DLA phoned me today, do they alway phone to ask more questions?

[Marne]

Or am i just rubish at filling in the forms?

I applied for DLA for dd1 (AS) after advice from MN, i thought it would be worth a try, any way i filled the horrid forms in online last week. Dd has mild AS but can be a pain whilst out and about, she won't walk far and gets anxious around traffic and people so we were expecting to get mobility for her.

Today i had a phone call, i was questioned about dd's ability to walk, i was asked if she has trouble walking or does she just not want to walk?, i found it hard to explain to the woman as dd can walk but walks very slowly and stiffly IYKWIM, the woman kept butting in and saying 'oh yes, all children can be a bit like this' and 'oh, my children do this and they are norma', so she thinks refussing to walk whilst half way accress a busy road is normal, and being scaired of traffic is normal.

Next she asked me about dd waking in the night, i told her that she sleeps most nights but wakes once or twice a week as she has night-mares, she again said 'oh yes, all children do that'. I was'nt expecting higher rate for dd as she does sleep most nights.

She then went on to tell me that we may get lower mobility for dd but first she needs to speek to dd's school and the doctors that are doing her dx at the hospital (we are waiting for a dx but this should be in the next month or so).

I know the school will say she has no problems at school, she's only there for 3 hours a day and only started in september.

Im starting to think we may not get anything

It sounds like she was trying to establish "can't walk vs won't walk", as that was a judgement made in a commissioner's tribunal case at some point.

The thing you have to try and communicate is that she is not merely being wilfully naughty or stubborn when she walks that way, but that her AS is causing her to act that way.

I would write a letter to the DLA assessors and say that to follow up the telephone call, you felt that you were unable to give a very clear picture of your daughter's limitations, and then very clearly explain, giving concrete examples, situations where walking is dangerous/ difficult. Be really descriptive about her posture, etc., and state how this differs from the average child of her age.

They rang us up too, similar kind of thing to your night-time question. My ds sleeps well most nights but if he wakes up he will not go back to sleep and needs constant supervision. Also needs someone to stay with him whilst he goes to sleep each night. Not huge things but these things all add up. Anyway my DH just re-iterated this and told them again how often it might be and it seemed to be enough. I think in our case they were just trying to clarify - if you don't think you've done that then you could write like lou suggests. I thought we'd blown it when they rang but some stuff is hard to explain on a form so perhaps they just wanted to hear you explain it.

We got middle too, and as I said DS doesn't have any huge night-time issues or mobility issues.