Who did you ask to write the statement on your child's DLA forms?

[Lillypond]

Sorry to bring DLA up again. I know that there have been loads of threads about it recently.
I got DS's claim form through the post today and am just sitting down to have a look at it. Daunting or what???
I'm going to get my mum to sign the back of section 1 as she knows that DS has been DX'd with autism and all she has to do is put her signature. I don't know who I'm going to ask to fill out the back of Section 2 though. I don't think a friend or relative would be comfortable doing it because you have to write a statement saying how the child's disabilities affect them. I haven't told many people about DS's issues and the ones I have told seem to be uncomfortable talking about it. I can't see them agreeing to write a statement and I'm not sure I want them to know that I'm claiming DLA anyway.
I'm toying with the idea of asking DS's nursery teacher but as she's already said she doesn't think he is autistic, it seems like a bad idea. We don't have a social worker and I've never met our HV so who can I ask? I'd like to get it filled in by DS's Paed., but I'm not sure if it would be cheeky to ask her, or if maybe it needs to be someone with a personal involvement rather than professional.
What did you all do?
TIA

lilypond I took forms to paed and he said right fill in your details and I will do the rest, which he kindly did.

what about gp
hope youn get it sorted

Do you get Portage?
I had our potage home visitor fill out that bit of the form.
How about a health visitor, or your GP?
Is he seen by any therapists at your local hospital?

Lillypond, I asked Portage but I know you haven't got that yet. Just looked up on one of the advice sites for the other DLA thread and they do suggest someone professional. Alternatively HV might help but I don't think she knows you well either? I would ask the paed if there is no-one else - I agree the nursery workers might just say he causes them no problems. However the DLA people did contact Ds2's preschool anyway in our case so you might want to warn them. The other thing I would do is write to or visit your GP if he or she doesn't know your ds and explain you are applying for DLA as they are likely to contact the GP. I wrote a potted history of Ds2's problems including the difficulties we have with day to day living to help the GP fill in their bit. Otherwise they might also say they are not aware of problems etc.

Ds1's portage worker filled in the statement on the back and the DLA people contacted the SALT. AFAIK they didn't contact the GP or pre-school at all.

Ds2's portage worker wrote the statement for him and DLA contacted his Paed as well. Ds2 was too young for pre-school when I sent he forms off so the pre-school staff were completely uninvolved with his claim.

Our health visitor did ours.

Even if your GP doesn't know your child personally he/she should still have copies of all records surely? When we were applying for the blue badge I hesitated to put the name of our gp who had never met ds but the hv told me that he would automatically be sent any relevent info for the medical records. (I've never checked btw to find out if this is true. As we have recently changed GPs it might be a good opportunity to find out).

Thanks everyone

I'm definitely going to ask the Paed. to write the statement now.

Saker - thanks for your advice again. You always seem to come to my rescue

It's now been confirmed that DS can't have Portage because he is at nursery 5 afternoons per week. I don't think he really needs portage but it would have been nice for him, and maybe could have given me a few ideas.

I haven't spoken to his nursery teacher for a while apart from a brief conversation last week when DS had wet himself for the fifth consectutive day. I was a bit annoyed because the previous day he came home in girls knickers and ridiculous purple woollen trousers (despite there being a bag of clean clothes hanging on his peg). DP was the one to pick him up and he really hit the roof and insisted on changing him into his own clothes before he took him home, which upset the staff because they got out late. I tried to find out what was going on with the toilets - whether he's using them at all, are they prepared to help him with his clothing, would they mind reminding him to use the toilet etc. All the teacher would say is that accidents are common and if she helps DS all the other parents will expect her to help their kids as well. She doesn't understand that DS is probably weeing himself because he doesn't know that he shouldn't wee himself. Although he's been quite successful at home lately with potty training it's very ritualistic. If he doesn't have a ritual at school then it won't happen. Sorry I've gone way off topic there, but I'm just trying to explain how his teacher doesn't understand DS's particular needs.

Early Learning Support have got in touch with my HV for me so I should be hearing from her soon. I'll also make an appointment with my new GP (havn't even met him yet) and let him know what is going on. I'll copy you Saker and write out an example of a typical day to give to the GP. Sounds like a really good idea.

Thanks

Thanks pixel - you've just reminded me to sort something out actually. Half of the paperwork coming throuh about DS has the wrong GP details on it. I must contact our old surgery to make sure that it's being forwarded on to our new surgery promptly. I'd hate to think that our new GP doesn't even know about DS's DX.

Oops - just looked at the other DLA thread and seen that exactly the same question got asked. What are the chances, eh?

On the initial forms I had family friends give evidence in this section, however the claim was rejected and I had to request a reconsideration. At that point I approached all the instructors from J's out-of-school/home activities (karate, swimming and football) and got them to write reports on how much additional support he needs while in their care, plus how his behaviour differs from the rest of the group. Obviously I'd primed them first with the type of thing the DWP are looking for, and got them to send me a draft first to approve before sending it off.

In addition, I compiled more notes on my own involvement in getting him to these activities - the encouragement he needs to go in the first place, reminders of appropriate behaviour, rewards for achieving etc, plus the time it takes to get changed/dried etc.

The nursery teacher doesn't have to think he's autistic as it doesn't matter what the dx is but the additional care that's required. If he needs more attention from her than other children do then her input could be useful. Remember too that you aren't restricted to only one statement of evidence, you can provide as many as you like from different sources. They might not read them all but you can refer to them if you need to request a reconsideration at a later date.

I also had a report from the Health Visitor, though in the first instance it was ignored (she'd actually said the words "J needs significantly more supervision than other children of his age"), but at reconsideration I got her to help me compile a list of age-appropriate behaviours and how J doesn't match up to them, which I think seemed to help.

Don't worry about missing anything at this stage. You'll get chance enough to fill in the gaps at reconsideration if you need to. Best not to fire all your bullets just yet, IMO. At this stage your claim will be assessed by civil service pen-pushers with no medical experience and you may not get an award simply because they lack the insight into DS's condition. Just keep plugging away and you'll get there in the end.

Thanks KT - loads of really good advice there.

I'll make a start on it tonight.