My DS was diagnosed with PDD-NOS very early, at 15 months, by a developmental ped in private practice. At his 1st follow up, DS had shown so much improvement that the dr told us he thought he called it wrong. At the next follow-up, he reverted to the original diagnosis and said that many things were becoming more apparent now that he was older and talking a bit (eg, fixation on letters/numbers).
At ~28 months we had him evaluated by a developmental ped at the local Children's Hospital (took 14 months to get an appt), and he again ended up with PDD-NOS. We had submitted all DS's prior evaluations and it turned out that the dr at the children's hospital was trained under the 1st dr we saw, in fact was referring to him as "Jim". We left with the feeling that she wasn't going to say anything different than Dr Jim.
Fast forward, now DS is 2.5yo and doing very well. Don't get me wrong, he still has many spectrum-type issues including his intense fixation on letters/numbers (although he can expand it with the tools his VB team has given him/us), and he is an echoic learner (teaching pronouns is a challenge
So here's my question ... would you take him for a 3rd opinion on the diagnosis? I know he's still really young, but I'm thinking he'll probably end up with an Asperger's dx by the time he's in grade school. He transitions out of Early Intervention in February, and I'm leaning toward doing the eval so that I don't end up surprised with the evals that the school district will do (plus it will hopefully give us more ammunition to continue his in-home VB program).
The eval would be done at Kennedy Kreiger in Baltimore, MD and is covered by insurance. We live in PA, so it would be a 2.5 hour drive each way. I have heard nothing but wonderful things about KK ... what would you do?
Go for it if in.s cover's it. I would if I had that chance so the kids get's correct services/iep while at school.Sharon:
It sounds like you want to do it. I don't see what you have to lose by doing it except 5 hours of driving. If it will give you peace of mind, it's well worth it and maybe the dx will help you get services when he starts pre-school. You need to do whatever is going to help you sleep at night.
Sounds like a no brainer to me.
The only other advice I would give is to not be shocked if they come back with the same dx. Some professionals don't feel an accurate dx can really be given until around 6 years old.