question for parents of children with autism

[FoundMyPrince]

If your child has autism, can you tell me...
-how old was the child when you first suspected they were autistic
-what made you suspect autism

I have no agenda...just very curious. It seems autism is in the news every day and it makes me rather paranoid as a parent wondering "what if".

 

[woodkins]

If your child has autism, can you tell me...
-how old was the child when you first suspected they were autistic
-what made you suspect autism

I have no agenda...just very curious. It seems autism is in the news every day and it makes me rather paranoid as a parent wondering "what if".

My dd has PDD-NOS. We suspected some sort of developmental delay when by 12 mos she had no babbling, baby talk etc. She was silent or crying, that was all. She could not isolate your fingers to point and was raking rather than using a pincer grasp. She also did not cross midline when reaching for objects. She would "w" sit on the floor. As she got older she would often spin and perform other stimming behaviors. She also had many sensory issues with auditory and tactile issues. She was a preemie 3lbs so we were also very tuned into her developmental milestones and kept a close watch on them.

 

[jodifla]

If your child has autism, can you tell me...
-how old was the child when you first suspected they were autistic
-what made you suspect autism

I have no agenda...just very curious. It seems autism is in the news every day and it makes me rather paranoid as a parent wondering "what if".

If you do just a little digging, you'll find the autism "epidemic" is because of the changing definition of autism.

Each time they refine the DSM, the definition gets broader, and many more people are put under "the spectrum."

I'm on a message board with hundreds of parents with speech delays; almost every child who has gone through the school system has been misdiagnosed as autistic. Even with four or five other opinions from neurologists and other experts, schools will still try to blackmail parents into accepting an "educational autism" diagnosis, telling them their child will get no services otherwise. The CDC largely gets its numbers from children receiving services in schools.

So factor that in when you hear about all the autism stories.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

If you do just a little digging, you'll find the autism "epidemic" is because of the changing definition of autism.

Each time they refine the DSM, the definition gets broader, and many more people are put under "the spectrum."

I'm on a message board with hundreds of parents with speech delays; almost every child who has gone through the school system has been misdiagnosed as autistic. Even with four or five other opinions from neurologists and other experts, schools will still try to blackmail parents into accepting an "educational autism" diagnosis, telling them their child will get no services otherwise. The CDC largely gets its numbers from children receiving services in schools.

So factor that in when you hear about all the autism stories.

My DD is bipolar. Her diagnosis is well-supported. There's a long family history of bipolar on her dad's side of the family. When we were working with the school district on the MFE, they out and out told me they wanted me to ask her psychologist to give us a diagnosis on the autism spectrum because they get more funding if she was.

 

[jodifla]

My DD is bipolar. Her diagnosis is well-supported. There's a long family history of bipolar on her dad's side of the family. When we were working with the school district on the MFE, they out and out told me they wanted me to ask her psychologist to give us a diagnosis on the autism spectrum because they get more funding if she was.

I wished this surprised me, but it doesn't. I hear similar stories all the time.

 

[brettgirl]

Like the previous poster, my son was born prematurely and we went to the hospital every 3 months to monitor his development. He was developmentally delayed from the start, low tone baby, his head grew at tremendous speed when we brought him home (he was tested for water on the brain-negative), he was not a happy tiny baby unless he was sleeping (probably all those sensory issues I was unaware of at the time). He had therapies at home since he was 15 months old. My son's "play" was extreme watching of fans, opening and closing of drawers and doors in the kitchen cabinets, turning toy cars upside down to spin the wheels (no play was involved with any toys), no babbling, would not hold my hand until he was over two, screamed at the doctors when they wanted to measure his head (sensory issues with his head being touched). My son was then diagnosed with sensory integration and pdd-nos. He has always given good eye contact to me, dad and his sister. He was not happy with any new situation, new people, new places (would scream at the sweet grocery store clerk when she said "hi"). Food issues were also a problem-PICKY. Today, my son is a happy, musically inclined (plays electric guitar, acoustic, bass cello), 4th grader (just got an IEP), who is making small wonderful steps everyday-he now has a diagnosis of aspergers/high functioning autism.

