Asperger's sydrome

welshliz

Hi guys,
I'm hoping you can help me. My 7 year old nephew has just been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome which is a form of autism. I was just wondering if there were any grants available to help with his education ie, for a computer or a tutor etc. Also can you recommend any websites with some information on Asperger's?
Thanks, Liz.

nottslass_2

hi,I dont know about grants,but my friends son,who also has aspergers, gets disability living allowance,higher rate child tax credits, she is also able to claim careers allowance.
she also pressed to get her son "statemented" so that the local education authority would fund extra classroon support for him, which has enabled him to stay in main stream school.
There is also the "national Autistic society",I'm sure if you "google" it you will find some usefull info !
Sorry I cant give you anymore usefull info,she's on hols at the moment and my knoweledge is very limited !!

skips_mum

Hi,
I can help with this one - ds1 has autism and ds2 has aspergers.
She can claim DLA, and depending on the rate she can also claim carers allowance. If the DLA claim is successful she is entitled to extra child tax credit and possibly some housing benefit.
In my case DS1 (who has multiple disabilties) gets high rate DLA and DS2 (just aspergers) gets the low rate only.
If she gets DLA she can ask for grants from the family fund to help with extra needs as a result of his disability. Its quite difficult to claim on the basis of aspergers tho, and you need to persevere!

workingmum

hi skips mum,

my son is on disability and i get help from a charity called family fund (they have a web site) they will help if they can with everything your nephew may need. You give them a call and they send out a application form then once they get it back someone will call round to check details. Try them you never know they may be able to help.

workingmum

emmajon

Hi, I have some experience from an education perspective, if the depending on the severity your nephew could be statmented by the Local Education Authority. If a child is statmented he is given official SEN status. (SEN stands for Special Educational Needs). This statement process is dealt with by the Assessment & Monitoring Team within the local authority, they collect information from all of the people involved with the child, GP, Hospital Consultant, Teachers, Physchologists, Speech Therapists etc - and then a decison is made as to whether the child should be given a Statement of Special Educational Needs. If your nephews diagnosis isn't too severe he may stay in a mainstream school but again this is decided by the Assessment & Monitoring Team - if he stays in mainstream the school is usually given extra SEN funding, this can either be used for extra staffing, equipment and other things which would help support the child in school. Perhaps it would be worth speaking to the school about this. In a specific Special Needs School they recieve a lot of extra funding - again for staff and equipment etc but these schools are usually well placed for dealing with the moderate to severe cases rather than the mild. Good Luck, there is lots of help out there for parents, families and friends so encourage his parents to access this help. I think there is even a website for parents of children with Special Needs.

Leolady_2

Hi you could try this website i found it to be quite useful .

www.specialkidsintheuk.org

All the best Leolady .

mariejader

You can also get concessions for theme parks cinema etc plus loads of other help, the theme exit passes in my opion is the best help.

Regarding a statement of (SEN) special educational needs, these are not easy to get and you will need to fight for your rights, don't give up on it, the important thing is do make a parent request rather than let the school do it, I would suggest that you speak with school before you apply and check they will back you, they may offer to do it for you but you have more power as a parent than the school does so please don't take the easy option and let them do it.

lil_me

http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/ Might be worth looking at. There are many people on there who have Autism, Aspergers, those who have children with Autism and Aspergers etc aswell as some proffesionals.

Familyfund can be great but usually depends on DLA award, I don't think they will pay for tutoring however.

Morglin

This lists various support groups:

http://www.ion.ucl.ac.uk/library/patient/asperger.htm

Lin

welshliz

Hi Guys,
Thanks for all your help.
Liz