I just got £800 from disability allowance. How best to spend it on my child?

[Adriana87]

Hi all

My son is 5 and has recently been diagnosed with ADHD. He also has quite a significant speech delay. He can says sentences, but nothing really outside set phrases; "I want", "where is" etc. My 2 year old would fall down and string words to describe what happened "Brother chasing me and I fell down and hit bum bum". My son would never say something like that and if he tries, it's pure gibberish.

I'm looking for the best thing to do with the money. Has anyone seen a private paediatrician, can recommend a service etc? He's definitely saying more words, but he's not making any significant progress. My 2 year old will probably be at his level in the next 5 months or so.

Has he seen a SALT, he must have by now surely I guess? If not then SALT would make sense as a priority I guess?

Does DS have an EHCP? If not, I would apply for an EHCNA and save the money for getting an independent SALT assessment if you need appeal. This way DS could receive ongoing SALT whereas using the £800 itself for SALT would mean it would run out and DS would b3 back to not having much, if any, SALT.

Never heard of this stuff before. Thanks so much

As DS hasn’t got an EHCP regardless of what you do with the DLA back pay you should apply for an EHCNA. Have a look at IPSEA and SOSSEN’s websites for more information, including model letters you can use to apply for an EHCNA.

This might sound like an unusual suggestion but we used my son's DLA money to get his hearing checked. We had hearing tests done on the NHS but I always found them rushed and not thorough enough to satisfy my thoughts of him having hearing difficulties.

So I found a private hospital nearby with a ENT consultant that dealt with children. Though his assessment and later a hearing test they have discovered he has excessive ear wax in one ear and glue ear in the other ear. We are due back next week to determine next steps.

If you think hearing is all ok then would suggest private SALT like others have said.

Thanks all for the replies. He has been to speech and language through the NHS and this has been passed on to the school. All the acronyms can be a little confusing for me so I will double check what kind of care plan he is on if any. @lucy#, my son has literally been seeing a hearing specialist since he was born. Every 4 months or so we were told he has partial hearing lost, congestion etc. and that they will monitor it. It got to a point I got very frustrated and asked if there was ever going to be some conclusion to these constant test (which I had to take time off work to take him to).

That complaint resulted in he being booked in to get grommets. They put him to sleep and everything only for the surgeon to say he couldn't see a problem. There isn't really anything noticeably bad about his hearing. The TV can be on downstairs and he'll hear it for example.