PLEASE, I work with autistic children everyday, if you have doubts it does not hurt to visit the neurodevelopmental psycholigical pediatric doctor in your area. I truely believe that my son would not be where he is today if it had not been for all the work we have put into getting him help!

Feel free to contact me.
brettgirl

 

[stm61]

I teach special ed. so over the years I've had many kids on the spectrum. Different parents have had different experiences. Some had kids who appeared normal, then suddenly started withdrawing. Other's kids have always been a bit "off", but not enough to suspect autism until they hit school/preschool. Still others never really interacted as described by posters above. Some were preemies, some full term, some were twins or triplets with normal siblings. It seems like every parent I spoke with had a different story, maybe because there are so many different levels of autism.

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

Two of my boys are on the spectrum.

Ds, 13, always seemed a little "different" as a toddler. I didn't notice anything when he was an infant, but by 18 months or so, he really stood out in my eyes. Everyone thought I was just a paranoid, "first time mom". Socially, he would never interact with children he didn't see on a daily basis. He would "play" (always in his own way), with the kids in my daycare and with siblings, but not with anyone else. He used to line up his Matchbox cars, was very, very, set on a schedule, flapped his hands, and seemed "stuck" on one topic of interest. I can't tell you how relieved I was when his preschool teacher expressed her concerns as well, because this was the first person to validate my own concerns. He was diagnosed with PDD-NOS at 4, and with Asperger's at 5. He also had ADHD (hyperactivity, mostly), which really made life very difficult. Luckily, over the years, many of his traits have improved as he has matured.

Because of my issues with him, I've always been extremely paranoid about my other children, and have had all of them through some sort of testing. Dd spent her entire year in preschool at age three not saying one word, so I was sure we were down the same road. Ds, now 7, also had odd, "antisocial" behaviors in preschool. Luckily, they have both come so far and were never diagnosed with anything.

My youngest, now 5, has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS. I was suspicious well before he was 18 months. He was a late speaker and seemed to have issues with processing at that age. He spent a year and a half with the infant/toddlers program, who told me they didn't suspect autism. He had basically the same social issues as my oldest as he hit preschool (would only play with kids who were in my home on a daily basis), and gets fixated on one topic at a time. He didn't have hand flapping or problems with lining up cars. He has problems with altered routines at school and we're exploring other issues.

It is scary to look at the frequency of autism now. Just within the 5 houses up from me, there are 6 kids with some sort of spectrum disorder. It is very overwhelming at times, and was very stressful when we were first dealing with it with my oldest. Although stressful with my youngest, we know what we are dealing with and have seen first hand that so many of the traits can improve with time. We still have so many positives to look forward to

 

[stacy347]

We knew with DD12 that something was "off" almost immediately. She was our 4th daughter and even though every baby was different, her issues were pretty clear.

She couldn't be consoled as an infant and at first that was attributed to colic. However, she ate fine and slept pretty normally for an infant. It was just her normal awake hours that were so tough to get through.

By the time she was 6 months old, she didn't even want to be held ~ touching her was clearly making her distraught. The only time she was content to be held was if she could grab a handful of my hair and chew on it while I was holding her ~ at first I discouraged it (because a baby chewing on hair is obviously not a pleasant thought, LOL). But, there were times I simply had to hold her for whatever reason and this calmed her, so it became the norm.

We noticed from that time until about 2.5 years old that she was not progressing the same verbally or socially as our other girls. By 2.5, the only sound she would make was "eee". No matter what was asking for or pointing at, it was "eee". We had been following up with the pediatrician during this time of course, with all of the well-baby visits, etc. They don't like to start any kind of labeling that early (which I totally agree with, BTW).

