in August but, unfortunately, contractual obligations prevent him from coming to New Zealand at this time. This article was published in the Independent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/better-faster-and-no-office-politics-the-company-with-the-autistic-specialists-1693057.html

Better, faster…and no office politics: the company with the autistic specialists 

A pioneering company in Denmark is giving people with autism the chance to apply their skills to jobs from IT to product testing. The result is a huge success that’s about to be rolled out across Europe. Founder Thorkil Sonne tells Michael Booth how his workforce’s superhuman recall and unflinching focus could teach the rest of us a thing or two

Sunday, 31 May 2009

Anders Birch

‘We know we all have that twist’: Thomas Jacobsen, 27, says that working at Specialisterne has helped him learn how to deal with social situations

• More pictures

Thorkil Sonne and his wife already had two sons when their third, Lars, arrived in 1997, so they had plenty of experience of the behavioural quirks of growing youngsters. But as Lars entered kindergarten aged two-and-a-half, the couple began to notice a more troubling change. Lars wouldn’t play with the other children, preferring to sit alone for hours on end. He began to talk less and less, until he was virtually unable to engage in any kind of dialogue at all. Something was clearly very wrong.

“We were patient,” says Sonne. “Our older boys had taught us that each child has their pace at which they climb the ladder, but Lars seemed to be stuck on a step.” The Sonnes are Danes and, fortunately, the Danish education system is good at diagnosing childhood developmental problems. Unfortunately in Lars’s case, the diagnosis was childhood autism.

“It was scary. The first phase was denial: ‘I’ve known my child for three years, you’ve only met him for two months. Don’t come and tell me he has an incurable, life-long disability!’ Then you have a bad conscience; you remember the situations where you’ve tried to use traditional means of raising kids and they didn’t work. But it didn’t take long, reading the literature, to realise it was describing Lars to the letter and, after time, we realised that Lars was still our happy, caring boy; we just had to get to learn about his world.”

Most parents, upon learning their child has a condition like this, will read up on it, learn about the treatments, therapies and consequences and start planning for the future. Sonne went somewhat further. He became involved with his local autistic society, ending up as vice-chairman of a housing facility for people with Asperger’s syndrome, a type of autism that affects social imagination, interaction and communication. Through the housing association, he got to know an 18-year-old Asperger’s sufferer who was especially gifted with computers. “He had retired on a state pension,” says Sonne. “But I thought that was so unfair as he had valuable IT skills that I could see would be useful for software- testing, support monitoring, programming and so on.”

So, in 2004, Sonne left his job of 15 years at the Danish communications company TDC, remortgaged his house, and founded a company, Specialisterne (The Specialists), to find employment for adults with autism and Asperger’s as software and systems testers. The 18-year-old Sonne had met through the housing association was his first employee.

Five years on, Specialisterne employs 60 people, has a turnover of almost £2m, and works with Microsoft (it tested Windows XP Media Center) and CSC, among other major international companies, helping them to check information systems, databases and other highly demanding, often repetitive, number-crunching tasks. Specialisterne has won numerous business and industry awards, and now has two offices in Denmark. If current plans pan out, a new branch will open in Glasgow later this year. It is a shining model of how to turn a highly skilled yet misunderstood and underexploited element of the population – around one per cent have a diagnosis of autism, but other related “invisible disabilities”, such as ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) for instance, may account for as much as 3.5 per cent of the population – into productive and integrated members of the workforce.

I am sitting with Sonne, a quietly spoken, rather studious man in his late forties, in his well-ordered office in a hi-tech industrial park on the outskirts of Copenhagen. As we talk about his son’s condition, he plucks a piece of paper from a filing cabinet. It’s a drawing his son made following a family holiday in southern Europe. I peer at the curious pyramidal temple of squares and numbers, trying to make sense of it. “It’s Europe!” I realise after a few moments. “But what are the numbers?” Sonne produces a photocopy of the schematic contents page from his European road atlas, the atlas they used on the journey south. His son had reproduced it entirely from memory. “I’ve tried to find a single mistake, but I can’t,” Sonne says, still amazed by his son’s memory.

