It's hoped Australia's first national autism strategy will bring stability to neuro-diverse people in regional areas. 

The seven-year strategy that was unveiled last month is said to be a "turning point" in addressing the challenges faced by Australians with autism.

"The difficulties for Western Plains children is firstly accessing developmental assessment in a timely fashion and once they have the assessment, they have of challenges accessing therapy and support," Dr Marcel Zimmet, Chief Medical Officer at Royal Far West, said.

Peter Mackay and Patricia Young from Warren know the struggle of getting specialised care for their child with autism all too well. 

Their three-year-old son Malaki was diagnosed with middle-range autism last year. 

 Malaki has a big love for wheels. Photo: supplied

Mr Mackay said he noticed the first signs when Malaki was still a baby.

"We noticed something was wrong when he wasn't talking at a certain age. When he was around other kids, he would ignore them."

Malaki requires weekly speech therapy to maintain his progress, however, sometimes the speech therapist is only able to come once a month. 

"He needs it ongoing. It's not frequent enough," Ms Young said. 

"Sometimes he goes without seeing his speech therapist for a while because they don't have enough clients out here." 

Over 290,000 Australians have an autism diagnosis but the actual number of people who have autism is said to be much higher. 

This is because some people with autism don't meet the criteria set by the government to qualify as autistic which also impacts their access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS),

"You currently need a certain level of autism to get access to the NDIS," Dr Zimmet said. 

With babies, certain milestones doctors look for are mimicking sounds and facial expressions by nine months or babbling and cooing by 12 months. 

For adults, an autism diagnosis can involve speech, language, movement, and neurocognition assessments. 

The National Autism Strategy could change the criteria necessary to qualify for NDIS support. 

"We're unclear how but there's a possibility that it will be better for some families." 

Families who have children with autism struggle with access to developmental assessment and ongoing support. 

Although children with autism receive support through both the public and private school systems, there are still gaps that need to be filled. 

"School counsellors are an amazing group of people but they often have limitations in the amount of therapy they can support and they have to support a whole range of kids in school as well," Dr Zimmet said.

Dr Marcel Zimmet. Photo: Royal Far West

Malaki is currently in daycare and will be going to preschool next year. Although interacting with other children can be difficult for him, he has a special connection with animals, especially cats, and understands most conversations although he struggles to respond. 

"He had a bond with our cat that he used to play all the time. When he first started crawling and walking, he would lay next to the cat and follow it around the house," Mr Mckay said.

Malaki is also fascinated by wheels and water.

"He'll watch the school bus drive off till you can't see the wheels and if he sees any water he'll go straight into it,' Mr Mackay said. 

Dr Zimmet said he hopes that the national autism strategy will bring lasting change to people like Malaki. 

"For rural and remote autistic kids, I would really like to see enshrined better access and ongoing support for their needs," Dr Zimmet said.

Support for families can be found through the local health district, department of education, or through non-governmental organisations such as Marathon Health and Royal Far West.