My daughter is 13. I have been told to apply for DLA but I don't know if we can. We are waiting for the assessment for possible ASD/ADHD. I will list her behaviour below. Sorry, could be long!
Low sense of danger. She will walk into roads, jump into fast flowing water, jump out of windows, not come home, walk the streets late at night and goes to a quiet area alone. Usually its under a bridge and attempts to sneak out of the house. She doesn't quite understand dangerous situations. The police have had to find her quite a few times.
Extreme anger outbursts. She will break mirrors, put holes in walls, scream and shout at me and her younger sibling, has attacked me a couple of times. She has self harmed once. She does struggle to follow simple instructions and this will often lead to an outburst. After the outburst, she is her pleasent self like nothing ever happened.
She destroys her clothing and devices, books, shoes, anything really. She quite often cuts up her clothing, socks and sometimes her siblings clothing. Books always end up cut up. Her bedding is also cut up. She smashes mirrors and tries to glue them together (we replaced mirrors with the plastic ones due to this). Has the tendency to scribble on walls.
She doesn't sleep. She often gets around 2-3 hours. Up and down in the night and it keeps everyone else up at home. She shares a room with her sibling and this is difficult to manage as it affects them both. Currently high priority on the housing list, just waiting to be offered a property.
She struggles maintaining friendships. When she does find friends, she will fixate on them and do anything they tell her to do. She takes everything you say as fact, doesn't understand jokes or sarcasm. She is highly sensitive and suffers with controlling her emotions. School have mentioned she has sensory issues regarding touch and loud noises, they lead to panic. I have a meeting to discuss this.
She suffers from anxiety. I can't take her shopping or for something to eat as she believes people are looking at her or laughing or out to get her. Public transport is a nightmare for her. She will panic and can't breathe. In the car it's not so bad but she can lash out if she panics in the car, which can be dangerous. I often have to come home from work or I end up taking her to and from school. She walks out of lessons at school as she struggles to handle class situations. She also believes she has various things wrong with her health wise.
She currently has a support worker, who works with the school too. She is a school refuser but this is getting alot better since I moved her to a new school. She has a safe person at school who she can go to. Obviously without any diagnosis, we are limited on the support we recieve. GP will not do anything till she has seen peadiatrition.
There is more but I'll be here forever. Shall I apply for DLA based off the above? Sorry, its long!