By age 3, with no new sounds being made, the ped suggested speech therapy. We agreed and started her that semester at the elementary school. She has now been in speech therapy for 9 years and still can not enunciate the was she really should, but I can't imagine where she would have been now without it.

By age 5, she was diagnosed in the spectrum. I took her for testing with the neuropsychologist and his team, and it was crystal clear from the first visit what her issues were. Every set of toys or items they gave her ended up sorted into groups, even when they asked her to play or apply a story.

She also could never handle being taken out of her normal routine. Whenever we would go visit my sister out of state, it was a nightmare. Sleeping in a different bed just didn't happen, so I basically wouldn't sleep for an entire weekend. Even now, she can't handle change well. Just last year, they had to pull her from class for special testing and they made her 10 minutes late for lunch. I got a call from the social worker who was apologizing profusely, saying that Amanda had completely shut down.

She has no skills to this day of what a normal "back and forth" conversation should be. She doesn't do it to be rude, but her mind just can't veer from whatever track she is on in that moment.

We have been very lucky over the years in that the teachers here are great about modifying assignments for her so that we can keep her as mainstreamed as possible. This is her first year of junior high and thanks to the modifications, she only has 2 special needs classes out of 6.

Tough times along the road so far, and I hate seeing her struggle so much, but she is a great kid and I wouldn't trade her for the world!

 

[cdarby6]

Matthew is 7 now and didnt show any signs of Autism until he was 2. He started rocking, lost his 5 words of speech and was just out of it. He still was very loving and hugged alot. Now he is still nonverbal and uses an AAC device to speak. Hes pretty severe in my opinion. Hes also got Juvenile Diabetes. He wears an insulin pump and never tries to pull it off which is shocking if you know him. He hates clothing. Then my 5 year old Killian had a more drastic regression into Autism when he was 2 also. He had a very good vocabulary and then became nonverbal for over 5 months. He started talking again but it wasnt functional for another 7 months. He would script from shows etc.. Now he is doing well. He can read and write and you wouldnt know he was autistic at all. He does a few stims here and there. Im watching my 9 month old Oliver very closely.

 

[sukhakuli]

I'm not even going to address the blackmail comment. Geez.

Looking back, it was obvious even at birth. But we started to know something was really up when he was about 18 months old. He had about 3 words, but then he stopped talking all together and started saying 2 syllables over and over. Literally. Nonstop. All day long. It was the first thing I heard when I woke up in the morning, and the last thing I heard before I fell asleep. It's called delayed echolalia, and ds has always had it pretty bad. When I took him in for his 18 month appointment I told his Pediatrician (although I should probably mention here that my dh is a Pediatrician as well, so we noticed things that other parents may not), I told her about the loss of words, and we were referred to speech, audiology, and developmental. First he went for his hearing test and failed it spectacularly. The auidiologist said that her gut feeling was that he could hear, and she was puzzled why he failed (he did end up "passing" later). We scheduled another appointment. Speech told me that if I just stopped feeding him, he would start talking. We fired her right away. I mean, he has an older sister, and at the very least he'd be shouting "NO!! Mine!!!" at her when she stole a toy. It has nothing to do with being attentive to his needs. Please. Then we saw developmental, who said that he didn't think he had autism, but that he had some concerning signs, such as splinter skills. Those are developmental skills well above his age level, when he has other delays. at 20 months he had the speech development of a 9 month old, but the fine motor skills of a 3-4 year old. Not good.

