HFA vs. PDD_NOS | Autism PDD

According to my son's psychologist, They are similar but PDD/NOS doesn't have enough of the markers of autism to quantify as autism vs aspergers as a stand alone diagnosis. Autism has more things than just delayed speech or anxiety over certain social situations.

Since these people are so young, they may not be able to answer the diagnosing Doc for the Doc to acurately determine with certainty what exactly, and to what extent, the kid actually has.Are high funtioning autism and pdd-nos the same thing? What is the difference between the two? Thanks!

PDD-NOS is a term used for kids that don't meet the criteria for either autistic disorder, aspergers, Rett's or CDD (childhood disintergrative disorder) either due to atypical symptomolgy or age or onset (for autistic disorder diagnosis the issues need to be present prior to age 3). In the past, HFA was used as another term for Aspergers.

I googled HFA and found some interesting links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-functioning_autism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_functioning _labels_in_the_autism_spectrum

My interpretation:
To qualify for an autism diagnosis a kid has to meet a certain numer of
criteria in areas of social interaction, communication and pattern of
behavior. Kids with pdd-nos meet a number of those criteria but not as
many as a kid with autism does. For autism the severety of these
behaviors and defecits are determines if you'd be called high functioning
or low functioning - for xample someone who does not become verbal
versus someone who is speech-delayed. Like Julie said a kid could only
meet a few criteria but be really affected by them but t would get a
diagnosis of pdd-nos. And a kid could meet most of the criteria but only
slightly affected but qualify for autism. For an aspergers dx a kid must
not have a language delay (often they are early talkers) and often there
are fine/gross motor problems.

Sarah got autism, pdd, pdd-nos, aspergers, provisional autism with savant abilities..all in that order.. I read the links from Kristy and she seems to fit the high functioning autistic criteria.

She has just enough behaviors and deficits to warrant all those labels at one time or another but as she matures the label changes..HFA seems to fit her best:)

So far Brendon has received the diagnosis of PDD, PDD-NOS, and classic autism. Each diagnosis was given by a different "professional". I think the classic autism diagnosis fits him best. The PDD diagnosis was given by his pediatrician. PDD-NOS was given by a child psychologist. Classic autism was given by the school district after a 2 month evaluation process.Thanks- its so confusing, and I see the two being used interchangibly all the time. Id really love to know if developmental pediatricians are diagnosing one over the other for any specific reason?As far as I know HFA is not actually a diagnosis. The only dx's actually in the DSM-IV that are considered autism spectrum disorders are Classic Autism, PDD-NOS, Rhett's, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder and Asperger's Syndrome. High Functioning and Low Functioning Autism are terms (as far as I know) that have been coined over time to describe an individuals level of functioning. For instance, my son has been dx'd with PDD-NOS and at this particular point in time (he just turned three a couple days ago) he is very high functioning. That doesn't mean he will always be that way. PDD-NOS does not always mean high functioning for everybody. There are some people who have been dx'd with PDD-NOS who may have more severe issues than people who have been dx'd with classic autism...they just are slightly different issues. I hope that makes sense and I hope I'm not wrong.

I think PDD-NOS and mild autism have a big overlap.

HFA, it's a "thing" that the professional used only to decline services for my son. It was not used in writting or as a dx.