It’s a powerful illustration of the incredible, verging on superhuman, attention to detail, recall and unflinching ‘ focus many autistic people have, whether expressed in architectural terms (as in Stephen Wiltshire’s work – he can draw a landscape after seeing it once); linguistic (autistic author Daniel Tammet is said to have learnt Icelandic in a week); or, as is the case with many of Sonne’s employees, numerical.

“There are so many different types of phones and services to be tested,” Sonne explains. “And the work is very repetitive but requires full attention all the time. Most companies use students or outsource to India or wherever. The first couple of tests they’ll do will be fine, but by the sixth, their attention wanes and it will always be the last test that’s the most important.” Aspergerians, on the other hand, relish the repetition, their focus doesn’t waver and their numerical skills are superlative. “My staff are motivated all the time. Our fault rate was 0.5 per cent, compared with five per cent from other testers. That’s an improvement by a factor of 10, which is why we can charge market rates. This is not cheap labour and it’s not occupational therapy. We simply do a better job.”

From the start, Sonne was clear that the company would operate under market conditions, and turn a profit, which made it virtually impossible to apply for government or EU support (“They just want people who will spend their money”). But, oblivious to the economic downturn, Specialisterne continues to pick up new clients largely by word of mouth. Organisations in more than 50 countries have approached Sonne to explore the idea of starting similar projects, with Norway and Switzerland likely to follow soon.

“I knew that the autistic people I met had dreams and ambitions, personalities and motivation,” he continues. “The trick was to create an environment that supported them. If you think of a high wire, suspended between two buildings, you aren’t going to take a chance and walk across it, even with a net. But if the wire was just a metre off the ground, you might try. It’s the same with our company. We created stable ground for autistic people to walk on and I see them develop self confidence and open up to new things as a result.”

Leading UK software-testing consultant Stephen Allott of ElectroMind has been acting as an unpaid adviser to Specialisterne as the company prepares to enter the UK market where, currently, only about six per cent of people with autism are in full-time employment. He is very clear on the advantages of using them: “Simply, they are better, faster and do higher-quality work than the people we can currently get from the labour market in the UK or India,” he says. “One of their guys can read a technical document the size of a book and spot inconsistencies between something on page three and page 37, which is incredibly useful. I already have clients in the UK who are interested in what they have to offer. The only thing we need to be careful about is their working environment. I know lots of companies with noisy, chaotic, open-plan offices, where the work is like fire-fighting most of the time, and people from Specialisterne wouldn’t be able to work there. That said, the environment they need is the kind of environment we should all be working in anyway.”

Remarkably, about 70 per cent of Specialisterne’s employees are stationed in client premises. I asked Sonne how easy it is for them to fit in with other working environments. “We create virtual Specialisterne environments in our clients’ offices. Everyone who will be in contact with our consultants is briefed about the conditions they require. They have to be nice to our people, avoid stressing them. In Denmark, we use a lot of irony and sarcasm, but people with autism can’t decode that. We make sure that the clients know how important it is to be direct, to outline tasks precisely and to stick to routines, particularly if any queries arise.”

“That’s how you avoid an ‘I only fly with Qantas’ freak-out?” I blurt. “Yes,” says Sonne. “We’ve never had a ‘freak-out’. In fact, saying what you mean, meaning what you say, being nice, avoiding stress are all good things in general for companies to take on board. Many have said to us that having one of our consultants has softened the atmosphere.”

It must actually be a relief to work with colleagues for whom office politics, backbiting and bitchiness are anathema. “Yes, they are a happy and loyal group, no one ever talks badly about anyone else. It’s nice to work with people who are honest, without filters. In fact I am working on a new management technique based on our experience with working conditions that are more open and direct.”

