The over diagnosis of ADHD and autism is ruining children’s lives.

Agree...being "labelled" as lazy, flaky, under-achieving, and useless surely has a worse effect

I work as an autism specialist. You're wrong!

It was fun filling in the school bit of the DLA form for me because my son hadn't gone back to school yet at that point so it was really awkward like:

How does your child travel to school?

He would usually walk but now he can't walk and isn't currently well enough to be at school

His teachers obviously had nothing to do with his DLA forms but I can see how teachers would provide good evidence in some cases.

Look at the user name and the fact it's their first post. If it's not a journo the it's someone just trying cause a bunfight on purpose.

And it's out of order. MN is a space where lots of parents of kids with disabilities/ special needs come for support etc.

I don't think that diagnosis is causing problems. I think the world, and the education system particularly, is more hostile and inaccessible than ever, which means more children that would have managed school etc in the past don't. That said, not everything is about school. There are lots of adults exploring diagnosis these days and experiencing a lot of relief at understanding why they are 'different' and why they have struggles with some things. Lots of crossover between undiagnosed adults and poor mental health.

The word 'label' is so dismissive and quite ignorant.

I have astigmatism .
This 'label' doesn't help at all. But the glasses I wear because I have it help enormously.

I dont disagree but DLA often do ask school ,for evidence sometimes ,you have to provide the address and contact details
I have tons of evidence too plus my sons EHCP
Anecdotally I do see people on the Facebook group DLA I'm on putting in claims for very tenuous reasons and complaining school dont back them up
They rarely get anywhere with their claims however ,I have no idea how many people actually do put in these claims but it is something I see regularly on the group I'm in.

So out of that very small 6% many won’t need to contact school ever. When I did my DD’s PIP form there was zero info I needed from school She wasn’t in school half the time! I had shed loads of robust evidence re her life outside of school that meant we got enhanced PIP without an appeal.

OP is trying to whip up into false allegations of schools being inundated with DLA applications when the figures simply don’t stack up. Along with her completely and utterly false thread title.

It’s sad that she/ he hasn’t something better to do than spread lies re children with autism and adhd.

People do ask school because children are at school for 30 hours a week ,its not just about home life sometimes school evidence can back up a claim it depends on what the parents are claiming for if for example a child has global development delay, their needs should also be apparent in school.
I appreciate though some children mask.

Well that’s clearly complete rubbish. Only 6% of children claim DLA and once you’re on it you won’t be filling in forms for quite some time. 6% of children filling in a form once over many years can in no way mean teachers are inundated or coerced. It’s also for extra costs for disabled children or those with a long term illness. The extra costs will be centred round home life not school life so whatever a teacher has to say will be of little use.

Our infant school was baffling. They encouraged me to apply for an EHCP (Statement back then) before he even started there, which we got on our first attempt. They employed the most wonderful 1:1 SSA for him. He had - and still has - multiple complex needs. However they repeatedly sabotaged our attempts to get his autism diagnosis. I lost count of the number of times they ‘lost the questionnaires’ or claimed I hadn’t provided them. They accused me of lying and paranoia. They saw DS1 physically attack me and told me afterwards they assumed I’d told him to do it. Eventually they did complete the forms. The paediatrician actually said to me that he wanted to make a diagnosis of autism but he couldn’t because the school said he showed no signs at all.

When I applied for DLA I deliberately didn’t ask the school to comment on the form. DWP asked them instead. I assumed at that point that we’d be denied DLA. But no - we got it on our first attempt. Because our son needed it and because we had the evidence to support that. The name of the diagnosis didn’t matter - the need did.

(Incidentally he does have autism, and ADHD, and multiple other diagnoses. He’ll never live independently or have a career.)

Quite i asked my sons teacher to fill in this part of the form when his DLA was being renewed for context he goes to a special school for children with severe and profound learning disabilities
She basically wrote a couple of sentences about him needing full 1:1 support at all times, plus I sent in loads of evidence, his disabilities are complex so getting evidence was very easy
And teachers can only write what they see
I often see people complaining on Facebook. Groups about the school not supporting their child's DLA claim but if school dont seer the behaviour parents are describing they can't claim they do
And I appreciate some children mask at school which makes things harder to evidence.

Oh dear OP. You have tried to correct that poster’s spelling of ‘practise’ and exposed your own ignorance instead!

‘Practise’ is the verb in UK English, and it was used correctly by that poster: ‘practise what you preach’.

’Practice’ is the noun and that would be the incorrect version for the poster to use.

You may wish to apologise. If not, I hope you have learnt something in any case.

In which case, they would decline to fill that part of the form in. Easy.

Also, I'm still waiting very very eagerly to hear what financial support will be thrown at me once my son is diagnosed.

Which fraudulent claims?

Sorry OP, again, what experience do you have in anything to do with education or diagnoses of neurodivergence?
You’ve read some stuff online basically.

Yabu.

Not read the article but children aren't diagnosed without good reason. Anxiety and ddepression can be linked to autism, or other neurodivergent conditions.

The diagnosis is a step towards understanding the child's needs and how they are best supported. Whether they get the support they need from the education system is another matter, which can lead to further anxiety.

For each child diagnosed, there will be others facing it in silence and masking in public. Their parents may be trying desperately to support them, but being told there is nothing wrong because they behave in school.

There will also be some who get no support at home too, either because the parents don't understand or don't want to accept there child is neurodivergent.

It's their legal duty. If they don't want to do their legal duty to identify SEN and support vulnerable children, they should find a new job.

Also you've yet to provide evidence that teachers are being coerced into providing evidence to support false diagnoses by nefarious money grabbing parents.

"Indeed. The fact is they are being asked, a lot. According to people on MN. They’re not comfortable about it, often, it seems."

There is a section on the DLA form in which someone who knows the child well can write about the difficulties the child has. Some parents will of course ask a member of school staff because that member of staff knows the child well.

It's not parents who design the DLA form.

My kids will always have adhd.

Its been very freeing for them having a diagnosis from a young age and medication allowed them to access medication (and maintain friendships)

They have grown up knowing why they are they way they are, learned how their brains work. Adhd wasnt a big deal as we always talked about it - the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

According to mumsnet, the anon forum where anyone can claim to be anything and there is often threads stirring up benefits issues, it must be happening often then.

Correct!

Schools have a legal duty to identify and support children with SEN, which would include referrals and supporting diagnostic processes so if teachers are whinging about having to do that vital part of their job, then perhaps they are in the wrong job.

And??
They can ask away the teachers are under no obligation to sign anything .
And they won't sign something they haven't witnessed.