Hi,
my child is 12.5 years old. ADHD and awaiting autism assessment.
I’m trying to figure out if it would be worth applying for DLA.
As time goes on we are starting realise that our ‘normal’ is perhaps not the norm for parents of children the same age.
Areas of support-
Sleep-can take 1-2 hours to go to sleep and requires parent to be present. We have tried everything believe me!
Wakes in night 2-3 times which over the last year has resulted in one of us just sleeping in the room on a put up matress purely so everyone can get some sleep without having to move about in the night.
Eating & drinking-
Will basically not drink a drop unless heavily promoted to eg. Handed a glass and directed to drink. Even then it’s sips. Feels like a full time job just keeping hydrated and would easily become dehydrated. Eg. Sent home from school in recent heatwave feeling unwell-had not drank a drop of water. Says doesn’t feel thirst 🤷🏻♀️
Eating is limited diet to a certain extent and requires us to confirm things are cooked (sometimes with every mouthful eaten) as anxious about food poisoning. Again, requires lots of verbal prompting to keep eating the meal (gets distracted).
Executive function-
tRequires lots of verbal prompts to do simple tasks like getting dressed. We need to hand each item of clothing one by one. Lots of repeated requests.
Easily overwhelmed by lots of instructions so we keep demand low on school days in order to get out the door on time for school. This includes things like brushing teeth or handing toothpaste-keeping on task, handing a face wipe, wiping bottom (though recently becoming more independent with this).
We pack school bag, make lunch, drink, ensure all stationary present.
Requires supervision higher than you’d expect as can be impulsive (not bad) but if immersed in a role play game (on own) he may snap something like recently the outside broom handle without thinking in the moment.
There are other elements such as meltdowns/overwhelm/repetitive behaviours such as walking back and forth certain number of times before entering room.
Child is highly verbal, confused by social encounters often, but does have friends (can be transient).
Absolutely caring and responsible in lots of areas but needs a fair bit of scaffolding to be able to get to school and cope with the daily demands.
In mainstream, no ehcp.
Any advice/experience, apply or not ‘bad’ enough?