This doesn’t mean there aren’t misunderstandings from time to time. “One of our consultants was working in an office where they introduced a free fruit basket. He went straight up and took a whole bunch of bananas back to his desk. Someone had to explain that it was expected to take perhaps one or two pieces of fruit a day, and then he got it.”

It also doesn’t mean that Specialisterne’s workforce – 90 per cent of whom are male – are somehow robotic and unfeeling. “Oh no, in fact we have two employees who met at the company and are now engaged. Many socialise at the weekends and go out in Copenhagen together.”

Sonne introduced me to one of his colleagues, Thomas Jacobsen, 27. Jacobsen’s autism wasn’t diagnosed until he was in his twenties and, meeting him, you can understand why. There is a slight social awkwardness (though probably little more than you would experience with anyone confronted by an inquisitive journalist), and nothing to alert you to the fact he has endured lengthy periods of depression in his life.

“I wouldn’t say it was a relief, but it was nice to have a name for it, for my problem,” he told me of his diagnosis. “Actually, I don’t call it a problem, I call it a twist. Before, I felt I was different because I wasn’t very social, I preferred being on my own and had lots of special interests: earthquakes, tsunamis, geography, GNPs…” GNPs? “Yes, you know, the gross national product of different countries. Since I started work here, I have learnt to cope better with social interaction,

I haven’t had a depression in two-and-a-half years. I am getting more involved in bringing new ideas to the company and am part of shaping the Specialisterne Foundation [responsible for rolling out the concept to other countries]. You do have to have the right environment for people with Asperger’s to function – there needs to be an acceptance that I am special, that I might not work regular hours, that I might have down periods – but if you have that in place, we can do any job.”

Most Specialisterne employees tend to work 20- to 25-hour weeks, but Jacobsen has brought his hours up to 35. “You really blossom here. I see it with so many Aspergerians who join the company and get proper training. I have a lot of friends at the company now, and we socialise and go out together in town. We know we all have that twist.”

I begin to wonder about all those other, less number-oriented skills that about 30 per cent of higher-achieving Asperger’s sufferers display (to the extent that I rather wince to use the word “sufferer”). With a little lateral thinking, where else might fulfilling, productive roles be found for them in society? “Well, I would be very confident to know there were autistic people running air-traffic control towers,” says Sonne. “In any company, at least one to five per cent of all tasks would fit well with the skills of people with autism. This could apply to recognition patterns in the medical industry, to accounting, to banks? Of course, some experts have identified autistic traits in people such as Mozart, Da Vinci, Newton, Einstein. If they were alive today, perhaps they would be recognised as having Asperger’s, and look at what they achieved. Unfortunately, there is such an emphasis on being a team player and social skills in the workplace that there is still this resistance. But why do we all have to be like that? There should be room for other kinds of behaviour.

“My company is a showcase, but my end game is to get one million specialist people into meaningful work by providing a management model for large corporations to become attractive to people with special needs, so they know that they will be understood and supported. You know, in the UK you spend £12bn a year on the half-a-million Brits with autism. Why not get them earning that for the economy instead?”

Sonne’s hopes for his son must have changed radically from that first diagnosis, nine years ago. “Well, he can work here, but only if he wants to. He’s approaching some interesting times now as a teenager, but he is the nicest, most gentle and caring child you could imagine. It’s a pity to think he might be bullied in society because of his way of being.”

……….
And for another positive story – here is one from Canada

President Obama didn’t forget World Autism Awareness Day and his office sent out this message

 Hello,

Kareem Dale, Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy,
advised me to send you the following attachments.

Thank you for all that you do,

Matt Tranchin
The White House
Office of Public Liaison

March 30, 2009

It is with profound commitment to Americans with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), their families, and their communities that I join in celebrating World Autism Day.  We celebrate the contributions of individuals with autism, their families and self advocates across the World.

