Confused mom | Autism PDD

Hi I have been having my son tested for autism/pdd. They have said he fits on the spectrum but he is also shows a little bit of aspberger symptoms. They have told me with therepy that he can regain some of his missing skills. I feel as if I am going crazy. I am always looking for things he does to see if its normal or not. He seems like a normal little kid to me. He is two and he doesn't say any words and never says mom. I think I am just needing a little bit of advise on how to cope with life and people asking questions. I don't want to talk to anyone about it cause I don't even know what PDD is. I ask Doctors to break it down for me but no one will give me a straight answer. Its like the name they gave it cause they don't have anything better to call quikyness. Has any one had their child recover from a mild form of autism/pdd? Cause they say he can recover if we get it early enough, with therapy. You know but the last time I heard autism wasn't a cold. hi there and welcome to the board! i know it is very hard to digest all the information and technical terms that are being thrown at you but you'll find in the sticky "for newbies to our forum" there are many links ranging from what autism is , the criteria fro diagnosis to coping with every day life. these may be of help to you. as far as recovering from autism, there are many who say with proper therapy and intervention there are some individuals who can go on and lve independant lives, although it is my belief that they will always be autistic, they can function in society, unidentifiable with peers to an untrained eye. So far, there are no known cures for this disorder but with love, therapy and faith i do believe that our kids can go on to live life to their full potential.

[QUOTE=shakes352]. as far as recovering from autism, there are many who say with proper therapy and intervention there are some individuals who can go on and lve independant lives, although it is my belief that they will always be autistic, they can function in society, unidentifiable with peers to an untrained eye. So far, there are no known cures for this disorder but with love, therapy and faith i do believe that our kids can go on to live life to their full potential.[/QUOTE]

Welcome to the board! I Hope we can help. The sticky thread is a wealth of different information that really may be helpful.

Aspergers disorder is a diagnosis which has a minimal (if any) speech delay, so if your 2 year old is nonverbal I doubt he would qualify for an aspergers diagnosis. Being 2, childhood Disintegrative Disorder and Retts would be out too I believe (Im not a doctor, just a parent) which would leave (severe) Autism and PDD NOS. Being aspergers was considered (although I can't imagine why with a nonverbal child) my guess is severe autism is out because with Severe autism... well its just obvious i think.... PDD NOS is the catch all where they can be pretty severe or pretty high functioning or anything inbetween.

check out the DSMIV criteria for the different PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) or ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) as it is also commonly called (they mean the same thing ) it gives clear information regarding the different diagnosis'....... I recommend

Autism, a form of PDD

Developmental delays

Review of the different PDDs

The DSMV IV criteria for the autistic disorders

How does a typical child with autism present?

What is PDD or autism?

How is PDD or autism diagnosed?

Who should be evaluated for PDD?

The PDD assessment questionnaire

I saw this and thought it might also be helpful.......... from........ http://fmfeat.tripod.com/treatments.htm

Indicators of Normal Development
Recognizing Autistic Tendencies
DSM IV Diagnostic Criteria for Autism
The CHecklist for Autism In Toddlers
Will I Grow Out Of It?

And I absolutely LOVED this quote...................

"If a child can't learn in the way that we teach, then we must teach in a way he can learn."Ivar Lovaas, Ph.D

. Prognosis (long term outcome) of autism

The long-term outcome for autism is variable. It is difficult to determine during the first visit of a 1 to 2-year-old child what his future ability will be. It is however clear that this is a life long disorder that will leave its impact one way or another on the individual's life. The most important prognostic factor is the I.Q. ability of the child. Also, the degree of social interaction impairment and lack of appropriate communication early on correlates with the severity of the outcome. Early intervention that includes behavioral modification and speech therapy may also change the outcome positively. The most accurate predictor of outcome, however, is the progression over a period of about 1 year from early diagnosis. Those with mild PDD and few autistic features may do remarkably well. From http://www.childbrain.com/pddq12.shtml

There is no cure for autism but with proper treatment and therapy alot of hard work and support they can make progress and some can appear to have outgrown it to an untrained eye. However it will always be there.... just not as noticable.

Autism can be like having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Anxiety Disorders, speech and language delays, Tourettes Syndrome, sometimes mental retardation, and numerous other things all rolled into one. Each child is different in their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the degree of severity for each strngth or weakness.

I hope this is helping to make sense to you. Who told you or how did you decide to go about having your child evaluated for an ASD?

