DX | Autism PDD

A developmental Pediatrician diagnosed and later the school did testing and agreed.

My son was diagnosed by a neuropsychologist, and then the school district verified the dx with their own MDT (Multiple-Disciplinary Team), which included a speech-language pathologist, an occupational therapist, a psychologist, and audiologist, and a developmental pediatrician.

I'm also taking him to a psychiatrist on Monday, on the recommendation of the neuropsych, and he'll probably verify Jason's dx again...hopefully, he can tell me a little more about where Jason falls on the spectrum, exactly. Oh, and he's going to have an EEG done in November (earliest I could get him in) Our doctor refuses to do any other testing, feeling it's unnecessary, so no blood work for pica, no allergy testing, and no genetic testing. (Though I don't feel the genetic testing is necessary in our case)

Unfortunately, since I have Medicaid for him, I can't get any other testing done out of pocket. I've been told it's against the rules. I don't understand that, but hey.

Other than that, really, I don't think it's "necessary". I'm doing this because I'm worried about other things. Wish I could have gotten a referral to the Autism Spectrum Disorders Center in my area, but I don't think his doc will go for it. I'll have to try again if it turns out Jason is having seizures.

We have a diagnosis from our state intervention program stating they think Carter has mild to moderate PDD. However, in order for the state therapy to kick in we need a medical diagnosis. We are going to the University of Iowa to have a pediatritian, pysch, OT, and neuro dr to give us the final diagnosis. It is supposed to take us 6 hours. Not looking forward to Carter after this little trip! I never even HEARD of a school dx! Our son was dx by a Psychologist, Pedaitrician, Developmental Pediatrician.... and has been checked out by a Geneticist, ENT and Nuero. as well. I always read that autism has to have a MUTIPLE team to dx. For services (respite) and (SSI) I especially thought you had to have medical people involved - huh! shows what I know! not much!

I was curious how many of you only have a school dx of PDD/Autism for your child? b/c I see lots of posts that from the medical side they request many tests such as genetic testing, how important does everyone here think a medical dx is?

Our diagnosis came from a clinical psychologist. Our schools do not diagnose kids.

I have only a school dx. I am getting a medical dx in the future (need to compelte the app today!), because there is overlap with other psychiatric disorders, and also regulatory disorders or learning disabilities.

I also think it is potentially important for legal reasons.

I have only a school DX, but had the mainstream medical tests done anyways through a pediatric neurologist. I think it's a good idea to rule out the few known causes because some of them are treatable (and some are not, and that's good to know, too). All of the tests came back negative for us.We were asked by his pre-preschool teaching team to talk about some "Red Flags" that they noticed about Tyler.
They asked us to consider having him evaluated for some form of "Developmental Delays", I.E. Autism.

My wife works in clinical research at one of the most renowned pediatric hospitals in the world, so we scheduled Ty to be evaluated at Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh for any developmental delays. He was officially diagnosed as having PDD/NOS by a developmental psychologist, who is in charge of the Child Developmental Unit at CHP. We were also fortunate to have a Psychiatrist [M.D.] present at one of the most traumatic days of my life. She was there at the request of the diagnosing doctor.

We had already felt that something was going on with Ty, but who in the hell wants to admit that their child is anything other than perfect?

Dr. Johnson told us the truth about what we could expect, and that is something that I may share with you good people later, but she has been spot-on so far.

The most important thing that I would like to impart to everybody is, Believe the diagnosis. It isn't the end of the world. And above all, making your child comfortable with the way the world spins for him or her is the only thing that matters. Finding a "cure" for autism is important in an altruistic way, but your kid should be your primary focus.

I am remembering Janurary 21, 2005 and the tears from that day are welling in my eyes right now.

[QUOTE=autumn]I never even HEARD of a school dx! Our son was dx by a Psychologist, Pedaitrician, Developmental Pediatrician.... and has been checked out by a Geneticist, ENT and Nuero. as well. I always read that autism has to have a MUTIPLE team to dx. For services (respite) and (SSI) I especially thought you had to have medical people involved - huh! shows what I know! not much![/QUOTE]

That is EVERYTHING we had to do to on top of the school evaluating him, but I was never told he had a school dx...I thought his dx came from all the docs!!!!

My son was formally evaluated by a dev. ped.
Then, I contacted the school district, as he was already 3. They did their
own eval, which was actually very thorough IMO. Parent Interview
+questionaires. School visit to private pre-school+ teacher interview sand
questionaires, and 2+hours of testing.
He is qualified for services under the umbrella term, "Autistic-like behaviors"
Here in CA, a solid medical dx is more important to help get supplemental
services, not school placement. That's one of the reasons I did both. Also
for insurance purposes. And for my own edification....Brendon first got a diagnosis of PDD from the pediatrician. Next was PDD-NOS by a child psychologist. Next was moderate to severe classic autism by the public school system. A pediatric neurologist also said classic autism a little later. It got to the point that he was being rediagnosed every time we went for some kind of service. I finally had to tell the professionals to stop dwelling on the diagnosis and just help him.

You can read more about bio-medical testing here:

http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=14004&am p;KW=lack%2Dthere%2Dof

In my opinion, the most important thing is a proper vision and hearing test, but I'm also glad we did MRI, EEG, genetic and metabolic testing "just to be on the safe side." Luckily it didn't cost us a cent because of socialized medicine here in Norway. If I had to pay through the nose for these tests, I would probably have wanted a good explanation as to why these tests were desirable in our case.

LIke Mamakat stated, it is more importantto get a medical dx for services in
California. Most EI (Regional Centers) have to take the medical dx and start
providing services.

Our school district knows nothing!! In fact---they even deny his dx. Ours was first ruled out by a team at the autism clinic. He was 3.5y--they based the rule out on the fact he had good eye contact and wanted to make friends. We got a great child psych and child psychiatrist. He finally got dx'd with HFA at 6y. We had all the therapies anyways since 3.5y.

The school has to take any dx by the medical team. I really don't care what they think---they are there with him and they KNOW what he is like and the services he needs. And thankfully---he gets what he NEEDS--whether they believe the dx or not.

I feel the older he gets--he will either get better and be non ASD or it will go the other way and it will be more obvious that something is different about him.

I only have a medical dx, they are listed with the school as dev delayed and will be until age 6 when they reassess.

A school dx will not get your SSI or medicaid, you have to have a medical DX for that, which is why I have the medical DX. The school is for school services only. Its not really a DX, more of a classification from the school but it doesn't really work outside of the school.

Linda1156739286.4955439815

[QUOTE=fred]I have only a school DX, but had the mainstream medical tests done anyways through a pediatric neurologist. I think it's a good idea to rule out the few known causes because some of them are treatable (and some are not, and that's good to know, too). All of the tests came back negative for us.[/QUOTE]

Same here.

FYI - there is really no such thing as a "school dx" since schools can't give a medical diagnosis. It's really just the "school label." All kids who get services need a "label." One of those labels is autism. Here in IL you don't need a medical dx to get the autsim label. My son got it based on the school evaluation.

Not in MO either -- we have school-only.