We must build a world free of unnecessary barriers, stereotypes, and discrimination.  Policies must be developed, attitudes must be shaped, and we must ensure that everyone has the chance to live independently as full citizens in their communities.  For too long, the needs of people and families living with autism have gone unrecognized and underappreciated.  That is why my Administration supports increased funding for autism research, treatment, screenings, public awareness, and services for ASD.  We must also remember that children with autism become adults with autism who deserve our support, our respect and the opportunity to fulfill their potential.

            As we celebrate World Autism Day, let us recommit ourselves to this cause and to the responsibility we have to support those with ASD and their families. 

Barack Obama
 

In New Zealand an update to the ASD Guideline was sent out

Information backgrounder for
Altogether Autism

New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline and World Autism Awareness Day (2 April)

Purpose: Information for World Autism Awareness Day. To be distributed to sector networks

Helping make sense of a complex world.

About the guideline

·         The guideline is a single, credible source of overseas and

·         We expect the information in the guideline will help improve the advice, support, services and care for people with ASD, and their families/whānau. We expect to see health professionals, educators, policy advisers and employers using the guideline to inform their decisions about care and interventions. We hope parents and individuals with ASD will also use the information in the guideline to seek the best advice, support and care available.

·         The guideline was developed collaboratively with input from international and

·         One guideline; whole person; whole of life; everyone’s responsibility.

The guideline is one of the first of its kind in the world covering the whole person through their lifetime. Other countries are looking to us as a model.

About ASD

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a life-long developmental disability that can affect the way a person communicates and interacts socially with other people. It is thought to affect more than 40,000 New Zealanders. People with ASD often use apparently rigid rules to make sense of the world. These rules are logical to the person with ASD, but may conflict with common social conventions and interactions.

ASD has been described as a ‘hidden’ disability that affects every aspect of a person’s day-to-day life, including how well they are included socially. Each person with ASD has a unique range of abilities and needs. The form and severity and impact of ASD can vary, depending on the context and the person’s emotional state. However, everyone who has ASD shares some difficulty in making sense of their world, including:

§         understanding and using verbal and non-verbal communication

§         understanding social behaviour, which affects their ability to interact with other people

§         thinking and behaving flexibly – their approaches may be interpreted as restricted, obsessive or repetitive.

Some people with ASD need significant support with everyday tasks, while others need limited support. Families/whānau may experience high levels of stress in caring for children with ASD who can have communication and behaviour challenges. Despite the challenges experienced by people with ASD and their families/whānau, they can, and do, make a valuable contribution to society.

Since its first description over 50 years ago, ASD has been the subject of intense research and a great deal more is now understood about the condition, although there is no known ‘cure’.

The human stories behind ASD

“Mum knew I was different from the day I was born. I never learnt to crawl and began walking at 22 months of age. Many sounds and most unfamiliar things terrified me.

I could only focus on one thing at once which meant I could not multi-task. My mental processing speeds tended to be slower. When a change occurred in my routines or in my environment, I could not cope. I hated touching sticky substances and still do. So I was the child at playcentre who wouldn’t touch the finger paints! However, I soon began showing above average ability in reading and writing.

Now most of these features, together with many others, were long lasting well into adulthood. However, at the time when I was born 52 years ago, there was nobody around who could put these clues together. I ended up in a psychiatric hospital, once for 8 months, but still without the correct assessment of my symptoms being made. In fact, some incorrect diagnoses were made, for example atypical schizophrenia. This scenario is still going on for some other adults in

Jen Birch,

“After many years of not being able to have children, we followed the path of adoption and we were ever so lucky to adopt Elliot right from birth. He’s just such a joy, he’s just all that we longed for. We love him dearly. And even if he is autistic, it just doesn’t matter at all, he’s our boy, he’s fabulous.

