DLA Application for 3 year old

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Hi there

I finally sent off my daughters application form for DLA today, I just wanted to ask others experiences if they were successful in claiming DLA for their 3 year olds and what rate they had.

We currently do not have a diagnosis for her as there’s a 3.5 year wait with the neurological pathway team to assess her for autism and ADHD we have been on the list for a 1.5 year already. We sent off a stack of evidence with the forms today, written letters from her nursery and childcare wrap around setting and her individual development plan. There was more evidence I sent off but quite long to write out.

if anyone could give me an idea on how long they waited for a decision as well I would be grateful.

Has she seen salt as part of the pathway yet? …send the salt report…..are se is involved …they could write a statement…..have you applied for an ehcp? Loads of evidence you can use

I applied for DLA for my son when he was 3 and received the higher rate. You don't mention whether you need to be awake at regular intervals throughout the night. That was key for our application to show he needed more care than other 3 Yr olds.

I have sent off a report from speech and language therapy, and other bits of information as well from them, we are due another meeting at nursery in regards to a ehcp her development plan has only recently been done for nursery.

@MissDianaBarry hi yes every night of the week I have to sit in with my daughter as she has no awareness of danger, and takes hours for me to settle her into bed, takes her clothes off repeatedly, climbs on bedroom furniture has no awareness of danger, climbs on the baby gate. She has even smeared her poo and takes off her nappy as well, she settles but wakes up early hours of the morning and I have to resettle her again which takes hours. She’s prone to meltdowns as well in the nights as well as running up and down the bedroom continuously there are other behaviour issues and additional needs as well

They say 10-20 weeks for a decision I think.

I have also sent off letters from the support grant people from the funded hours for her to have a 1-1 at her wrap around setting as well as a letter from the setting manager explaining how she needs a 1-1 to keep her safe at all times when she’s in wrap around.
do you think this is suitable evidence as well?

😂 I could have wrote this myself, daughter, 3 years 5 months, and most certain sounds like your daughter, I too sent my daughters dla form off yesterday so we should be about the same scan date. Only difference is evidence, she’s waiting to be seen by paediatric next year but preschool are trying to get extra help because she needs 1-1 due to danger awareness, meltdowns, she will hurt anyone adult or child and her lack of understanding. I have sent a letter from her Preschool teacher and SENCo which is detailed and i have put a lot of details about her needs and how she is outside. We will have to keep each other updated as we go through this process. I’m expecting to hear from dla end of Aug : beginning of September they seem to be working at 15-16 weeks wait at the moment

@Crazyhouse4 our daughters are exactly the same age, I hope everything goes okay for the application for you I’ll keep my fingers crossed and yes we need to keep each other updated. best of luck

I’m beginning to think I haven’t wrote enough of what she’s like at night, I’ve wrote she wakes for a hour sometimes longer every night, sleeps in our room to keep her safe, will wonder around, will be sick if she wakes and I’m not there and we’ve had to up security on our doors because she left the house early in the morning while I was asleep. I’ve tried everything with the many meltdowns she has but nothing works, she’s very sensory to touch which makes it harder. It will be interesting to see what rates they get, I think she should get High, she’s so hard work, but we will see

@Crazyhouse4 that sounds incredibly hard especially the wandering outside in the early morning I bet your heart was in your throat.
My daughter runs a lot as in runs away non stop she’s very dangerous outside and doesn’t walk due to being over stimulated and it leads to meltdowns, clothes off and laying on the floor.
Can I ask is your daughter verbal ? My daughter is partially verbal only says one word phrases sometimes in context but always repeats the same stuff over and over, same sounds and sings the same verses in nursery rhymes over and over repeatedly.

@Crazyhouse4 also with night time evidence could you get someone to write a letter or a report about it and send it in as well? Might arrive at different times but worth a shot if it’s something you want you to do

She used to do it in the daytime so we made sure all doors was locks at all times then she worked out unlocking it, my heart definitely skipped a beat! All key locks now she can’t escape. My daughter loves singing and sings words better than she can talk, she’s behind with talking but will say the start and end of a sentence and the middle part is scrambled up. Definitely repetitive with words and singing. She’s a runner too, I need to get fit to keep up, she will walk extremely slow and then all of a sudden run so fast which is a worry with roads etc, stops and refuses to move on the road too, she’s has just started sitting for long periods of time outside in her own world too, she will not listen at all while she’s doing it. Also she is really sociable and gets clingy with strangers and would walk off with them no problem. She can’t tell me what she’s done each day or follow instructions or dress or undress herself, also still in nappies too. My son on the other hand is waiting for adhd assessment, we have to keep busy with him, he’s has so much energy, the more we’re busy the less problems we have, he has movement breaks at school, has 5 mins to run around outside school before we walk home to make it safe and a snack when picking them up is definitely handy to stop the hungry / angry outbursts. We need to have 1-1 with both of them while we are out but I would definitely say my daughter is a lot harder work

