Submission 47 — Name Withheld — Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative

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“Thriving Kids”

Inquiry

Terms of Reference Response

A comprehensive, evidence-based submission examining early childhood intervention policy through the lens of disability justice, intersectionality, and family-centred support systems.

nquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative

Table of Contents

e Executive Summary

¢ Introduction and Positionality

  • Part A: Evidence-Based Resources for Parents ¢ Part B: Effectiveness of Current and Previous Programs e Part C: Understanding Intersectionality and Equity

e Part D: Workforce Development and Training Imperatives ¢ Part E: International and Domestic Policy Frameworks

¢ Part F: Addressing System Fragmentation

  • Key Recommendations

¢« Conclusion: Towards Thriving Systems

  • Contact e References

nquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative

Executive Summary

This Inquiry submission on “Thriving Kids” provides a comprehensive examination of early childhood intervention policy through the critical lenses of disability justice, intersectionality, and family-centred support. It identifies key problems within current systems, particularly the pervasive fragmentation of services and a predominant deficit-focused approach that often overlooks the unique strengths and diverse needs of children and families.

To address these challenges, the submission puts forth several key recommendations, advocating for a significant reframing of support paradigms. These include integrating lived experience into policy and practice, actively addressing system fragmentation to ensure cohesive service delivery, and fostering genuinely inclusive and equitable environments. The overarching vision is a transformative shift towards “thriving systems”, a model that collaboratively supports children, families, and communities, moving beyond mere intervention to cultivate environments where every child can flourish.

If you want thriving kids, you need thriving families. If you want thriving families, you need better systems. This submission aims to show how these outcomes can be advanced through person-centred, culturally responsive, and socially valid approaches that strengthen support at every level.

Introduction and Positionality

I a iii a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA), Certified Behaviour Analyst (CBA), and Specialist Behaviour Support Practitioner under the NDIS. My professional journey spans almost two decades of supporting children, adolescents, adults, and their families in community contexts, both prior to, and under, the current NDIS framework.

My perspective is uniquely informed by dual expertise: comprehensive professional qualifications combined with lived experience as a late-diagnosed autistic and ADHD woman. This intersection of professional knowledge and personal understanding shapes my approach to disability support, moving beyond traditional clinical models towards more holistic, justice-oriented frameworks.

Alongside my clinical and community practice, | work in the higher education sector, where | teach,

supervise, and develop courses in applied behaviour analysis, education, and disability studies. | have

presented nationally and internationally and regularly contribute to research and workforce development across the disability, behaviour support, and education sectors. This combination of practice, scholarship, and teaching gives me a unique perspective on both the strengths and the gaps in current systems of support.

Currently, my focus centres on disability justice, social justice, and intersectionality, fundamentally changing environments and systems so that people do not have to change who they are. This philosophy underpins every recommendation within this submission, recognising that true support means adapting our systems rather than requiring individuals to adapt to inadequate structures.

If you want thriving kids, you need thriving families. If you want thriving families, you need better systems. This encapsulates the core principle that effective early childhood intervention cannot focus solely on individual children, but must encompass the entire ecosystem of family and community support. Children thrive when their families feel competent, connected, and valued, and families thrive when they are supported by responsive, flexible systems that honour their diversity and strengths.

‘If you want thriving kids, you need thriving families. If you want thriving families, you need better systems“.

nquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative

Evidence-Based Resources for Parents

Current approaches to developmental screening and early identification often perpetuate deficit-driven narratives that can harm rather than help families. We must fundamentally reframe developmental checks as supportive, strengths-based opportunities that celebrate diverse ways of being while identifying areas where additional support might be beneficial.

Building on existing resources like the Raising Children Network (Raising Children Network, n.d.), there is significant potential to develop parent-facing hubs that are practical, relational, and respectful. Practical guidance means clear, plain-language information that families can immediately implement. Relational support encompasses peer connections, parent groups, and community networks that reduce isolation. Respectful approaches validate diverse forms of play, communication, and socialisation rather than imposing narrow normative expectations.

Practical Support Relational Respectful

Clear, accessible guidance Connection Recognition

that families can implement Peer support networks and Validation of diverse play,

immediately in their daily parent groups that reduce communication, and

lives isolation and build socialisation approaches community

Critical consideration must be given to potential risks within current screening approaches. An autistic mother may find video feedback intrusive and shaming, particularly if it focuses on ‘correcting’ her child’s natural behaviours. Families with children previously removed into out-of-home care may find home-based monitoring retraumatising, triggering past experiences of surveillance and judgment.