Elliot’s 14. He’s pretty much non-verbal. He would be classed as severe autism, but his amazing skill of memory and retention of skills just surprises us all the time. He has learnt through therapy programmes how to read, his alphabet, colours, numbers, shapes but his verbal expression is pretty low. He can make his needs met. He can ask for a juice or sandwich, but he couldn’t tell me what he’s done today.”

Wendy Duff,

“I’m one of the lucky parents in the autism community. I had a supportive family. No-one took my child off me and placed him in an institution and told me to forget about him. No-one told me he couldn’t attend their school. No-one asked me to pay for a teacher aide. And neither was he asked to leave school because they didn’t understand autism. No-one said his behaviour was ‘too difficult for respite care’. No-one said he was too disabled for a job, for independent living, to be treated as a human being with feelings, hopes and dreams. No-one said it was all my fault.”

Hilary Stace,

“A lot of us do notice a lot of detail. That is a typical feature of ASD, and sometimes those details of course are important to be noticed. That makes us very precise workers, for instance, in certain jobs when an eye for detail is required.”

Jen Birch,

“Ah, things I’m great at. I love – I mean I can write formally very well. So, for example, that’s extremely useful when you’re writing formal pieces of writing like submissions, where there’s a certain style. The other thing that I feel I’m good at is things like you know chairing meetings. You know, I’m chairing two or three groups now. And one of the things I’d say about that is that I think having ASD’s a real advantage in those situations because I think there are certain skills that a Chair needs in terms of keeping order, in terms of making sure that people have a chance to have a contribution, but do that in a very structured way.”

Matt Frost,

About the guideline

·         One guideline; whole person; whole of life; everyone’s responsibility.

·         The guideline helps make sense of a complex world.

·         The guideline is a single, credible source of overseas and

·         We expect that the information in the guideline will help improve the advice, support, services and care for people with ASD, and their families.

·         The guideline was put together with input from international and

·         Know what’s in it, use it, promote it, quote it, and expect to be asked by your clients how your advice matches with what’s in the guideline.

What the Guideline tells us about effective interventions for children and young people with ASD

“No one model has been shown to meet the needs of all children and young people with ASD. All the models have something to offer in certain situations. The skill of the professional is knowing when to use which model to meet the needs of particular children, situations and skills.” (NZ ASD Guideline, page 90).

The characteristics of effective interventions have been identified as:

·        making the earliest possible start to intervention

·        individualising services for children and families and whānau

·        providing systematic ‘planful’ teaching

·        providing a curriculum to meet the need of the young child with ASD

·        intensity of engagement  of the child

·        sustainable family involvement

·        structured environments

·        developmentally appropriate practices

·        intervention in natural environments and with access to typically developing children

(NZ ASD Guideline, pages 91 – 93).

What happens next – promoting the guideline and implementing the recommendations

The Ministries of Health and Education are committed to implementing the NZ ASD Guideline – we know this will take time but we are in this for the long haul. Implementing the recommendations in the NZ ASD Guideline is everyone’s responsibility.

Following the launch of the NZ ASD Guideline, 11,000 copies of the NZ ASD Guideline publications have been distributed, and health, education and disability groups have met to consider the implications of the Guideline for their work.

The NZ Guidelines Group (NZGG) has been contracted to manage the technical implementation of the Guideline, using the implementation funding provided to the Ministry of Health. NZGG has established an Implementation Advisory Group, which includes leading representation by people with ASD, parents of people with ASD, and from across health, mental health, disability and education services. The group is chaired by Matt Frost, who identifies as being a person with ASD, and has provided invaluable advice on priorities for implementing the Guideline.

The leadership and commitment shown by people with ASD at the launch of the Guideline continues and is invaluable in guiding the work programmes of the Ministries of Health and Education.

In November 2008, Cabinet approved the joint Health-Education Guideline Implementation Plan. Since then, the focus has been on scaling up existing, proven programmes while also preparing for new services. Work is well advanced on: developing a handbook on assessment and diagnosis for health and education professionals; on designing ASD-specific parent education; designing ASD-specific respite services and exploring the feasibility of ASD-specific behaviour support services.

