I was just thinking about what dd's therapist's opinion of her is, and a little bit confused. She feels that dd has SID, instead of autism or PDD. Since almost all kids with ASD have sensory issues, how can you tell the difference? I looked at the DSM IV scale, and she really only have deficits in the language section, none really form the first, and one from the third(hand flapping, sensory). So I guess she doesn't fall into the classic autism category. BUT..what then differenciates PDD from SID? She has all the classic sensory seeking issues (including head banging/tantrums out of frustration) as well as language issues.
Check out this test:
http://www.childbrain.com/pddassess.html
I may be wrong or confused myself about this but i never really thought of hand flapping or headbanging as sensory seeking .
maybe someone more knowledgable can clarify the difference between sensory seeking and stimulating.
The only reason i question this is because my son has sensory seeking issues also. He enjoys the sensation of having his hands in dirt sand food bubbles, enjoys the sound of breaking glass, likes the smell of coffee grounds and gasoline. Likes jumping climbing running and swinging for long periods of time.
Stimming (hand flapping, head banging ect) to my understanding comes from the frustration of not being able to communicate needs and is often more a compulsion???
Also, hand flapping usually is associated with Autism spectrum disorder and not Sensory integration disorder. I could be wrong here, If i am please someone clarify.
One question i can answer is that PDD falls within the Autism spectrum or umbrella as it is sometimes called, Sensory Integration disorder or Sensory Processing Disorder ( used interchangably???) does not fall within the spectrum but often, as you said, goes hand in hand with ASD. But also can be a seperate DX by itself and is sometimes associated with other disorders such as ADHD.
So your daughter's language difficulties do not impede her socially? If she doesn't have social issues - that is a huge hallmark for autism. Can I ask what symptoms you are seeing in her? And also - definitely do the childbrain test. That is helpful. I'm not sure how old your dd is - but she looks at least 3 (couldn't tell AT ALL from the picture - sorry if I'm way off!) and I think that 3 and older are best for the childbrain test.
I personally think SID and autism often go hand in hand. I had a friend whose son was diagnosed with SID and she was adamant that he did not have autism. I, on the other hand, was not too sure about that. He had meltdowns, language delay, was very bright, not good at sharing (at age 4 1/2) at ALL, and had other issues. But, she was stuck on the SID diagnosis. At least she got him speech and OT. I've lost touch with them - but she was home-schooling him (not due to his issues, for religious reasons). I've often thought that is going to be hard on him. Even though she does do a regular playgroup once a week, it just didn't seem to be enough child interaction for him to get those necessary social skills that I felt he was lacking...
It's hard to tell many things because she is so young. (Just turned 2 less than a month ago) Socially, she likes other kids, are interested in what they are doing and likes to play with/around other kids. She is very appropriate in imitation, emotions, eye contact. She is at least 3-6 months delayed in language, but is verbal. I guess I just didn't know that SID could be a different dx apart from AS. I did the childbrain thing, and she teeter on the edge of mild/no pdd....but it is hard to even answer some of the questions appropriately because she is so young, and many NT 2 year olds can't do some of the items. We go in for one out of 2 offical dx's this next week. I am already accepting the fact that AS is possible, but it would be great if socially she's not too delayed! Thanks for all the input!It is so hard to tell at age 2 for social issues. That is something a lot of docs won't really look at until the child is past age 3 if the child is at all borderline for being on the spectrum. Sometimes I beat myself up for not realizing sooner, but we got a diagnosis at age 4 and I'm not sure we would have gotten one sooner. But, I do wish I would have started therapies a bit sooner (OT, PT and social skills).
So, if your dd has any issues like fine/gross motor - get her into therapy ASAP. If her speech is delayed, I'm assuming you're already getting speech.
If something keeps nagging at you and you don't get a definitive diagnosis now - wait a while (but get the therapies and start doing social skills work on your own) and try again.
I am just about as lost as you and ive been at this for about 6 months now. My girl has a DX of SID and diruptive behavioral disorder-everything they say points to PDD, her ST and OT say PDD at least, but the therp said she is to social...yeah b/c she was judging her behavior with how she acted with us, her parents, not with strangers!!
