A three-year-old with autism points to fish in an aquarium, as part of an experiment on the effect of intensive shared-attention training on language development.
Ontario is restoring some funding for kids with autism age five and older after an intense backlash from parents when their children were removed from a wait list for intensive therapy.
The Liberal government had announced that as part of a new Ontario Autism Program it would stop funding intensive behavioural intervention for kids over four, instead transitioning them to what officials are calling a flexible service.
But parents of the children said the $8,000 provided by the government to pay for therapy during the transition to the new program would not be enough.
The government now says those parents will be given direct funding in successive payments of $10,000 to pay for therapy until their child has a spot in the new program, or if they prefer, access to less intensive services funded by the government.
Officials estimate the cost of several changes to the program transition will be $200 million, in addition to the $333 million that had already been earmarked for the new Ontario Autism Program.