Regular updates on implementing the NZ ASD Guideline are provided at http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/disability-keyprojects-asd-guideline-updates

About World Autism Awareness Day

It is estimated that around 35 million people worldwide have ASD. In December 2007 the United Nations passed a resolution to make April 2 every year World Autism Awareness Day.  The intention is to increase awareness of autism and the importance of early diagnosis and treatment.

Contacts

For health and disability-related queries

Lester Mundell

Chief Advisor (Disability Services) & Director IDCC&R

Health & Disability National Services Directorate

Ministry of Health

lester_mundell@moh.govt.nz

Phone: 04 496 2371

Pat Tuohy

Chief Advisor – Child and Youth Health

Ministry of Health

pat_tuohy@moh.govt.nz

Phone: 04 496 2373; 021 313124

For education-related queries

Joanna Curzon

Team Leader Research

Professional Practice

Ministry of Education

joanna.curzon@minedu.govt.nz

Phone: 04 463 8260; 027-432 2571

Organisations representing people with autism and their families

Autism

Phone 0800 AUTISM (288 476), or (03) 339 2627

Altogether Autism

0800 ASD INFO / 0800 273 463

The Ministry of Health sent out an ASD newsletter

http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesmh/8594/$File/asd-newsletter-mar09.pdf

Autism Spectrum Disorder March 2009

ï‚· Cabinet approved the ASD implementation plan and the Ministries of Health and Education

ï‚· We are pleased to announce that the Ministry of Health has made progress against the

ï‚· Living Guideline

 Delivering on the ‘investment’ activities, consolidating initiatives and incorporating measures

ï‚· Development of ASD Recognition, Referral and Diagnosis Handbook

ï‚· Autism Spectrum Disorder Training package for Specialists

ï‚· Autism New Zealand contract for resources for Home and Community Support Providers

ï‚· Needs Assessment Service Co-ordination (NASC) ASD Service Enhancement Programme

ï‚· SPELL evaluation

ï‚· Bright Sparks

 ‘tips for autism’

ï‚· ASD-specific parent education: jointly purchased by the Ministries of Health and Education

ï‚· Feasibility Study for ASD specific Behaviour Support Services

ï‚· Auckland based Family and Whanau community outreach services

ï‚· Auckland based ASD specific communication and behaviour services

ï‚· Develop other respite models

ï‚· are working on the assessment and diagnosis handbook (with an external reference

ï‚· working with the Implementation Advisory Group to consider the principles to underpin

Some notices 

The Ministry of Health’s Disability Services is holding a series of forums around the country in March / April seeking feedback from people using  DS funded services. Please go along if you can or make a postal, on-line or phone submission We need to complain loudly about Needs Assessment Service Coordination not accepting referrals for people with autism who don’t also have intellectual impairment. And the lack of services of any kind for adults. Personal stories from people with autism are particularly powerful.

Disability Services Consumer Forums 2009 

Consumer Forums and Consortiums evolved from the recommendations of the Consumer Participation Project conducted in 2004 as part of the Disability Services Directorate’s implementation of the NZ Disability Strategy.

The aim of the project was to establish ways of increasing consumer participation and to ensure input into the directorates activities. Feedback and evaluation in 2004, as well as feedback from Forums held early in 2005 and again in 2006 and 2007, show widespread support within the disability sector for the Forums and consortiums to continue.

