do you claim DLA for aspergers/hfa child?

[thisisyesterday]

someone mentioned it to me, and it isn't something I'd really thought about before, I guess I just thought that ds1's needs weren't severe enough.

I just wondered if others claimed for aspergers/hfa (we haven't had official diagnosis yet) and if you had any tips for filling the form in?

sorry i have no tips but have had DLA from the age off two no formal diog untill now at the age of 8 just a prog but was told about it by my son pead when he was two so go for it my son did need lots more help then most children at his age due to speech delay etc all the best

we have just claimed (but still awaiting decision) for DD with severe s&l problems and autistic traits. no dx yet.

cerebra have a fantastic guide for completing the DLA form click

I have never claimed for DS (14) HFA as I think I would find it difficult to prove he needs lots more attention than any other teenager. He needs quite a bit of prompting to get him to do stuff but he is capable of carrying out tasks that most boys of his age can do - and I think most teenagers take lots of nagging anyway.
He has had 1-1 at school since he was statemented at 6 but they are mainly there to pull him back on task if he is distracted - in fact school are about to experiment with removing his TA from class to see how he copes.

It all depends how much extra help you can prove that your DC needs above and beyond what a nt child of the same age would need.

Yes.

I claim for DS (age 6) who so far has dx of dyspraxia and sensory modulation problems. He is in the process of beign assessed for ASD/AS.

My main tip is to use the Cerebra DLA!

you should have my son has'nt been statmented he needs to be but they refused due to lack of time at new school x and its not based on what the school thinks
its weather he needs the extra help , best thing is to forget your the mom and think what he needs as an outsider looking in :)

thanks all. when you apply do they speak to the school and GP as well?
he has just moved to a new school and is coping fairly well there (it's a very small montessori school and they're v.keyed up on ASD)
plus we've only been to the GP when we asked to be referred to the paediatrician

I think I might fill the form in. If they say no then we haven't lost anything, but if we get a yes that would be useful as it could pay for things like his swimming and maybe some music lessons which we've been told could help him but we can't afford atm

thanks for the link btw, have bookmarked so I can have a proper read later

This

Ours was only agreed in June and they used my form and my OT report dated March. THey didn't talk to the school or GP at all.

Definitely fill out the form - you can't be any worse off. I was expecting nothign like HRC and LRM but when you read it back, it is accurate given their definitions.

One tip from here, arm yourself with lots of chocolate and for filling in the form and get ready to reward yourself after. It is a gruelling form. I completed all of my answers on Word so that I could amend as I was going through and just stapled it to the paper form. Make sure that you call up for the paper form as they will backdate to the date of requesting the form so logn as you send it back within 6 weeks (or 5 weeks 4 days like I did ).

I claim for DS who has HFA. He is statemented and goes to SN school, is medicated and has therapy, so his needs are clearly documented in reports. I think the DWP didn't even ask for reports from his school/GP, because I sent existing reports with my application which gave them all the information they needed.

It has been really useful for DS as it triggered higher rate child tax credits and also Carer's Allowance for me, so the extra money we get is more than just the actual DLA.

The Cerebra document is really useful. I've heard they will even come out to visit you at home to help you fill in the form in some areas.

Yes my son HFA and we receive care and mobility and i would say on the forms state the differences between your childs needs and a child without needs.

No, we haven't (and we've got two on the spectrum) because we don't really consider our kids to be disabled, just a bit quirky, so I'd feel a fraud. I do understand though that a lot of AS/HFA kids do need some form of extra help/lessons and we're in the very lucky position of not (at present) needing the money to get that if we need it so we can make that choice.

I get HRC for ds (almost 5 sob) with HFA - he still has 12 hours a week of 'interventions' (needs much more to make good progress) on top of his daily care needs. Having a older nt child makes it glaringly obvious how much extra everything he needs.

the higher rate is for sleep issues - melatonin gets him to sleep relatively quickly but he's still up & down all night (last night was 11pm, 2am, 5am, up for the day at 5:45 which is pretty typical). He's also got bowel issues/withholding & still isn't toilet trained ... so has pretty obvious higher needs before you even begin to think about communication, social, safety, dietary, medical (pain responses, problems with medication, absences), physical (dyspraxia- needs lots of OT), psychological (phobias) & educational needs.

Many people think he's an easy child - we don't have major behavioural issues/meltdowns/violence & he is pretty compliant (my dds are much more difficult), well mannered, sweet & loving - because of the massive input he gets, which is easily forgotten because it becomes a way of life.

Yes, but not until DS was 15 (diagnosed with Aspergers at 12). We sent in statements from his school SENCo and his youth group leader (who is also a social worker) with the form. They didn't get in touch with the Paed or our GP. Like a lot of people we weren't sure we would get anything,but we got mid rate care and low rate mobility. Like lots of others on here we used the cerebra guide.