How Social Security Evaluates Disability Claims for Children

December 9, 2025

Author: A. Tereasa Rerko

Video Transcript

If your child has a medical or developmental condition, you may wonder whether they qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Attorney Tereasa Rerko explains how children’s claims are evaluated and why each case depends on how a condition impacts a child’s functioning.

Hi, I’m Tereasa Rerko, one of the attorneys here  at Quatrini Law Group. I wanted to talk a little bit about children’s disability claims with  the Social Security Administration. Children’s claims are evaluated, as you may suspect,  completely differently than adult claims. So any child, a minor child under the age  of 18, is evaluated in six different areas of functioning in their life. Everything from  physical difficulties to learning difficulties, socialization, and there’s several others that  the courts or the administration will look at as they evaluate these claims. And oftentimes  I will meet with parents who have children who have a diagnosis of autism spectrum  disorder, for example, and they will say, I know someone else who qualified, their child  qualified. And my answer is maybe your child will, but it’s how that condition or whatever the  condition is that they might suffer from, how it affects their functioning. So it’s all about  functioning as opposed to ability to work, which is the standard when we look at adult claims. So  if you have questions about your child and you wonder if they might qualify for disability, give  us a call. We’ll be glad to meet with you and sort through those questions and give you our opinion  on whether or not they might qualify. Thank you.