Forum Itinerary
This year it is intended that the consumer Forums will be used to gain feedback on Disability Services strategic priorities. Two hours has been allocated for each Forum and four hours including lunch has been allocated for the Hui and Fono. It is anticipated that the strategic planning feedback will take up to an hour. Twenty Forums are planned for 2009 in the localities listed below.[I'm sorry but for some reason I cannot attach the itinerary with the dates and places for each forum and fono but if you follow the link below for the Ministry of Health's DS February newsletter you will find it -HS]

An email and 0800 number have been activated to allow consumers to contact the Ministry for information about the Forums and to register their planned attendance.  
Email: dsdforum@moh.govt.nz  
Phone 0800 DSD MOH – 0800 373 664 The February newsletter from Disability Services can be found here http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/disability-news-newsletters-issue27

Teacher aides pay parity work stopped

You might also like to complain to the Minister of State Services, Tony Ryall, who has stopped investigations into the low pay of school support staff, which includes teacher aides. We know that a good teacher aide can make a huge difference to our children with autism in the classroom but because of the poor pay and conditions, it is hard to keep them. This work was designed to improve this, but has now stopped.  His email is tony.ryall@parliament.govt.nz or phone 04 817 6804 or write to Hon Tony Ryall, MP, Minister of State Services, Parliament House, Wellington (no postage required)

The February newsletter from the Office For Disability Issues can be found here.  http://www.odi.govt.nz/publications/e-mail-update.html 

IHC’s informative and newsy HOT ISSUES for February is here http://www.ihc.org.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=1652

The new Government’s recent response to the report last September from the Social Services Select Committee Inquiry on the Quality of Care and Services Provision for People with Disabilities is here.

http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Presented/Papers/3/1/d/49DBHOH_PAP17698_1-Government-Response-to-Report-of-the-Social-Services.htm

The 2009 Asian Pacific Autism Conference is being held in Sydney 20-22 August.  The line-up of speakers includes Francesca Happe, Eric Fonbonne, Tony Attwood and Wendy Lawson http://www.apac09.org/index.php

A new website www.neurodiversityinternational.org.uk asks Is neurodiversity the new multiculturalism?

My favourite website for autism news in the US and internationally is www.autisticadvocacy.org.

An investigation by the Sunday Times (UK) has discovered that Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who claimed a link between vaccines and autism, misused his data. However, the effect of his claims on immunisation rates has been significant over the last decade.  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683671.ece

29 January 2009 

Allan Peachey MP

Member of Parliament for Tamaki

Chair

Education and Science Select Committee

Parliament Buildings

Dear Mr Peachey

EDUCATION (NATIONAL STANDARDS) AMENDMENT ACT 2008 

I am writing on behalf of the board of Autism New Zealand Inc to express concerns about the Education (National Standards) Amendment Act 2008 which was passed under urgency in December. We had hoped to have the opportunity to make a submission to the select committee but were denied this opportunity because the Bill was passed under urgency through all its stages in two days.

This Act has serious implications for students with autism spectrum conditions and their families. But we do not think this has been taken into consideration by Parliament in passing this Act. In this letter we set out our concerns and ask some questions about the legislation.

There are two particular aspects that concern us for their potential negative effects on our children and families.

Part 1:  Increased fines for parents who do not ensure their children attend school, and extending the powers of prosecution beyond the local school board. 

Many students with autism have very negative school experiences. This could be due to bullying, the school not understanding their learning needs, sensory overload caused by the school environment, or a combination of these. Many students become reluctant to attend school to the extent of becoming school refusers or even school phobic. Others have been subject to ‘kiwi suspensions’ whereby they and their families are made to feel so unwelcome at the school that they find it easier to stop attending, although official procedures might not have been followed.

Whatever the cause, many students of legal school attendance age do not attend school. Many parents sympathise with their children as they see the stress the formal school environment causes.  But these parents are now liable for a $3000 fine on the second offence of not enforcing their child’s attendance. 

Will there be counter measures put into place to make school a more welcoming and appropriate environment for students with autism, and their families?

Part 2: Literacy and numeracy standards 

We have three questions about this section:

1. If all children are to be tested against national standards in New Zealand what provisions will there be for those with different learning styles, and for those whose strengths are not in literacy and numeracy?

