PDD-NOS More Severe then Aspergers!

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My son was diagnosed with pdd-nos and he never had any language delays whatsoever and was speaking complete sentences at 18 mos. He has no cognitive delays either. He does have repetitive behavior, fixations with objects--some have carried over since preschool like the cameras and the lock interest. Since Kindergarten,he's always beenfascinated with lockers and locks!

Why is he is preoccupied with a fuse box to the point where he desires to go into basements to check out the fuseboxes?

He draws spectacular sketches of faces (made one of Jesus and I have it on his closet door--he was not quite five-years old). But, he stopped and I found one and he didn't believe he had drawn it. So, he spent an hour on a sketch and then realized he was able to draw.

He keeps his things around him so he won't forget them. Last night he brought his spray paint cans with him to the bathroom--(hair color paint..wouldn't allow the toxic ones). He's been painting everything he can get his hands on--shirts, bags, objects--he's on some kind of high from it (maybe the fumes?) LOL.

First thing he asked this morning? Can we buy more spray paint?

He told me last nigth how he used to dream about fuse boxes. Then, once he saw enough of them, he didn't dream about them anymore.

This is pdd-nos for me and my child who turns eight in a few short weeks.

The chart could never define the complexity of my child--he keeps me on my toes for sure.

The diagnosis of PDD-NOS has absolutely NO indication of how well a person functions. It simply means that someone didn't qualify for any of the other 4 labels under the PDD/ASD criteria, but had most of the traits. The old name (the name I wish they would've kept) was atypical autism. It means exactly as it sounds. I really don't know why they felt a need to change it. My 5 yo was dx with PDD-NOS, because he presents with autistic traits, but has too much language, and eye contact for Autistic disorder, but not enough language, and cognitive ability to qualify for AS. There are some kids dx with PDD-NOS that are nonverbal, and some of them that can talk very well, but don't have a clue as to how to play with any kids. I know of a few kids with that dx that will never be able to live on their own, or get married, and do all the typical NT things. Some kids grow into an AS dx as they aquire language. It all depends. And, for the record there is no such medical diagnosis as HFA. That's just a label people use to describe how a person functions in society.

HAHAHAHAHA! I was thinking the same thing. By the way I love your icon and username. I love penguins too.. my boyfriend adopted one for me for my birthday at the Aquarium of Americas in New Orleans. I am the proud mama of an African Black-footed penguin!

Also, if something has not made it into the DSM yet, like NLD, the official diagnosis you get is LD-NOS.

what does all those shapes in that triangle have to do with anything? why not just one solid color preferbly black?

I'm pretty sure the different shapes are supposed to represent the variability in symptoms you see at those different levels of severity. For instance, for the most severe cases, I guess there isn't as much variability in how the kids present, but at the higher-functioning levels, like AS, there is a ton of variability in symptoms.

PDD-NOS seems to be more likely diagnosed in young (<4 years) children because the person is not mentally developed enough at that age for more extensive tests. I was given PDD-NOS at the age of three. This was probably because my parents were educated in psychology and knew something was up. I imagine if I was born to different parents who didn't get me diagnosed early I probably wouldn't be diagnosed until I was older and then would be given HFA or Aspergers.

The psychologist I talked to recently thought I would be HFA rather than Aspergers because my non-verbal abilities are stronger than my verbal abilities even though both were above average. He thought HFA was more "male minded". Not sure I agree with this though.

My thinking is that most the variations in the high functioning range of the spectrum are due to the superposition of personality over the autism. I think two people could have the same disorder but different personalities and this could lead to vastly different profiles in terms of mental abilities. People with high functioning ASD disorders are sometimes more different from each other than they are different from NTs in terms of mental abilities. Some have above average verbal thinking and below average mathematical or visual/spatial thinking, others will have above average visual/spatial thinking and below average verbal thinking. The ASD disorder just amplifies the innate strenghts and weaknesses that are already present from birth as part of the person’s personality.

I would say isnt' very usefull to make distinct labels based on individual strengths and weaknesses. It's more useful to just acknowledge that people with ASD will have more "skewed" results in terms of mental abilities and that this leads to both struggles in some areas and strengths in others.

The severity of my condition when I was extremely young was more to do with sensory and emotional problems. If I was around laud sounds, unfamiliar places, or there was commotion I cried constantly. My parents had a hard time leaving the house with me. That's probably why they decided to get me DXed at three. I was a pain in the butt for them.

I think they were also concerned that I didn't play with other children. My method of play was very orderly and structured rather than spontaneous. Not the same as unimaginative though. I was quite imaginative. When I played I preferred demonstrating rather than sharing. I preferred an audience to playmates. For this reason I preferred to play with adults. I always insisted on showing my parents things I made, like drawings or block towers. I also made musical instruments (mostly drums) out of things and liked to have my parents watch me play them.

I was never "cold" or in my own world. I was very talkative, and affectionate, smiled like a normal kid etc. I don’t think I was more severe than HFA or Aspergers in any way. It seems PDD-NOS was given because I didn’t fit all the criteria and I was too young at the time to have more extensive testing. Do you think it would be useful to have my DX changed to HFA or Aspergers now?

PDD-NOS is a miscellaneous diagnosis for people who definitely have autistic traits that negatively impact their life but just don't happen to meet any of the specific criteria for a pervasive developmental disorder as laid out in the DSM-IV-TR. This says nothing about the severity of the symptoms.

That's why the DSM needs to be changed so these people can be diagnosed within a proper category such as AS or HFA.

HFA is not a official diagnosis though,it's an un official way of saying the person has a certain level of functioning,whether low,medium or high,excluding pddnos,the person will either be given the autism/kanners or aspergers label officially but people either recognise the functioning level themself or some doctors might say it as an unofficial term.



they use it on other things to,am have had trigeminal neuralgia for years and originally they refused to call it TN because they said it was very rare,especially in someone under fifty,they called it Trigeminal Neuralgia NOS,they tried to change it to TMJ which was rubbished by TMJ specialists,then they realised it was full TN all along and changed it back to TN.