I believe the PDD-NOS label is sometimes given by specialists who can tell someone has significant autistic traits even though they don't meet any other DSM label criteria to the letter.
I think I would have met the DSM criteria for Aspergers as a young child but at the time (1985) that label wasn't yet listed. I didn't fit the diagnoses for Autism because I didn't have a language delay and I was always somewhat social with adults, just not other children – I was too insistent on playing games my own way. At that time I was diagnosed PDD-NOS.
Looking back on how I was around 3-4 years old I would've easily met the current DSM criteria for Aspergers. However, I notice that even today some specialists have a more restrictive interpretation of what AS is that might rule me out. For one thing my performance IQ has always been significantly higher than my verbal IQ (though both were always over 100). People who think there's a distinction between AS and HFA might say I'm closer to HFA despite being too mild to meet the criteria for autism. One psychiatrist I went to was of this opinion and said that if he were to diagnose me he would not diagnose AS. Personally I don't agree that there's a difference but this could be yet another reason for diagnosing PDD-NOS instead of AS.
24 Jan 2009, 3:22 pm