2. We would like to know what extra support will be provided for children with special educational needs, including autism, in mainstream settings? All children with special educational needs (not just those with autism) are likely to need extra support to sit these tests and schools may be unprepared to enrol them as they will potentially drag their league tables down. Most children with autism and other special needs in

3. How will the testing regime impact on those in special schools, satellite classes and units? Will they also have the same tests and reporting requirements?

We are also concerned that this legislation is signalling that New Zealand will follow the No Child Left Behind policy of the Bush administration of the United States.

Temple Grandin, PhD, an adult with autism, has criticised the No Child Left Behind policy of standardised testing of literacy and numeracy for its negative effects on the teaching and learning of children with autism. Most autistic children have special learning needs, and many have strengths in areas beyond literacy and numeracy, while they may struggle with the narrow range of abilities being tested. But because the tests are publicly notified and the teachers must use them, there is little time for the personalised learning these children require. Some children in the

NCLB has recently been evaluated by the independent No Child Left Behind Commission. (Beyond NCLP: fulfilling the promise for our nation’s children, 2007 www.nclbcommission.org).

Their report provides valuable information for those of us interested in education of children with autism and special needs. NCLB came into force in 2002 with the admirable intentions of closing achievement gaps and having high expectations for all students. The Commission’s report approved the aims of the legislation but found it is not achieving its goals.

Why? Because, after intense research, they have concluded that what makes a difference are effective teachers (such as those who can teach and engage with a diversity of students), principals who provide strong community leadership, and schools that foster learning communities. They also found that those children with the greatest educational needs tended to get the least effective or most inexperienced teachers.  We in New Zealand already know all this and it has provided the basis of our teaching and learning policies for years. NCLB has now been shown to have done little to lower the numbers of high school drop outs and has even lowered achievement in some groups. One recent report details the unexpected consequences of threats of non-achievement on students, schools and parents, with manipulation of scores, inaccurate classification of students, and reduced flexibility in the curriculum. (Fetler, L, ‘Unexpected testing practices affecting English language learners and students with disabilities under No Child Left Behind’, 2008,  http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=13&n=6) 

This is why we are concerned if the intention of the Education Amendment Act is to adopt an American system that has been shown to be deeply flawed.

I have attached two short papers from the Commission on No Child Left Behind (The Facts: ensuring students with disabilities achieve academic success and Teacher and Principal Recommendations: effective teachers for all students, effective principals for all communities www.nclbcommission.org) 

New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline

We would like to remind members of parliament and the committee of the extensive work done on the development of The New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline. It assessed the evidence about what works for children with ASD in educational settings and has found that the most suitable education setting ‘will be one:

• That provides adequate structure and gives the child or young person opportunities for contact with typically developing peers
• Where staff are well trained and have a positive attitude, expertise, understanding and a willingness to work in a team with the family
• That has the ability to be flexible in meting the child’s needs over time (Recommendation 3.4.3)’.  (NZ ASD Guideline, 2008, page 129).

It recommended that:

‘tests and other cognitive assessments should be administered  by a psychologist with experience and training in ASD (Recommendation 3.2.4.1) The setting needs to be chosen with particular care and extreme care is required when interpreting test scores, particularly with young children.’ (Pg 116)

We would be very happy to come and talk to you and/or your committee about the educational needs of students with autism spectrum conditions.

Yours sincerely

Hilary Stace

Board Member

Autism New Zealand Inc

This week I received the following letter back from Mr Peachey. 

‘10 February 2009

Dear Hilary

Thank you for your recent letter relating to the Education National Standards Amendment Act 2008.

 I have not yet had time to study your letter in detail but will do that in the next few days and bring to the attention of the Minister for Education concerns that I have in relation to how our autistic children are treated in schools.

I have raised with the Honourable Chris Carter Deputy Chairperson of the Education Select Committee the thought that the committee might do some work on the schooling for autistic children.

I can not guarantee that this will happen but it is something I am quite keen to do.

 Kind regards

Allan Peachey

Member of Parliament

Tamaki’