Atypical autism

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What is atypical autism (PDD-NOS)? What is the difference beetween PDD-NOS and AS or other Pervasive Development Disorders?

PDD-NOS
Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified
Means the person has a lot of the same symptoms but not enough to garner the autism dx. Many people use the term to describe very "high functioning" autistics. But it just means that there are factors in the persons abilities. I know a person who had a stroke in utero and suffered massive brain damage. With a lot of interaction, intervention and various therapies, he has gained developmentally to the point he most resembles an autistic child. He is non verbal but is using sign language and has some type of sensory integration disorder. He's like 9 years old but developmentally at 2-3.
But I think there are some people that meet the PDD-NOS criteria and are more like learning disabled, than autistic.

Atypical Autism does not necessarily mean PDD-NOS. It's an older term which the DSM no longer uses. It was essentially used for those children who fell a little short of fulfilling the criteria for Autistic Disorder.

In the newer versions of the DSM, what with the inclusion of Aspergers into the Autistic Spectrum, PDD-NOS is now used to refer to what was once known as Atypical Autism and also for those who fall a little short of a diagnosis of Aspergers. So it's like Atypical Autism and Atypical Aspergers = PDD-NOS.

At least in writing that's how it's proposed. Though I think PDD-NOS is used more often for those who'd be considered as having Atypical Autism (i.e., those who fell short of a diagnosis of Autistic Disorder and not Aspergers).

PDD-NOS has a range of functioning. Some function better than an Asperger, some function worse.

Unfortunately PDD-NOS is the ASD wastebasket category for anyone who has autistic difficulties but doesn't fulfill either set of criteria. Therefore there's quite a range of people included under this which makes it even more difficult to generalize characteristics than even for Autistic Disorder or Aspergers.

And to make it even more difficult, diagnosis isn't a pure science and diagnosticians will often differ on their diagnostic opinions. So a single child can go through all diagnoses of Autistic Disorder, Aspergers, and PDD-NOS simply by seeing different professionals.