Hi,
I applied for dla last year and my daughter is 2, she was awarded middle rate care and doesnt qualify for mobility as you have to be 3. She was awarded it for only a year. About a month or so ago we get a letter to apply for mobility and my daughter turns 3 in may. We fill it out and then got a letter saying she has been awarded middle rate care but turned down for mobility to 2022.
When we applied for mobility alot has happened since a month ago. We had the child psychologist come out and assess my daughter and she is only mentaly of a 12 to 15 month old and he said he is going to recommened that she goes to a specialist unit for nursery. He also said she has no self help skills at all. So a few weeks pass and I phone (I think its called the educational board) wanting a copy of the psychologist report. They said they had a meeting about my daughter and have passed a proposed statement for autism and are waiting for the psychologist report and other reports. They said the psychologist report will be with them any day now and are just waiting on my daughters medical report which she has next week.
Last week my daughter was with the occupational therapist and she noticed my daughter was finding it difficult to walk on differnt textures like soft matts. She also wants the physio to see her again as my daughter cant walk up or down stairs or steps unaded. She is also coming to my house in a few days to assess the house to see what can be put in place to help my daughter.
As you can see there has been a few things happen after we applied for mobility, but we dont have the reports yet to send to dla. I phoned them today and asked if it could be looked at it again as I feel my daughter should be getting high rate care. I know you can only get high rate mobility if your child is under 5 but im not sure if she qualifies and would like to ask for opinions on the matter.
(About my daughter)
As I have mentioned, my daughter will be 3 in may. She is mentaly delayed and is in the process of being diagnosed as autistic. We got a genetic test done (requested by child pediatric doctor) The results came back with two areas of concern. On one of her cromosones (dont know the number or name) she has duplicate, the doctor said this is the most common one and me or you could have it at not know any differnce but the cant be sure if it will effect my daughter. The other concern is she has a deletion on chromosone 15, This is linked to ADHD, behaviour problems, development delays and autism. So me and my partner had to get tested to see if we passed it on to her or if it was just a fluke thing to happen, so my daughter has a rare genetic disorder. She also got more bloods taken so they could investigate furter on how its going to impact my daughters life. Im guessing we will find out next week when my daughter goes for medical which is done by the pediatric docter.
My daughter can say about 20 or so single words, she can say about ten double words but cant put three words together or say sentences. If she wants something she wont point and cant say what it is she wants, she will grab your hand and pull you to the middle of floor and expects us to know what it is she wants. If we dont know what it is she wants she will have meltdowns which can last hours at a time. She cant eat solid food and her food has to be pureed. We have to make her 2 to 3 meals a time until she decides to eat. She is very sensory and hates loud noises. She would rub her head on window ledges or floor and has tried to rub her head on conctere walls. She has to be supervised 24/7 as she has no sense of danger. She wont feed herself and has to be feed by myself or partner. She has got very violent towards myself and partner even without any triggers, one minute she will be cuddleing into us and out of the blue she will scrab our faces and bite and nip us. We cant walk anywhere with her as she refuses to walk at will just stand still and have meltdowns. On the rare occasion if she will walk it will only be a few steps the she goes nuts if we dont carry her. She doesnt listen to any command and is very own agenda. Her sleep pattern is a nightmare, she wont go to bed to fall asleep she just runs around until she gets tired and then we have to carry her up to her room. Then she wakes up at around 12 am to 4.30 am then falls back to sleep and is back up at 6-7 am.
She attends a special group every friday that only has seven kids as she cant cope with big crowds. Theres no way she will be able to cope with mainstream school. The kids in her group play together but my daughter is at the other side of the room playing by herself. She cant be bothered with other kids.
Im sorry for such a long post but wanted to give you an idea of my daughter and do you think im right in asking for a mandatory reconsideration? I feel she should be on high rate care if nothing else as my daughter needs 24/7 care, she is constant and its very very very hard work. Also my fear is can she be turned down completely as I have asked for a reconsideration? The extra money will really help as it gets spent on my daughter and its costing me a fortune to feed her as i have to make 2 to 3 meals a time so that she will eat.
Thank you for reading