Thriving Kids programs must offer alternative, strengths-based pathways for supporting families that honour their autonomy whilst providing meaningful assistance. This requires moving beyond one-size fits-all approaches towards flexible, responsive models that can adapt to diverse family circumstances and preferences.

nquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative

Effectiveness of Current and Previous

Programs

Before the introduction of the NDIS, block-funded, community-based models embedded supports within everyday contexts, aligning with best practice principles focused on families, natural environments, and community inclusion (Early Childhood Intervention Australia, 2024). These approaches demonstrated significant strengths in their community integration and family-centred focus, as evidenced by Early Childhood Intervention Australia guidelines.

However, these earlier models also revealed important limitations including patchy access across different geographical areas, sustainability challenges due to funding uncertainties, and inconsistent generalisation of skills across different settings. These lessons provide crucial insights for Thriving Kids: we must retain the valuable community and family focus while building in equity, continuity, and robust transition planning.

Pre-NDIS Era 1

Block-funded community models with strong family focus, but limited

accessibility and sustainability 2 NDIS Transition

Shift towards individualised funding with

unintended fragmentation of community

Recognition of need for systemic reform

that combines individual choice with community connection a Thriving Kids Opportunity

Integration of lessons learned to create equity-focused, sustainable, family centred approaches

A fundamental problem with many programmes and therapeutic supports has been their focus on fixing” children rather than empowering families and communities. This deficit approach persists even when programs are marketed as “neurodiversity affirming”. More effective approaches help families understand neurodivergence and disability, and recognise how their child experiences the world differently.

Lived-experience organisations such as Reframing Autism (Reframing Autism, n.d.) provide invaluable resources grounded in the principle that “your child is not broken, your child experiences the world differently, and that difference can and should be understood and valued”. Recent research with parents of autistic children demonstrates this shift, with many parents describing what they love about their children, emphasising unique qualities and perspectives, and highlighting the need for supports that nurture those strengths rather than attempting to erase them (Heyworth et al., 2025).

Research Gaps and Quality Concerns

905 60

305

Clinical Outcomes Family Wellbeing Cultural Responsiveness Community Integration

Wi Current Research Priority [| Recommended Priority

N.B. Data shown are illustrative only, representing common priority areas identified in community consultation. Not based on empirical datasets.

Significant research gaps exist regarding how behavioural and developmental approaches are implemented in mainstream programs, particularly concerning quality assurance, cultural responsiveness, and family fit (Hayes et al., 2012; Sandbank et al., 2023; Vollmer & Fisher, 2025). Current research often prioritises clinical outcomes over family wellbeing and community integration, creating an incomplete picture of program effectiveness.

More comprehensive research is urgently needed to examine implementation quality across diverse contexts, cultural responsiveness across different communities, and the degree to which interventions align with individual family values and circumstances. This research must move beyond traditional clinical metrics to encompass broader indicators of family thriving and community inclusion (Autism CRC, n.d.).

Programs should be evaluated based on how well they enable families to feel competent, connected, and supported, not solely by clinical outcomes. This shift requires developing new measurement frameworks that capture family empowerment, community connection, and long-term sustainability of positive outcomes across diverse life contexts.

Understanding Intersectionality and

Equity

The current terms of reference appropriately acknowledge First Nations Peoples and culturally and linguistically diverse families; however, intersectionality encompasses far broader considerations that compound marginalisation in complex ways (Catrone et al., 2022). Intersectionality, as conceptualised by Crenshaw (1989), recognises how overlapping aspects of identity, including race, disability, gender, class, sexuality, and geography, create unique experiences of advantage and disadvantage.

First Nations Families

Requiring culturally safe, community-oriented approaches grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing

Parental Disability

Requiring accessible information and support that recognises parental capacity

Rural and Remote

Confronting geographic isolation and limited service availability

(a

CALD Communities

Needing linguistically appropriate and culturally responsive service delivery models

Socioeconomic

Disadvantage

Facing barriers related to access, transport, and competing priorities for survival

LGBTQIASB+ Families

Experiencing discrimination and requiring affirming, inclusive service approaches

The terms of reference mention First Nations families, but critically lack reference to First Nations

controlled organisations such as FPDN, which advocate for culturally safe, community-driven supports. Evidence consistently demonstrates that Indigenous-led frameworks, grounded in traditional ways of knowing, being, and doing, are essential for achieving effective, equitable outcomes.

