DLA for 3 yr old?

mummytofour

I have been told my little ds has ASD. But on the report from the hospital it lists social communication, speech and attention difficulties. Do you think I can and should apply for DLA or wait until his next app in 4 months and hope that there is more news then?

His reports also states that he will require support at school stright away and is having ongoing specialist speech assesment. He is hard work and has all the typical ASD trade marks but I am just not sure if I iwll be taken serioulsy for DLA as he is so young. I have an older child with ASD but did not apply for him until he was 6 and got MRC and LRM, he now gets HRC and LRM and I did all his forms myself. I am just not sure with little ds if its too early to apply.

Any advice please is welcome.

tommy44

Hi

I would apply. I got the care allowance for my son from the age of three months and when he turned 3 years old I applied for the mobility allowance and was awarded. Be sure to fill every minor detail on the form, explaining the difference and extra care and attention your child needs compared to a "normal" child, however irrelevant you may think it sounds.

Write down the contact numbers of all the specialists you meet with and how often you have appointments at the Hospital. My son was born with a cleft palate and had to have weekly speech therapy sessions up until the age of 4. I would have to explain what he was saying to some people who found it hard to understand him.

If he is going to need extra help at school then that says it all. Be sure to put this down as this will help. If possible get the help of a specialist that knows your son to fill the form in, or ask the CAB for help.

Good luck.

munchings-n-crunchings

It's certainly harder applying for DLA for a 3 year old, even with the ASD diagnosis.

You will need to address the issue that all 3 year olds need attention and supervision, and to receive DLA, you'll need to chow your child is over and above that.
You mention about social communication, speech and attention, and these for any 3 year old can differ even without a disability.
A more detailed report would help your case, any additional supporting evidence from Speech and language therapy or Nursery will be useful.

The quality of your submission will play a big part in the success of your claim, but equally, the quality of Decision Maker looking at your claim.

Both my children have high function autism - Asperger Syndrome, but wasn't diagnosed until 8 and 14. I found even with reports from child and family therapy, speech and language and clinical psychology it was a hard slog to get DLA.

Good luck,

Munchie

sarahlucy_2

mummytofour wrote: »

I have been told my little ds has ASD. But on the report from the hospital it lists social communication, speech and attention difficulties. Do you think I can and should apply for DLA or wait until his next app in 4 months and hope that there is more news then?

His reports also states that he will require support at school stright away and is having ongoing specialist speech assesment. He is hard work and has all the typical ASD trade marks but I am just not sure if I iwll be taken serioulsy for DLA as he is so young. I have an older child with ASD but did not apply for him until he was 6 and got MRC and LRM, he now gets HRC and LRM and I did all his forms myself. I am just not sure with little ds if its too early to apply.

Any advice please is welcome.

Hello
I think I would be inclined to apply now - You say your son is showing all the typical ASD trade marks - on my DLA form I made sure I highlighted all of these to explain the difficulties/differences that another three year old may not have. For example; my son is completely unable to feed himself, is not toilet trained, is prone to running off, has no danger awareness, will often refuse to walk/wait with you, runs straight out into traffic, has many problems with speech/communication - needs constant help to be understood, cannot dress himself and so on - I applied on this basis and other factors - he also has a rare medical condition, brain damage, visual impairment etc.. when he was 2 1/2 - 3 for mobility -he is now 5 1/2 and all of the above still apply - at the time I also felt he was too young to apply but now in hindsight I am glad I did.

HTH
Sarah

mealone

sarahlucy wrote: »

Hello
I think I would be inclined to apply now - You say your son is showing all the typical ASD trade marks - on my DLA form I made sure I highlighted all of these to explain the difficulties/differences that another three year old may not have. For example; my son is completely unable to feed himself, is not toilet trained, is prone to running off, has no danger awareness, will often refuse to walk/wait with you, runs straight out into traffic, has many problems with speech/communication - needs constant help to be understood, cannot dress himself and so on - I applied on this basis and other factors - he also has a rare medical condition, brain damage, visual impairment etc.. when he was 2 1/2 - 3 for mobility -he is now 5 1/2 and all of the above still apply - at the time I also felt he was too young to apply but now in hindsight I am glad I did.

HTH
Sarah

Many 3 year olds cant feed themselves, ar`nt toilet trained, has no danger awareness,refuses to walk, has no idea of how dangerous traffic is, has comunication difficuties and cant dress themselves.

To claim DLA a child must stand out as needing moe care than a NORMAL 3 year old, so make sure you can counter the above statement, thats whats matters.

munchings-n-crunchings

sarahlucy wrote: »

is prone to running off, has no danger awareness, will often refuse to walk/wait with you, runs straight out into traffic, has many problems with speech/communication - needs constant help to be understood, cannot dress himself and so on

All this can apply to a non disabled 3 year old.
So many behaviours that children with ASD display, are more apparent as they grow older, so as their peer group matures, the autistic characteristics and behaviours become more apparent. But at 3 years old, it's still harder to prove that the care is more than than a non disabled child of the same age.

I'm not being negative, but I am giving it to you, as the DWP may view things, so you know what ou have to address,

Munchie

Ha! Mealone beat me to it

sarahlucy_2

Munchings-n-crunchings, mealone you are both right - yes sorry I was thankfully in a position where I could give a lot of evidence to support his case.. and like I said he also has other factors which they obviously took into account too..

When I originally replied he was awarded the DLA for two years .. and I reapplied when he was 5 years- around 6 months ago again basically everything was the same as the original application - some more medical issues - but yes, you are both very right at 51/2 years it is a lot easier to state that he needs more help/care than his peers - then it was at 3 years.

sarlyka

The NAS provides help and advice for parents and carers who are applying for DLA for children.
The link is: http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1561&a=3773