@Crazyhouse4 my daughter is often in her own little world and definitely cannot tell me about her day or even what she wants, she will guide me to things she wants and make a high pitched screeching sound if I don’t figure it out. She doesn’t turn around when you call her name or listen to any instruction, she often climbs in very dangerous spaces, and has hurt herself a lot doing this. I have to help my daughter get dressed too, and she is still in nappies as well.
she needs constant care and supervision through the day and night and is very hard work I am unable to leave her for short periods to even use the bathroom as she climbs and takes her clothes off and gets very distressed if I go anywhere.
it’s a lot trying to do it all- my eldest son is disabled also with mild CP (cerebral palsy) and severe epilepsy that’s controlled as much as it can be through medication.
my youngest is nearly 2 and I think touch wood he’s okay very energetic little boy though.

It's all about whether the child has extra needs above what would be expected for a three year old without the problems. Lots of 3 year old still take a long time to settle and have meltdowns so try to show how they are excessive.

I think I had about £200 a month for my ds. I sent off the SALT and the educational psychologicst report I had, and my application went through fine. In fact, I had trouble when I was trying to stop claiming. They insisted I kept it when I rang up to say his needs had changed and were no longer as bad, and I didn't feel we were entitled to it anymore. Dh rung the next day, and they sent out the reassessment paperwork and were then stopped.

@Alwaystired23 thanks for sharing your experience I appreciate it, I found the forms very overwhelming and emotional to fill out as it highlighted everything she couldn’t do and thinking about having to do more if the evidence isn’t enough for whatever reason is overwhelming to think about.

😂 I know the high pitchness well! Screams and shouts are high pitch with my daughter, preschool said she scares the other children. She’s always been hard work and I’ve known something wasn’t right from baby stages, she’s my 5th so my last two have been completely different to my older 3. I can’t believe how alike both are daughters are, your the first person I’ve spoke to that have a child so similar, some of my daughters actions confused me I think it was because I was comparing her to my son, I think they both are probably both asd and adhd but my son is more adhd and my daughter more asd. Oh also my daughter has a thing about warm foods, only really eats pasta for dinner and will leave her food for 30min - 1 hour before eating. You should join the dla wait times thread, there really helpful on there, it’s in dla wait times 42 at the moment

@Crazyhouse4 i knew from early stages too she never turned round to her name, so much so we had her hearing tested twice, and she was always quiet, always played by herself and never made eye contact with us. Never babbled either. Only high pitched noises to display happiness.
my daughter won’t eat meat, and only eats pasta plain, rice, bulgar wheat and fruit sometimes breaded chicken nuggets and yes won’t eat a full meal, leaves her dinner for a long time, runs away and eats with her hands finds it difficult to eat with her spoon and I have to help her and spoon feed her and more often or not she launches her plate across the floor due to texture of food I believe or if she’s having a meltdown.
Yes it’s hard to understand her a lot tbh I find it very hard to interpret her wants and needs, thank you for the thread suggestion I will take a look- likewise I haven’t spoken to anyone who’s had a daughter similar to mine. Thank you for speaking with me your experience of your little girl. X

Now for the long wait for dla decision 🙄 I think both our daughters more than qualify for dla, I’m thinking middle / high rate care, they do need a lot more care than a child there age just hopefully we’ve stated that enough. I’m not sure about High rate mobility though although they both seem extremely hard work outside, we will probably be in the same decision maker pile with posting forms the same day

@Crazyhouse4 yes very long wait it seems, with the mobility I have read that they don’t allocate it to children under 5 but I have heard of some cases where they’ve given lower rate mobility for under 5s, just have to wait and see.
I’ll update as soon as I hear anything hopefully it won’t be the full 4 months

High mobility is from 3 and low mobility is from 5, extreme behavioural problems outside can be classed as high mobility, I wasn’t even thinking about mobility side of it when I got the form but as I was filling it out it made me question if she might qualify for it, i hope it’s not 4 months, my sons was 18 weeks 😵‍💫 thank you I will keep you updated too

Hellooo!

im now on week 24 and they’ve asked for more information I’ve sent appointment letters the paediatrician, the speech and language and the school have filled out a very small box but that is all I have, is this enough?

@AmberLouise3231 what info did you send first of all? Or did you just fill out the form?
yes I think that’s enough evidence

I was awarded HRC for my child when she was 3. She has ASD. She was rejected for HRM (as previously stated, you can’t get LRM at 3 years old) but was awarded HRM at tribunal.

My DS first got awarded DLA when he was 3. He got middle rate care as they deemed (in our case) that neurotypical 3 year olds wake up regularly and need a parents assistance during the night.

He's 6 now, his paediatrician is useless and hasn't even met him because of covid, he's had his first assessment with cahms and is now on a 2 to 3 year waiting list (though they phone every few months to pressure us to take him off the waiting list "because a diagnosis won't change his life.")
His school have been amazing and he's had an EHCP since reception.