DLA Child - ADHD&ASD

qwertyqwerty

My son age 8 has a dual diagnosis of ADHD & Autism. He struggles with school but school never back him up. He expresses to everybody how much he hates school but if anybody asks, the school say he loves it. We have school refusals on a daily basis and he will refuse to walk. It’s an absolute nightmare. We’ve had to put him into breakfast club to avoid him running off out of school because when he wasn’t in breakfast club, he would run past his teachers who would deny it ever happened. Even though we had other parents who saw!

When out and about he will do one of two things he will drop to the floor/stand still and refuse to move at all or he will run off and this can be so dangerous when there’s traffic and roads around us! He undoes his seatbelt when we are in the car and if I’m meltdown mode he will be throwing things and lashing out and need to be restrained. He also needs to be restrained at home and we have to hold his arms down and sit him on our knees till he calms down otherwise he’d hurt himself and those around him. I’m unsure as to whether he has a good case for HRM? Any advice would be very much appreciated.

qwertyqwerty

Just to add - breakfast club has doors you can’t get out of unless you have a staff lanyard so he physically can’t run off which is why I’ve put this in place. We also have to lock doors at home or he unlocks them and runs out.

qwertyqwerty

Unfortunately he behaves fine in school. It’s when he comes out all hell breaks loose due to the fact he’s been masking for 6-7 hours in school. Even going somewhere in the car takes ages to get him in because he will run off and not get in. He’s so impulsive. School never backed us up because they presume the only children who could possible be ADHD or ASD are the ones who hit people and swear in school. My son doesn’t do either of those resulting in them not believing. They soon wanted his diagnosis reports in for extra funding though.

Did you manage to get the help both yourself and your son deserve?

Also did you manage to get the DLA you both deserved also. It’s so wrong people have to fill these forms out constantly. The first time I claimed for him we got 2 years MRC and LRM but we’ve since received both diagnosis earlier this year so I’m hoping that will change the outcome on the renewal which is due. Nothing has changed for the better, infact the older he is, the harder and more challenging things have become.

qwertyqwerty

His older brother is the same, not a dual diagnosis but a diagnosis of ASD. He’s 11. I am dreading the puberty struggle you mentioned above, was it much harder than your average child? We have had to pay for most things and go private to get the help they so desperately needed. I really hoped we weren’t having a repeat of his brother with people not listening but here we are again. I’m just hoping the renewal will up it to the amount that he is entitled to but I doubt it as I read that most of the time, DLA renewals just stay the same award.

Yes. I have heard of the coke bottle effect. The lady we went private with for his Ed Psych told me all about it and it describes both my boys perfectly. I just wish more SENCOS etc were clued up on it.