DLA for 3 Year with Speech and developmental delays?

[TN23]

So long story short.. I've had a lot of people tell me I should apply for DLA for my son. He's 3 & a half years old and has severe speech and developmental delays. In a lot of arrears he still at 18 months or below. He also has behavioural problems and gets very physically violent!! He's been having let's talk more and speech therepy. He also has a thrive plan and a targeted intervention plan both at home and at nursery. The nursery are also receiving SEND funding for him due to his behaviour and extra needs. Is it worth applying? What are other people's experiences?

[Fairylea]

Definitely worth applying.

Use the cerebra dla guide to help you do the forms. If you google cerebra dla guide it will come up.

We received high rate care for ds aged 2.8 prior to him having any formal diagnosis.

[TN23]

Thank you for your reply!! A lot of extra care goes into looking after him compared to other children his age, but the only proof I have is charts stating the delays he has and letters from speech therapy and his plans. Will this be enough?

[TN23]

I also want to add that the things the nursery are going to use the funding for are;
-to provide somewhere for him to use as a safe space because when he becomes overwhelmed he likes to go off on his own in an inclosed space.
-they want to get a one to one worker for him
-they also want to buy doubles of the toys he plays with the most at nursery as he can become addicted to certain toys and has angry, violent outbursts when it's another child's turn.

[Fairylea]

Don’t worry too much about proof, just write as much as you can - similarly to how you have here, and provide whatever you can. They can only say no so nothing to lose and you can always reapply again anyway. I think you have a good chance of getting it.

(When we applied my son hadn’t even seen a paediatrician, only the Gp, we didn’t have any reports either. He did have some support at nursery. He is now 7 and we renewed last year and he was given high rate again until 14- he was diagnosed with autism and learning disabilities aged 4 and attends complex needs school).

[TN23]

OK thank you. A lot of extra care does go into looking after him and he does display a lot of signs for autism but no one wants to help. Our health visitor put it all down to his speech Delays which she said could be because of bad hearing but his hearing is fine he just chooses not to listen but we've been unable to get his hearing checked because he has a meltdown everytime we take him to get it tested (it's happened 3 times now). He's also unable to walk up or down the stairs by himself and is still not potty trained!! The furthest he can walk is to nursery but often requires carrying because he has meltdowns is for example and loud bike goes past or a dog barks. He also doesn't like to stop when walking to stopping before crossing roads sets him off too.