Dear Momo,

Welcome to the board. There are lots of wonderful people here with tons of knowledge and big shoulders to give comfort when you need it. I hope you feel comfortable asking anything you'd like.

First of all, I'm fairly new to this dx myself, so I won't pretend to have all the answers. My son is 27 mos old and was diagnosed with PDD-NOS (which stands for pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified). PDD, as used by doctors, typically refers to the spectrum of autistic disorders, which includes Aspergers (at the higher-end functioning) to classic autism (at the lower end). Not sure who eval'd your son because the evaluating doctor should have explained everything to you, but hopefully you'll get much useful info here, as well as through doing online searches. Autism is now consdiered a spectrum disorder, meaning that children can display a range of autistic behaviors and still be classified as 'autistic', though still not be diagnosed as having 'autism' (which, from what I can tell, usually would mean a child who fits the stereotypical idea of an autistic child). From what I've read in this forum, many of our children are loving, affectionate, and maybe even speaking with their families, but who have difficulties in socializing with other children their age or who show 'odd behaviors' (like hand flapping, spinning objects or themselves, severe tantrums, etc.).

I can completely relate to how overwhelmed you must feel, having been there myself (and still on occasion) when my son was first diagnosed (which was about a month ago). First of all, make sure your son begins speech therapy to address his communication issues, and occupational therapy if he he has delays in self-help skills or fine motor skills, or even if he shows problems with odd behaviors. It helps to feel like you're 'taking control' by getting your child the therapy he needs.

You asked if autistic children can recover. We've had several discussions on this board about that. I guess it depends on what you mean by 'recover.' Will your child wake up one day and not show any signs at all of his PDD? The consensus is no. However, with therapy, many children can make huge strides in their skills. Some children progress to the point where the doctor will no longer classify them as having 'PDD' be/c their quirkiness has so drastically declined that the casual observer wouldn't know that your child had any problem at all. Still, for the most part, it seems that many people with this diagnosis will retain at least some 'quirky' behavior, particularly in the arena of their social skills. My personal view on that (for what it's worth!) is that no one is perfect, nor is everyone guaranteed successful relationships or fame or wealth ... even people without any diagnosis at all! So I can't worry about what may be in the future. We're trying to take each day as it comes and celebrate each small victory that my son achieves.

I have to go make dinner now, but I hope this post helped you at least a little. Take care and let us know how things go!
Kellie

HI! Welcome to our support group! I can feel your frustrations and other emotions as well. I have a son that just turned 2. I am in the process of doing an eval on him.

I understand you talking about him being a normal child. Every day I change my mind...sometimes 5 times in one day even. He's doing this or that so he's got to be normal. Look he is giving me eye contact and smiling and what not he's normal. Then he starts to do weird things, won't talk, has lost words, will not look me in the eye if I am holding him (otherwise he will unless upset with me), refuses to show any interest in other children or look at them as more than objects, the list goes on.

Today he threw a huge tantrum for about 20 mins. It was all because he wanted a drink of my juice box and I held it out to him. I forgot he won't take something if you are holding it you have to put it down and he picks it up. So when I held it out he started to freak. He kicked and screamed and was biting himself and would not be consoled for what felt like forever. It seemed so crazy to me. Aiden doesn't normally have major fits (severe, long, etc) he tends to have constant mild, short fits.

I guess my point to this long winded reply is that I do feel where you are. It's so hard to see that they might not be "normal" because each child can be so different w/ mommy and daddy, even siblings. It took so much research online and posting here to get me to start to see what was there. I always knew of Rainman for autism and never knew there was a spectrum and different signs and such. Each child w/ ASD is as different as the snowflakes that fall I've found.

Oh and yes I read that for asperger's it would be a little early to tell if he is having speech delay. I guess the criteria for it is no significant speech delay (single words by 2 yrs and short phrases by 3 yrs). If by 3 he is talking in phrases then it could still be a possible diagnosis for later I think. Doctors can change his diagnosis as he ages. At young ages like your son and mine pdd-nos is common for now. Good luck!

Amber

Our Son Tony was first diagnosed as mildly autistic when he was about 3 & a half y/o. We don't treat him any different now than we did before we knew. Of course I do still catch myself watching the things that he does that are more obvious than other things. But he really doesn't "look" autistic...if there IS a "look". No one can really see that he's "different" until he gets excited scared or nervous, that's when he flaps his hands, & does a throaty noise. He's a very funny, affectionate, SMART lil guy! He's now 9 & a half y/o & they tell me that he's very high functioning now. So, don't be downhearted....we're all here for you whenever you need us!