Current policy design often overlooks the reality of compounding marginalisation - disability combined with socioeconomic disadvantage, diverse gender identity, LGBTQIASB+ status, or parental disability. Disability justice and intersectionality frameworks highlight that one-size-fits-all supports will inevitably fail these families, who require approaches that acknowledge and respond to their complex, intersecting

needs.

‘All communication is valid, all play is valid, all families are valid“.

nquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative

Workforce Development and Training

Recommendations

The current workforce remains problematically discipline-siloed, with professionals often working within

narrow Speech Pathology, Occupational Therapy, Applied Behaviour Analysis, or Psychology

frameworks that lack grounding in rights-based or intersectional approaches. This fragmentation creates gaps in service delivery and limits opportunities for holistic, family-centred support.

A significant risk exists where individual disciplines may lobby for sole certification pathways, creating exclusionary practices that limit workforce diversity and innovation. Such narrow approaches contradict the collaborative, transdisciplinary models that research demonstrates are most effective for complex needs (Kohli Mathur & Rodriquez, 2021).

Ol O02

Minimum Entry Requirements Micro-Credential Framework

Undergraduate qualification in allied health, Specialised training in disability justice, psychology, social work, disability studies, or intersectionality, and cultural responsiveness

education as foundation

O03 04

Supervision Requirements Ongoing Professional Development

Reflective, peer-based supervision grounded in Continuous learning requirements focused on rights-based practice principles emerging best practices and community needs

Lessons from NDIS implementation reveal how poorly defined workforce categories in behaviour support created inconsistency and inequity across the system (Fisher et al., 2024; Hayward et al., 2018). Thriving Kids must learn from these experiences by establishing clear, equitable criteria from the program’s inception, preventing the confusion and service gaps that have characterised other policy implementations.

This approach creates a workforce equipped to work collaboratively across disciplines whilst maintaining specialist expertise, grounded in principles of equity, justice, and family empowerment. Such preparation ensures that professionals can respond effectively to diverse family needs whilst contributing to broader systemic change.

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International Rights Frameworks

Effective early childhood intervention must be grounded in established international human rights frameworks that provide clear guidance for ethical, respectful service delivery. These frameworks offer non-negotiable principles that should underpin all aspects of programme design and implementation.

UN Convention on UN Declaration on UN Convention on

the Rights of Persons the Rights of the Rights of the with Disabilities Indigenous Peoples Child (UN CRC) (UNCRPD) (UNDRIP) Guarantees children’s rights Establishes fundamental Affirms Indigenous peoples’ to development, protection, rights to inclusion, rights to maintain cultural and participation in autonomy, and freedom practices and control over decisions affecting them from discrimination for all services affecting their (United Nations, 1989). disabled people, including communities (United

children (United Nations Nations, 2007).

2006).

The UNCRPD fundamentally challenges medical model approaches by establishing that disability is not an individual problem to be fixed, but rather a result of societal barriers that prevent full participation. This perspective requires early intervention programmes to focus on removing barriers rather than changing children to fit existing systems.

The UNDRIP provides essential guidance for working with First Nations families, establishing their right to maintain cultural practices and exercise control over services affecting their communities. This means that programs serving Indigenous families must be developed and delivered in partnership with Indigenous-led organisations, respecting traditional knowledge systems and decision-making processes.

The UN CRC emphasises children’s rights to have their voices heard in decisions affecting them, appropriate to their age and development. This principle challenges adult-centric approaches to early intervention, requiring programs to develop age-appropriate ways for children to participate in their own support planning and evaluation.

These international frameworks provide both legal and ethical foundations for Thriving Kids, ensuring that program development aligns with established human rights principles rather than narrower clinical or administrative considerations.

nquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative

Domestic Policy Landscape

Australia’s domestic policy framework provides significant opportunities for alignment and integration, with several key initiatives creating foundation for comprehensive early childhood intervention reform. The National Autism Strategy (National Autism Strategy, 2025) represents a crucial policy development that Thriving Kids must integrate with, ensuring coherent approaches across government initiatives.

Autism CRC outputs, including guidelines, early intervention frameworks, and best-practice assessment tools (Autism CRC, n.d.), offer evidence-based resources that have been extensively researched within Australian contexts. These resources provide valuable foundation materials whilst requiring careful evaluation to ensure they incorporate diverse perspectives and avoid inadvertent exclusion of particular communities or approaches.

