dla

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I have just requested an application form for my daughter for dla, who has any experience of this, she has autism and i was advised by her peadatrician to apply dor dla?

what ? should i be looking out for any help would be greatly appreciated

Hi there.

You will be sent an enormous booklet to fill in and it is extremely daunting and off putting!!!

However do persevere with it because if you get awarded dla it does make such a difference.

You should try and get help filling it in because there are certain things you need to put that you may not be aware of.

I think the NAS website has some tips or you could try the school nurses or SENCO.

Because you have to be so negative about your child it is quite upsetting.

We were turned down twice but i appealed and we have just recently been awarded dla.

Good luck with it.If you go back over the threads in this topic there are quite a few relating to dla which might be helpful to you.

The NAS website has a helpful section on filling in the DLA forms www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1561&a=3824 I found it very helpful - but haven't got DLA yet (waiting).

i have just written this out myself not so long ago have sent sons off now so fingers crossed

you need to put no positives in the form its about being so negative about your child and what they cant do not what they can and all worse case scinarios

it is the most heart breaking thing i have done you can ask your special needs practitioner to help you filol the form out

basically you have to prove your childs needsare much higher than another child there age

so ds who is 3 has no danger awareness so i then have to say why and why it is different so because of his dx he has no awareness of danger or the knowledge to understand why its dangerous to run in the road etc

he is up several times in the night so have to put dangers of him being up the fact he cannot unwind you cannot get it through to him its night and not day so his needs are greater at night due to danger of being left unsupervised his lack of awarenesss and understanding and also his lack of communication

it goes on and on and repeats in several placres i would advise reading website nas or phone your special needs practitioner and ask for them to come and help you they know how to word things better

but dont tackle it by yourself all in one go do a bit every day and remember positive things you could write them on seperate piece of paper as it is so sad when you see all the cant do's and differences

but fingers crossed at the end of it they will be awarded money that can go towards helping them progress good luck

Our local Contact A Family office went through the application form with me and they were extremely helful (an dvery experienced) It also helped focus my mind on answering the questions the right way ie concentrating on the negatives rather than talking up the positives.

We applied this year and were surprised to get a response really quickly and got higher rate. I used the advice from the NAS website and didn't put anything positive on the form and thought of all the worst case scenarios I could. Also kept making sure I said that this was different to other children my DS's age and what extra support he needed in comparison to them.

Good luck!

When I write mine I set it out as:

• Describe the particular behaviour

eg "Ds1's autism means that he constantly walks into other people and objects."

• Say what your child needs

"An adult is needed to tell ds1 when he needs to walk around someone or something."

• Say what would happen if your child doesn't get this help

"Without this help ds1 would injure himself or others around him."

• Compare the behaviour to that of a typical child of the same age

"A normal 8yr-old child is able to recognise where people, lamp-posts, bins etc are in relation to their own body. They do not need to have these things pointed out to them all the time. A normal 8yr-old is able to walk down a street without crashing into people, posts, walls etc."

I then go through the same process for each section. I use additional sheets of paper as the form space is nowhere near enough to include everything.

It's a horrible form but the DLA money makes a big difference.

Good luck.

I don't post here often, but am about to face the daunting task of re-applying as ds2's award is about to run out after 2 years (we had hoped we would be further on than we are now, hence leaving it so late to reapply). He does not have autism, so I can't help from that perspective, but I agree that filling in the form is the most emotionaly draining thing I have every done, I cried buckets after filling it in. It is very repetative, but keep plugging on, it is worth it in the end.

i agree with CT, that is the way to fill in a form and get the point across.

I was unlucky lucky enough to have be able to argue chat to one of their 'decision makers' about a very longwinded incident involving dates and stamps, however it was divulged that the decision makers aren't doctors, they arent even medically trained, they are 'lay people' who have a doctor they can call for advice...

so you really do have to spell out exactly what your childs needs are inch by inch. The only training they have is experience of other forms - make it easy for them to award (with confirmation from your professional of course) you the highest they can, by giving exact, blow by blow accounts of the help that the child needs and why. HTH xxx