We were to go back for another eval in a few moths. In that time, he started getting really "weird." Stacking, lining things up, banging his head for literallyhours on end, refusing to eat any foods that aren't round, and despite getting him in to speech and using baby signs, there was absolutely no progress on his speech. He was 3 before he even said mama. He would perseverate, that is spend an inordinate amount of time, on various objects. He would walk around the house adjusting things to the way the photo in his head saw them, and would spend literally an hour trying to get the soap dispenser exactly the way the thought it should be. He would eat soap and dog poop, but refused to eat normal food, uness it was round. It just went on and on. He was diagnosed with PDD-NOS at first because of his age. He met 5 of the 6 criteria, but the 6th was untestable before that age of 3. At 3, he was diagnosed with autism. He's now 5 and ahalf and still struggles. He has learned to talk, but is having an enormous amount of difficulty in school. Hes not a "bad" kid, which is really puzzling to the school. He's actually very sweet. But they still can't handle his behaviors. Unfortunately he will struggle his whole life. Having a social delay is really hard, and some of the things he does are socially inappropriate. Like, you wouldn't as a kid who is blind to read a book, but they do ask him to look at him when they talk to him, and he can't do that just like someone who is blind couldn't read a regular book. but since it is behavioral, they assume that he could do it if he chose to.

And obviously, people are pretty ignorant about what autism really is, and what it really means. They think it's bad parents, or bad kids, or vaccines, or physician ignorance and conspiracies. But when you spend time with my son, is is very obvious that there is something really different about him and the way he thinks. He's doing really well, so we decided to put him in his new school without telling anyone, thinking that he could just blend right in, but they knew within the first week that he had some major problems. Unfortunately we have had to allow the school to start services with him, because he will fail Kindergarten, and they can't get him to go through even one day without having to have several aids come in and calm him down during class. And like I said earlier, it is clear he was like this from birth, he was even born in a position typical of people who have neurological disorders. Nothing caused it, it is just a quirk of genetics.

 

[cogero]

My son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS at 20 months. He has a severe speech delay. At his 18 month appointment I stressed to the dr he still had no more than 5 words and mentioned he was snoring abnormally loud.

Well we started all the evaluations with EI and a bunch of hearing tests. He wound up having his tonsils and adenoids shaved down and tubes put in his ears last June. He has more words now. So we are going in the right direction.

DS was always a tad behind with sitting up and crawling but walked normally. He had surgery at 2days old for an illeal atresia which means his bowels did not develop properly. DS also doubled his size between 1 and 2 years old.

This past September he started a special preschool that deals only with kids on the spectrum and he has really blossomed. He does not have any of the social interaction problems so for that I am thankful.

 

[jodifla]

My son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS at 20 months. He has a severe speech delay. At his 18 month appointment I stressed to the dr he still had no more than 5 words and mentioned he was snoring abnormally loud.

Well we started all the evaluations with EI and a bunch of hearing tests. He wound up having his tonsils and adenoids shaved down and tubes put in his ears last June. He has more words now. So we are going in the right direction.

DS was always a tad behind with sitting up and crawling but walked normally. He had surgery at 2days old for an illeal atresia which means his bowels did not develop properly. DS also doubled his size between 1 and 2 years old.

This past September he started a special preschool that deals only with kids on the spectrum and he has really blossomed. He does not have any of the social interaction problems so for that I am thankful.

I'm glad your son is doing well and likes his preschool.

But from your description I don't understand the autism Dx....social communication deficit, as opposed to language, is the core of an autism diagnosis. In fact in the upcoming DSM, language delays are specifically mentioned as not being a sign of autism as language delays encompass many disorders:

http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=94#

The following is the proposed revision diagnostic criteria for Autistic Disorder in the DSM-V:

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Must meet criteria 1, 2, and 3:

1. Clinically significant, persistent deficits in social communication and interactions, as manifest by all of the following:

a. Marked deficits in nonverbal and verbal communication used for social interaction:

b. Lack of social reciprocity;

c. Failure to develop and maintain peer relationships appropriate to developmental level

2. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least TWO of the following:

a. Stereotyped motor or verbal behaviors, or unusual sensory behaviors

b. Excessive adherence to routines and ritualized patterns of behavior

c. Restricted, fixated interests

3. Symptoms must be present in early childhood (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities)

Delays in language are not unique nor universal in ASD and are more accurately considered as a factor that influences the clinical symptoms of ASD, rather than defining the ASD diagnosis

 

[jodifla]

I'm not even going to address the blackmail comment. Geez.

