Thanks everyone I had just seen it labled both ways wasn't sure if it was the samething I thought it was or actually I thought it meant if you didn't meet the criteria for the others disorders but had the traits that would suggest such a disorder then you got this lable. My understanding is if you have 4 or 5 (can't remember) traits your PDD and if you have more then that your labled autism. What define if you have ASD or PDD aren't they the same? Do different dr's just lable it differently but it means the same thing?
I believe ASD and PDD might be synonomous, though PDD may be a more general term, including PDD-NOS (not otherwise specified) - a catch-bin for obviously delayed kids who can't mee the DSM criteria for the AS disorders..
here's my take:
PDD
/ \
ASD PDD-NOS
/
Autism, Asbergers, etc.
PDD= ASD they are synonymous. Here is the description and how things get confusing:
Pervasive Developmental Disorders/ Autism Spectrum Disorders include the following 5 specific disabilities:
1. Autism (some people use PDD as a slang for this, by taking the 's' off the end of disorders and calling classic autism the pervasive developmental disorder)
2. Asperger's Syndrome (Many refer to this incorrectly as HFA, or also PDD)
3. Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (much more rare)
4. Rett's Syndrome (also more rare and known cases occur only in girls)
5. PDD-NOS (many incorrectly use PDD as a slang for this term by simply dropping off the not otherwise specified part, which is the category used when a diagnostician feels strongly that criteria is met for a spectrum disorder, but there is question about specific characteristics accurately applying to one or more parts of the criteria for a specific disorder.)
Differences in how they label it depend most likely on when how current their training is in this area. These used to be called the Autism Spectrum Disorders, Pervasive Developmental Disorder is more current.
ASD is kind of a layman's term.