All I can say is do all you can for her right now, alot of the therp(ST,OT) they would be doing for her if she was PDD are about the same as they do for SID(for now in her age range)
My girl is 11(or more) months behind with her language, is still almost non-verbal(she is 27mons). Childbrain said mod-sev PDD for her. She really enjoys to be alone has a high tollerance for pain, very sensory seeking,not good eye contact,no emotions,lots of things that ALL point to PDD....guess its a waiting game. I know it sucks, alot of us are or have been in your shoes.
I really agree with what snoopy says.
Social is a very very hard thing to tell with a young child.. D, my oldest, is PDD-NOS, and with anyone he knows, he's extremely social, makes great eye contact.. Heck even with a lot of people he doesn't know.. His main social deficiency is with strong male figures (minus his dad and grandpa). That's when he avoids eye contact and doesn't acknowledge them. He doesn't play with other kids, but does play along side, which at a young age is very hard to tell if it's a social deficiency.. Now that he's gained another year, it's apparent that he doesn't care one way or the other if someone is playing with him.I am also confused about this. It seems to me that all my son's issues stem from SID. I always assumed that more extreme cases of autism just meant that those children were even more sensitive to input, and that their brains just shut down from over stimulation.
It kind of makes sense that if a child's muscles and joints aren't sending enough input to the brain about what they are doing, they would flap their arms or do whatever it takes to send it more input. It's kind of like when you are lying in bed trying to sleep but haven't gotten enough exercise, and you have the urge to kick your legs, no? So isn't that sensory related?
Lachlan was diagnosed ASD, but I have a private OT who doesnt believe he is classic autism - more so that he is SID. From what I gather SID issues can be overcome - ASD can not.
Mysh
What kind of therapist is the person working with your daughter? An occupational therapist tends to have the most background with sensory issues. In case you're interested, here's a couple checklists for signs of sensory processing problems in infants and toddlers and preschoolers:
http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/SPD-symptom-check list-for-infants-and-toddlers.html
http://www.sinetwork.org/aboutspd/questionnaire.html
Here's a topic on our forum where Dr. Stanley Greenspan (Floortime founder) diagnosed one of our members' sons with SID and Regulatory Disorder instead of autism. I thought it might be of interest to you:
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19841&am p;KW=Greenspan
Good luck with everything!
[QUOTE=45GIRLS]It's hard to tell many things because she is so young. (Just turned 2 less than a month ago) Socially, she likes other kids, are interested in what they are doing and likes to play with/around other kids. She is very appropriate in imitation, emotions, eye contact. She is at least 3-6 months delayed in language, but is verbal. I guess I just didn't know that SID could be a different dx apart from AS. I did the childbrain thing, and she teeter on the edge of mild/no pdd....but it is hard to even answer some of the questions appropriately because she is so young, and many NT 2 year olds can't do some of the items. We go in for one out of 2 offical dx's this next week. I am already accepting the fact that AS is possible, but it would be great if socially she's not too delayed! Thanks for all the input![/QUOTE]
You just described my boys, they too teeter on the edge, had appropriate eye contact (although Nikolas' got iffy around age 3, and now is back to being good that his communication is improving). We did get the diagnosis at a little past age 4. speech is still very delayed but it is improving and they are moving right along. The lack of speech has cause inappropriate social behaviors that really weren't apparant until age 3/4. I do plan on taking them back to a different dev pedi for another opinion, but having the diagnosis which has opened alot of doors to therapies they just weren't getting with the developmentally delayed diagnosis. I decided to go ahead and go with the diagnosis for this reason. I was not impressed with the last dev pedi, he pretty much diagnosed them on the phone talking to me and based his assessment more on the teachers opinion of Nikolas than on mine, although those 2 just rubbed each other the wrong way. And then he treated them as one child instead of individuals, so I'm not really convinced that he gave a true diagnosis, but we're keeping it for now. Also I have been told by a different dev pedi and a neurologist at ages 2 and 3 that it definitely wasn't autism. The professionals and doctors cannot agree with each other as to rather they are or aren't, and since she falls on the line on that childbrain test you might run into the same thing. One might tell you yes and another might tell you no so you might want to be a little aware of that.