Looking back, it was obvious even at birth. But we started to know something was really up when he was about 18 months old. He had about 3 words, but then he stopped talking all together and started saying 2 syllables over and over. Literally. Nonstop. All day long. It was the first thing I heard when I woke up in the morning, and the last thing I heard before I fell asleep. It's called delayed echolalia, and ds has always had it pretty bad. When I took him in for his 18 month appointment I told his Pediatrician (although I should probably mention here that my dh is a Pediatrician as well, so we noticed things that other parents may not), I told her about the loss of words, and we were referred to speech, audiology, and developmental. First he went for his hearing test and failed it spectacularly. The auidiologist said that her gut feeling was that he could hear, and she was puzzled why he failed (he did end up "passing" later). We scheduled another appointment. Speech told me that if I just stopped feeding him, he would start talking. We fired her right away. I mean, he has an older sister, and at the very least he'd be shouting "NO!! Mine!!!" at her when she stole a toy. It has nothing to do with being attentive to his needs. Please. Then we saw developmental, who said that he didn't think he had autism, but that he had some concerning signs, such as splinter skills. Those are developmental skills well above his age level, when he has other delays. at 20 months he had the speech development of a 9 month old, but the fine motor skills of a 3-4 year old. Not good.

We were to go back for another eval in a few moths. In that time, he started getting really "weird." Stacking, lining things up, banging his head for literallyhours on end, refusing to eat any foods that aren't round, and despite getting him in to speech and using baby signs, there was absolutely no progress on his speech. He was 3 before he even said mama. He would perseverate, that is spend an inordinate amount of time, on various objects. He would walk around the house adjusting things to the way the photo in his head saw them, and would spend literally an hour trying to get the soap dispenser exactly the way the thought it should be. He would eat soap and dog poop, but refused to eat normal food, uness it was round. It just went on and on. He was diagnosed with PDD-NOS at first because of his age. He met 5 of the 6 criteria, but the 6th was untestable before that age of 3. At 3, he was diagnosed with autism. He's now 5 and ahalf and still struggles. He has learned to talk, but is having an enormous amount of difficulty in school. Hes not a "bad" kid, which is really puzzling to the school. He's actually very sweet. But they still can't handle his behaviors. Unfortunately he will struggle his whole life. Having a social delay is really hard, and some of the things he does are socially inappropriate. Like, you wouldn't as a kid who is blind to read a book, but they do ask him to look at him when they talk to him, and he can't do that just like someone who is blind couldn't read a regular book. but since it is behavioral, they assume that he could do it if he chose to.

And obviously, people are pretty ignorant about what autism really is, and what it really means. They think it's bad parents, or bad kids, or vaccines, or physician ignorance and conspiracies. But when you spend time with my son, is is very obvious that there is something really different about him and the way he thinks. He's doing really well, so we decided to put him in his new school without telling anyone, thinking that he could just blend right in, but they knew within the first week that he had some major problems. Unfortunately we have had to allow the school to start services with him, because he will fail Kindergarten, and they can't get him to go through even one day without having to have several aids come in and calm him down during class. And like I said earlier, it is clear he was like this from birth, he was even born in a position typical of people who have neurological disorders. Nothing caused it, it is just a quirk of genetics.

Did your school do a Functional Behavior Assessment and subsequent behavior support plan?

We had a rough two years in K and 1, then the FINALLY did a decent assessment, and the behavior plan worked from literally the first day.

 

[lucigo]

If your child has autism, can you tell me...
-how old was the child when you first suspected they were autistic
-what made you suspect autism

I have no agenda...just very curious. It seems autism is in the news every day and it makes me rather paranoid as a parent wondering "what if".

