HELP JUST GOT DIAGNOSIS

[jayjay]

Hi i need some advice just had a letter come through from the paed with results from sons disco assessment she has said that he has Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) then goes into a 3 page dialogue bout results of questions she asked us, could anyone please help in explaining what that diagnosis means please thanks

Jayne xx

Edited November 9, 2005 by jayjay

[Zemanski]

what this means is that your son is deinitely on the autistic spectrum but that they are not committing themselves yet as to where he is on that spectrum.

 

they may rediagnose later, many AS kids don't get full diagnosis as AS till over the age of 7, or they may be unsure about whether your son fits into the 'high functioning autistic' category rather than AS as you expected.

 

Either way he is on the spectrum and I think you may get more support for him more easily with PDD than with a diagnosis of AS because they will have to look at individual needs more carefully. - there is a tendency to assume AS is mild and not support children adequately with this diagnosis, my friend, who has a kid with PDDnos seems to get what she wants for him with a lot less hassle than I've had with Com.

 

hope that helps

 

Zemanski

[Strange girl]

My son has this actual dx, although they said i should consider it aspergers. He received asd-nos because he had speech delay? Don't ask me.. but something to do with the triad of impairments and for it to be dx'd as AS there needs to be no significant delay in language development? I think different people would dx differently too. It's all rather confusing. Basically I assume the dx is what they give when the exact criteria are not met for aspergers but enough to warrant a dx for the autistic spectrum ?

 

HTH

[Zemanski]

language delay is the only diagnostically significant difference between a diagnosis of autism and AS, if your son has language delay then they cannot give an AS diagnosis but they often wait to see if the language 'catches up' (which it often does) before deciding on the diagnosis which is why they may not diagnose autism either.

 

My own son, who had precoscious language development was originally diagnosed with AS, a few weeks ago we recieved a report stating his diagnosis is, in fact, autism. For us this is a relief because it means they have finally recognised that he has significant problems and that AS is a presentation of autism. It opens the doors for better access to resources for him.

 

Zemanski

[phasmid]

I guess phas jr must be the exception to the rule where language delay and AS dx is concerned. He made (to others) no intellegent and coherent use of language till well past 5 yrs of age. A dx of Autism HAD been made already - just not given to us! However once he began talking he never stopped (still won't given half a chance either). He was dx'd AS at about 11. Part of a research study he took part in since showed he would/should have been (remember he WAS) dx'd with Autism at 7 (a benchmark age they use for developmental issues). The experts giving this dx agreed that what he now had was AS. Why? Perhaps we didn't do things the right way but 'our way' and it worked for us. We got lots wrong looking back, but a hell of a lot right.

 

Got to say that being sent a DX like this but giving no 'laymans' explanation of it is pretty poor service.

[jayjay]

that must be why we have that diagnosis then cause our son does have a language delay we have been going to a speech therapist for 2 years it all makes sense now, u would have thought that they could have explained that to me they do like to keep u in the dark dont they thanx for all your replies

jayne xx

[Zemanski]

hope it goes well

 

<'>

 

Zemanski

[Malika]

Hi Jayjay

 

My son had a Dx of atypical autism (high functinning) because even if he eventually caught up with language he had delay and went to speech therapy they in general found that is profile was very uneven even for a Dx of atypical autism but as they found that he deffinitly had the triad of impairement they decided for atypical autism (in opposition of Kanner syndrome/typical autism where there are little or no speech )

The classification of autism and autism disorder is often revue because of new research, have a look at one of my last post "Reason for autism" at the last part of the quote they explain about all the various classification they explain as well haow they have decided in the state to bring AS into the fold of PPD in order for children to be more qualified for help at school unfortunatly I don't know if this is valid in Europe, it's quite complex, good luck with it.

 

http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.ph...indpost&p=48377

 

Hope this will help.

 

Take care. <'>

 

Malika.

[darky]

my daughter has been dx with pdd-nos and i have only found this dx to be slightly detrimental. when she started her new school, although the school are wonderful to her and do help so much, the senco seemed to view the pdd-nos as not proper autism or as. it took a lot of explaining. even the national autistic society refused to offer advice as they said pdd-nos was not autism!

i find the dx of pdd-nos to kind of under play her symptoms. she has some very complex and severe needs, but it often misunderstood because of this "stop gap" dx which for some reason seems to act more as a barrier for her getting help. making it worse seems to be that pdd-nos is a new term for asd, my daughter seems to get the fasionable dx hat no one has ever heard of, the other dx she had was damp. i do wish these experts could make up their minds!