Recent Australian work by Fisher et al. (2025) on Positive Behaviour Support highlights a rights-based, whole-of-family approach that provides strong foundation for Thriving Kids development. This framework emphasises environmental modification and skill-building rather than management, aligning with disability justice principles that focus on changing systems rather than individuals.

1 2

National Autism Strategy Autism CRC Guidelines

Providing overarching policy framework for Offering evidence-based practice frameworks autism support across lifespan and assessment tools 3 4

Positive Behaviour Support Thriving Kids Integration

Framework Synthesising policy directions into

Demonstrating rights-based approaches to comprehensive early intervention approach complex behaviour support

However, significant gaps exist within mainstream best practice guidelines, including those from Autism CRC and Reimagine Australia (Reimagine Australia, n.d.). Whilst these resources are widely cited and valuable, they predominantly reflect professional perspectives that may inadvertently reproduce assumptions about productivity or normalisation, reflecting ableist underpinnings that risk sidelining lived experience.

Critically missing are perspectives from neurodivergent-led organisations such as The Australian

Neurodivergent Parents Association, [ANPA] (ANPA, n.d.), Autistic Self Advocacy Network Australian and

New Zealand [ASAN-AU] (ASAN-AU, n.d.), and Reframing Autism (Reframing Autism, n.d.). These groups provide vital, rights-based insights rooted in lived experience that research systems have historically excluded, creating incomplete understanding of effective support approaches.

The Critical Role of Lived Experience

Integration

While professional expertise provides valuable technical knowledge, the systematic exclusion of neurodivergent voices from policy development has created significant gaps in understanding effective support approaches. Neurodivergent-led organisations offer crucial insights that challenge assumptions embedded within professionally-driven frameworks, providing alternative perspectives grounded in

actual lived experience of neurodivergence.

Parent Perspectives Self-Advocacy Reframing Approaches

ANPA provides invaluable Leadership Reframing Autism offers insights from neurodivergent ASAN-AU centres autistic voices alternative narratives that move parents raising neurodivergent in policy development, beyond deficit models towards children, emphasising affirming challenging professional strengths-based understanding approaches assumptions about support

needs

The Australian Neurodivergent Parents Association (ANPA) brings crucial insights from neurodivergent parents raising neurodivergent children, emphasising the intergenerational nature of neurodivergence and the need for diagnostic and early intervention processes that support rather than traumatise families.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network Australia and New Zealand (ASAN-AU) provides leadership

grounded in the principle of “nothing about us, without us,” challenging professional-centric models and advocating for autistic leadership in program and policy design. Reframing Autism offers resources and frameworks that reject deficit-based thinking, celebrating neurological diversity while acknowledging genuine support needs.

Together, these organisations demonstrate why Thriving Kids must move beyond tokenistic consultation towards authentic partnerships in program design, implementation, and evaluation with neurodivergent people. This means including neurodivergent people in decision-making roles, compensating them appropriately for their expertise, and creating accessible processes that enable meaningful participation across different communication and participation styles.

nquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative

Addressing System Fragmentation

Current early childhood intervention systems are characterised by significant fragmentation, with families frequently falling through gaps between services, funding streams, and administrative boundaries. This fragmentation becomes particularly acute when intersecting forms of marginalisation compound access barriers, creating multiple layers of disadvantage that existing systems struggle to address coherently.

The transition points between services represent particular vulnerability, where families may lose continuity of support during critical developmental periods. Traditional referral processes often involve “cold handovers” where families must restart relationships with new providers, re-explain their circumstances, and navigate different administrative requirements without ongoing support.

Ol 02

Key Worker Coordination Transdisciplinary Teams

Designated coordinators who maintain Integrated service teams that share knowledge and relationships across service transitions and coordinate approaches rather than working in advocate for family needs isolation

OS 04

Warm Referral Processes NDIS Linkage Pathways

Supported transitions that maintain relationships Clear processes for transitioning to NDIS support and continuity rather than abrupt handovers when needs escalate or circumstances change

Key worker or transdisciplinary team models can serve as anchors for families, providing continuity across service transitions whilst reducing the burden of coordination that currently falls on families themselves. These roles require professionals who understand whole-of-system approaches and can advocate effectively across different service contexts.

Warm referral processes must replace cold handovers, ensuring that families experience supported transitions that maintain relationships and understanding rather than requiring them to restart their support journey with each service change. This requires investment in relationship-building and communication systems that can sustain connection across organisational boundaries.