At 8 months my son would look through people. I remember my oldest daughter carrying him down the hall and me at the end of the hall trying to get his attention and him not interested in me at all. This was the age when I started half-jokingly calling him my little autistic baby. We could engage him and he was a very happy, very easy baby, but we did all the work. He wasn't the kind of kid that extended family or strangers would get any enjoyment out of, if that makes any sense. He didn't give. We were his tools and his entertainment.

At 14 months he was laying on the wet floor watching the wheels turn on his car. At 18 months he began speech and OT, and the official diagnosis came at 24 months.

He is an awesome, extremely bright, hyperlexic, musically talented kid at age 7 who is still language delayed and in a "special" class who completely changed my life. He tells knock knock jokes and loves to watch space shuttle launches on you tube, sing rock band, and play little big planet. I still look forward to the day he will have a true friend, bring home a whole month of "green smileys" and eat more than 7 foods, but we are getting there!!

 

[sukhakuli]

I'm glad your son is doing well and likes his preschool.

But from your description I don't understand the autism Dx....social communication deficit, as opposed to language, is the core of an autism diagnosis. In fact in the upcoming DSM, language delays are specifically mentioned as not being a sign of autism as language delays encompass many disorders:

http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=94#

The following is the proposed revision diagnostic criteria for Autistic Disorder in the DSM-V:

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Must meet criteria 1, 2, and 3:

1. Clinically significant, persistent deficits in social communication and interactions, as manifest by all of the following:

a. Marked deficits in nonverbal and verbal communication used for social interaction:

b. Lack of social reciprocity;

c. Failure to develop and maintain peer relationships appropriate to developmental level

2. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least TWO of the following:

a. Stereotyped motor or verbal behaviors, or unusual sensory behaviors

b. Excessive adherence to routines and ritualized patterns of behavior

c. Restricted, fixated interests

3. Symptoms must be present in early childhood (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities)

Delays in language are not unique nor universal in ASD and are more accurately considered as a factor that influences the clinical symptoms of ASD, rather than defining the ASD diagnosis

You're right about the language thing. With my son, the symptoms went way beyond the speech problems he had/has. People kept telling me that boys talk late. Sure, whatever, but I've never seen a 2 year old drink liquid handsoap out of a dispenser like it was a milkshake (along with other bizarre behaviors). Another thing to think about, though, is that one of the major distinctions between autism and asperger's is the speech delay. I have had schools try to refuse to give my son services because they swear he has asperger's, but asperger's does NOT present with a speech delay. It drives me batty when people think that once a child with autism starts to talk, they suddenly has asperger's. That is absolutely not the case.

Did your school do a Functional Behavior Assessment and subsequent behavior support plan?

We had a rough two years in K and 1, then the FINALLY did a decent assessment, and the behavior plan worked from literally the first day.

The school here has some really lengthy and bizarre process it goes through to start services. We have a meeting next week to get everything finalized. It's funny, in California I had to nearly get a lawyer to get appropriate services from the school, but here in Texas it's the school begging for them. My dh says it's because in CA he was in preschool, so the schools didn't have to actually deal with him, but now he is in public school and since they are actively dealing with him they are begging for help. Ironic, you know?

 

[lucigo]

One of the biggest diagnostic signs IMHO is lack of point-look-point. You see little kids everyday in stores, they want something, they point at it, they look at mom to make sure she sees what they are pointing at...and then they look back at the object with her to show her what it is that they want.

In other words TRUE joint attention. Its amazing how important that little finger can be. Who knew.....

 

[jodifla]

One of the biggest diagnostic signs IMHO is lack of point-look-point. You see little kids everyday in stores, they want something, they point at it, they look at mom to make sure she sees what they are pointing at...and then they look back at the object with her to show her what it is that they want.

In other words TRUE joint attention. Its amazing how important that little finger can be. Who knew.....

It's less the finger though, and more the looking. Lots of language delayed kids also have poor fine motor skills that delay pointing.

