Ms Linda Comerford:

When someone applies for an assessment of needs, he or she is given a form by a therapist. It has ten or 12 pages and much of it is box ticking. It asks various questions about the child and the areas in which he or she is struggling. The form will be difficult to fill out for some parents because they also have a disability. I might notice something about my child, but it might be more significant if a professional notices. For example, I recently noticed my son had a swallowing issue. I did not believe it was a major issue, but upon assessment by a speech and language therapist, he now has a choking hazard and needs a thickener. I would not have realised it was that serious. Issues like that can go unnoticed. If I tick the wrong box on the form or, because I do not see something as being serious, I do not see the need to relay it through the form, my son might not get an assessment or the assessment officer who gets the form might not see a significant need. Whether an assessment is granted is often based on what the parent puts on the form, but all parents are different. A parent might be accurate on the form or be very clued in, but we are not professionals. We are just noticing issues with our children that we want rectified and we want professionals to help us with that. Based on our answers, however, we might not get those professionals.