The cost of care for parents whose children suffer from autism can be devastating.

When Tara Wilson's identical twins Jack and Boston still weren't speaking at three, she knew something was wrong.

Soon after they were diagnosed with autism.

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"There was a lot of anger over the diagnosis. Why me, and why them? Those cute gorgeous little boys are going to have such a struggle in life," Tara said.

"We couldn't go anywhere because of their behaviour, and because of the running away, and I just felt like a prisoner in my own home."

After much searching Tara was lucky enough to get her sons into The Lizard Centre.

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Creator and director of The Lizard Centre Nicole Rogerson knows firsthand the need for early intervention. Her son Jack was diagnosed as a young boy, and after finding a therapist that helped him by using Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) Nicole decided to set up a much-needed centre.

"We're teaching children everything they have a deficit in - from social skills, to play skills, to language skills and it's intensive," Nicole explained.

"We have behaviour analysts, we have speech pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists - it's a whole team of people."

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The twins spend 25 hours at The Lizard Centre, and do extra therapy at home.

"They're different children. They're just happier, we're all happier. And they've just learned skills in every are of child development," Tara said of the treatment.

The problem is that this therapy is expensive, and while the Government says autistic kids need twenty hours of it a week, they only fund one to two hours. The rest of it has to be paid for by the parents and it puts enormous financial strain on families. For some it's impossible to afford.

• The Lizard Centre - www.lizardcentre.com
• Autism Spectrum Australia - www.autismspectrum.org.au
• Autism Awareness - www.autismawareness.com.au

This reporter is on Twitter at @LauraSparkes7