My son used to use basically his whole hand when he was a toddler; pointing came in more in preschool. But his joint attention is good enough that he can tell exactly where you are looking at on a page...so much so that evaluators have found they can't look at the answer on a test, because if they are, he can tell and get all the answers right.

 

[jodifla]

You're right about the language thing. With my son, the symptoms went way beyond the speech problems he had/has. People kept telling me that boys talk late. Sure, whatever, but I've never seen a 2 year old drink liquid handsoap out of a dispenser like it was a milkshake (along with other bizarre behaviors). Another thing to think about, though, is that one of the major distinctions between autism and asperger's is the speech delay. I have had schools try to refuse to give my son services because they swear he has asperger's, but asperger's does NOT present with a speech delay. It drives me batty when people think that once a child with autism starts to talk, they suddenly has asperger's. That is absolutely not the case.


The school here has some really lengthy and bizarre process it goes through to start services. We have a meeting next week to get everything finalized. It's funny, in California I had to nearly get a lawyer to get appropriate services from the school, but here in Texas it's the school begging for them. My dh says it's because in CA he was in preschool, so the schools didn't have to actually deal with him, but now he is in public school and since they are actively dealing with him they are begging for help. Ironic, you know?

I find that institutions do whatever they are set up for, and whatever they have done before. It's supposed to be an INDIVIDUAL Education Plan, and instead, it's basically mass produced based on their already-existing services. And as a PP said, money is a huge driver. So if you are in a state that incentivizes for certain programs or Dxes, then that is where the children go, unless the parents put up a fight.

I wonder about the wisdom of doing away with the Asperger's Dx in the DSM-V. I know their reasoning is that once language comes in that Asperger's and autism are basically the same, but listening to descriptions from parents, that really doesn't sound quite right to me. It seems like they are two different things.

 

[cogero]

I'm glad your son is doing well and likes his preschool.

But from your description I don't understand the autism Dx....social communication deficit, as opposed to language, is the core of an autism diagnosis. In fact in the upcoming DSM, language delays are specifically mentioned as not being a sign of autism as language delays encompass many disorders:

http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=94#

The following is the proposed revision diagnostic criteria for Autistic Disorder in the DSM-V:

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Must meet criteria 1, 2, and 3:

1. Clinically significant, persistent deficits in social communication and interactions, as manifest by all of the following:

a. Marked deficits in nonverbal and verbal communication used for social interaction:

b. Lack of social reciprocity;

c. Failure to develop and maintain peer relationships appropriate to developmental level

2. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least TWO of the following:

a. Stereotyped motor or verbal behaviors, or unusual sensory behaviors

b. Excessive adherence to routines and ritualized patterns of behavior

c. Restricted, fixated interests

3. Symptoms must be present in early childhood (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities)

Delays in language are not unique nor universal in ASD and are more accurately considered as a factor that influences the clinical symptoms of ASD, rather than defining the ASD diagnosis

My son was given his PDD-NOS diagnoses through 2 different sets of evaluations and by a neurologist.

From what was explained to me about PDD-NOS is that it is a spectrum disorder but isn't autism per se. Also from what my neurologist told me is they won't put a defined autism,asperger's or ADHD until he is 5 or 6. hence his PDD-NOS diagnosis which is an ASD but this can change as he gets older. He is just 3.

Besides his speech problems he has a slew of other problems that put him on the spectrum. He is a toewalker and has a problem with his fine motor skills. When he started with school he could not attend (as in he had not attention) he did not respond to his name, he did not look at people and he could not point at things with his pointer finger. Now he can do all of those most of the time.

My son loves to give hugs and hold hands which is one of the reasons I said he did not have a social problem.

My son would be eligible for services and special ed preschool in NYC for no other reason than his severe speech delay.

One way the PDD-NOS was explained to me in the beginning is you needed 12 traits to be considered truly autistic and the PDD-NOS diagnosis had less than the 12.

I am still learning all the terms and more about ASD, PDD-NOS and it all.