Blue badge decline

[kmummy]

My son has ASD and he's almost 4. Because he can walk we have been declined. The fact he drops to the floor, refuses to move or does the opposite and bolts into roads, has no fear of danger means nothing. Do I give up? I just don't feel like I have much fight left :(

I suspect their reason will be that plenty of 4 year olds do that and there is universal equipment to help ie reigns, buggy as well as behavioural strategies.

Really? My one year old has more awareness than he does, and hes my fourth child. I've never seen anything like what he does. Il carry on staying in and not daring going anywhere. Best option really, I can't carry him while being kicked and punched, and push his brother across busy car parks alone anymore.

I would wait and apply again in a year. We have had a blue badge for ds1 (ASD) since just before he was 5. I argued that there was now a huge gulf between him and his peers, most of whom were at mainstream school and could go on school outings with an adult to child ratio of 1:5 or 1:6.

Until then (and in fact until v recently, and he is 6 next week) we used a Phil and Teds double buggy for him and ds2 as it simply wasn't possible for me to go out with them on my own without them both (or at least ds1) being restrained

Ask the council if they can offer an actual physical assessment. Ours employs a sensible physio who specifically checks out the walking skills of borderline applicants. Walking your ds across the civic centre car park and along a corridor should effectively show the blue badge person what s/he needs to know