Organisations delivering Thriving Kids must build local collective connections with councils, community services, and disability inclusion planning processes. This community integration ensures that individual support is embedded within broader community capacity-building, creating sustainable foundations for ongoing inclusion and participation.

nquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative

The Community Integration

Imperative

Inclusion cannot be treated as an optional add-on to early childhood intervention, but must be embedded as a fundamental principle within community systems. True inclusion requires that children, families, and local networks all develop capacity to support diverse participation, moving beyond individual accommodation towards systemic accessibility.

Community inclusion planning represents a critical mechanism for ensuring that early childhood intervention contributes to broader social change rather than simply helping individuals adapt to exclusionary environments. This approach recognises that sustainable support requires changing community attitudes, physical environments, and social structures that create barriers to participation.

Local Government Partnership Educational Collaboration

Working with councils to develop inclusive Supporting schools and early childhood policies, accessible infrastructure, and centres to develop inclusive practices and community awareness programs environmental modifications

Recreation Integration Healthcare Coordination

Partnering with sports clubs, libraries, and Building relationships with medical providers recreational facilities to increase accessibility to improve understanding and service delivery and welcome approaches

Thriving Kids must link with local councils, schools, recreation providers, and healthcare systems to create truly inclusive communities. Councils shape public spaces and services; schools need support to welcome diverse learners; recreation partnerships build social participation and acceptance; and health system engagement ensures coordinated care. These connections reduce family burden and sustain inclusion beyond early intervention.

nquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative

Key Recommendations

Based on the evidence and analysis presented, several key recommendations emerge that could

transform early childhood intervention from a fragmented, deficit-focused system towards a

coordinated, strengths-based approach that truly supports thriving families and communities.

1

Reframe Support Paradigms

Move away from intensity and compliance-focused models towards flexibility, rights-based approaches, and comprehensive family support that recognises diverse needs

Expand Intersectionality Recognition

Extend understanding of marginalisation beyond First Nations and CALD communities to encompass LGBTQIASB+, socioeconomic, geographic, and other intersecting identities

Transform Workforce Development

Implement comprehensive micro-credential systems and supervision models embedded in rights, disability justice, neurodiversity, and intersectionality frameworks

Invest in Systems Change

Prioritise environmental and structural modifications alongside individual support, recognising that sustainable change requires addressing systemic barriers

Ensure Seamless Transitions

Develop robust mechanisms for continuity across services, funding streams, and developmental stages through key worker models and warm referral processes

Ground in Rights Frameworks

Embed UN human rights conventions as non-negotiable foundations for all program development, implementation, and evaluation processes

These recommendations require fundamental shifts in thinking about early childhood intervention,

moving from medical model approaches towards social model and human rights frameworks that

recognise disability as created by barriers rather than individual deficits. Implementation will require

sustained commitment, adequate resourcing, and genuine partnership with affected communities.

Success depends on recognising that these recommendations are interconnected. Workforce

development without systems change will be ineffective, while rights frameworks without intersectional

understanding will exclude many families who most need support. Comprehensive reform requires

simultaneous action across all these dimensions.

Conclusion: Towards Thriving Systems

The evidence is unequivocal: current approaches to early childhood intervention, while well-intentioned, often fail to achieve their stated goals of supporting children and families to thrive. Fragmented systems, deficit-focused approaches, and inadequate attention to intersectional needs create barriers rather than bridges to genuine support and inclusion.

Transformation requires fundamental paradigm shifts that move beyond individual remediation towards systemic reform. This means changing environments and structures rather than expecting children and families to adapt to inadequate systems. It means recognising that neurodivergence and disability are natural variations that require accommodation rather than normalisation.

Most critically, it means understanding that children cannot thrive in isolation from their families and communities. Supporting individual children without addressing family stress, community exclusion, and systemic barriers will produce limited and unsustainable outcomes. Conversely, investing in family empowerment, community capacity, and systemic accessibility creates conditions where all children can flourish.

Inclusive Communities

Thriving Families Welcoming and accommodating

Feeling competent, connected, BNEHEe Ware or DENS ait

and supported in their parenting oe participating journey P02 -— :

it Thriving Children

° an Supported to be their a authentic selves while Rights Realisation 63 developing to their potential

Ensuring human rights principles

guide all policy and practice decisions Adapting to meet diverse needs

rather than requiring conformity

Responsive Systems

Thriving Kids must not be another program to “fix” children, but a catalyst for systemic change that helps children, families, and communities thrive together. The recommendations outlined here provide a roadmap grounded in evidence, rights, and lived experience. Incremental change is no longer enough; Thriving Kids offers an opportunity for transformational reform. The real question is not whether we can afford to do this, but whether we can afford not to.

