My 14 year old granddaughter is being evaluated for autism?

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She was diagnosed as PDD-NOS by her psychologist, but is being evaluated by a developmental pediatrician soon also. What will happen? What tests will she go though? What will I be asked? Any tips on making the evaluation as accurate as possible?

If you went though this please tell me how it went. I'm so nervous .

I wish I could help you more -- my son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, but he was five at the time, and so I'm guessing that the testing was much different than with a 14 year old.

My guess is that they are going to ask you questions about your granddaughter's typical behavior, such as the following:

1. Does she need to adhere to a strict routine?
2. Does she get angry or upset when that routine is altered?
3. Did she show joint attention skills when she was little (did she look at you, and then point to things to get you to also look at these things?)
4. Has she ever shown behaviors such as a) walking on her toes, b) hand-flapping, c) rocking her torso back and forth when seated, or rocking back and forth on her feat while standing, etc.

I'm sure that they'll ask many other questions -- and these may only be the type of questions they asked parents of five year olds -- not 14 year olds.

We were told that PDD-NOS was an umbrella term for children who had some of the characteristics of autism, but not ALL of the characteristics of autism. For some reason, that was supposed to make us feel as if things were going to be ok.

I do think that having this diagnosis will possibly help you get some services, either social skills classes through the state, or services through your granddaughter's school such as front-row seating, longer times on tests, a quiet room in which to take tests, etc.

Good luck, and keep us posted as to how things are going.