‘If you want thriving kids, you need thriving families. If you want thriving families, you need better systems“.

Certifications

Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA)

Certified Behaviour Analyst (CBA)

Specialist Behaviour Support Practitioner (NDIS)

Educational Experience

BA (Ed) (2008)

Masters (SpecEd) (2011) GradCert (ABA) (2018)

Grad Cert (EdReseach) (2022)

Currently Studying

Grad Cert (Intersectionality, Diversity, Inclusion)

Grad Cert Social Justice (Human Rights)

https://www.sevendimensionsconsulting.com

SEVEN DIMENSIONS

Couyub ling

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References

ANPA. (n.d.). https://www.thisisanpa.org/

ASAN-AU. (n.d.) https://www.asan-aunz.org/

Autism CRC. (n.d). https://www.autismcrc.com.au/best-practice/supporting-children).

Catrone, R. G., Baires, N. A., Martin Loya, M. R., & Brown-Hollie, J. P. (2022). An intersectional examination of disability and race models in behavior-analytic practice. Behavior and Social Issues, 32, 152-181. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42822-022-00116-z

Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), 139-167.

Early Childhood Intervention Australia. (2024). https://www.dss.gov.au/system/files/documents/2024-11/ecia-national guidelines-best-practice-early-childhood-intervention-2016.pdf

Fisher, A., Louise, K., Dobek, M., McRae, J., Clissold, M., Reschke, K., Fox., R., Leif, E., Vassos, M., Ellis, J., Annear, K., Figueiredo, S., Cubis, L., Cheung, S. C., Spicer, M., Nankervis, J., McVilly, K., & Freeman, R. (2024). A positive behaviour support framework for disability and community services in Australia that prioritises human rights and evidence-based practices. Disability and Rehabilitation, 47(N1), 2948-2959. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2024.2402079

Fisher, A., Louise, K., Reschke, K., Kremer, P., & Kelly, G. (2024). Positive behaviour support under the National Disability Insurance Scheme in Australia: Barriers, enables and support needs from the perspective of practitioners. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 59(4), 1031-1049. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajs4.316

Hayes, S. C., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Wilson, K. G. (2012). Contextual behavioral science: Creating a science more adequate to the challenge of the human condition. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 1, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2012.09.004

Hayward, B., McKay-Brown, L., & Poed, S. (2018). Positive behaviour support in Australian disability policy, and its future with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 6(1), 14 23.https://doi.org/10.1080/23297018.2018.1498299

Heyworth, M., McMahon, C., Tan, D. W., & Pellicano, E. (2025). “There is nowhere else that I’d rather be than with them”: Parents’ positive experiences parenting autistic children. Autism Developmental Language Impairments, 10, https://doi.org/10.1177/23969415251357222

Kohli Mathur, S. & Rodriguez, K.A., (2021). Cultural responsiveness curriculum for behaviour analysts: A meaningful step toward social justice. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 15, 1023-1031. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-021-00579-3

National Autism Strategy. (2025). https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/national-autism-strategy Raising Children Network. (n.d). https://raisingchildren.net.au/

Reframing Autism. (n.d.). https://reframingautism.org.au/

Reimagine Australia. (n.d.). https://reimagine.org.au/

Sandbank, M., Bottema-Buetal, K., Crowley LaPoint, S., Feldman, J. |., Barret, D. J., Caldwell, N., Dunham, K., Crank, J., Albarran, S.,

& Woynaroski, T. (2023). Autism intervention meta-analysis of early childhood studies (Project AIM): Updated systematic review and secondary analysis, BMJ, 383, 1-15, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-076733

United Nations (1989). United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/99f113b4 e5f7-00d2-23c0-c83ca2e4cfa2/fc21b0e1-2a6c-43e7-84f9-7c6d88dcc18b/unicef-simplified-convention-child-rights.pdf

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References

United Nations (2006). United Nations on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. http://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convoptprot-e. pdf

United Nations (2007). United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E web.pdf

Vollmer, T. R. & Pendergrass, J. A. (2025). Social validity and contemporary behavior analysis. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 48, 519-527. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-025-00452-6