Hi All

My 6 year old son was diagnosed with PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) 3 years ago.

We live in South Africa, so needless to say, our healthcare proffessionals are clueless where it comes to developmental disorder.
About a month ago we were fortunate enough to see a docter from Israel that came to South Africa, and she does not agree with the PDD diagnoses at all, she thinks he has Elective Mutism...

I am so confused, I don't know what to believe or where to get any info.

Has anyone else had a PDD diagnoses initially and then a EM diagnoses later.

Thanks!

Okay, I had to say something about this because nobody else has. I've only read a little about selective mutism (they call it "selective" now because they've found out that it's not a conscious choice, but that it does tend to appear in certain situations--that is, it "selects" the scenarios in which it exists).

What I know about selective mutism:
Basically: A person who can talk stops talking, or stops talking except in certain situations in which he feels safe. That's selective mutism.

The cause is usually trauma--though with young children, "trauma" can mean something that an adult wouldn't fear; or it can be something truly horrid, like a victimizer threatening to kill the child that if s/he tells anyone. Some cases are idiopathic--that is, "we have no idea what caused this". In those cases, the child has probably discovered that there is some benefit in not talking, and becomes "trapped" into not talking for fear of losing that benefit (which may not even be a realistic fear... children's reasoning capablilities are still undeveloped, and they will often associate things as cause and effect that are merely coincidental).

Selective mutism is only diagnosed if the child can talk fluently, and has done so in the past. PDD-NOS with language delay has more to do with neurology than psychology; it's something that was present from birth, and tends to show itself around the time the child should be speaking fluently. In this case, the child has never started speaking fluently at all, rather than starting and then not speaking at all (or not speaking at all in certain situations).

A psychologist should be able to tell the difference between the two, given a good, comprehensive history. Communication is important; either impediment can cause trouble for a child.

Thank you for the response.

He spoke fine until 3, when he just stopped for no apparant reason - I'm taking him to another docter in a months time, will let you know what happens.

It matters what your child’s diagnosis is!!! Most importantly what ever the problem is he has one and the best thing to do is educate yourself and educate him. My 6-year has been saying words correctly and ahead scholastically all his little life, but cannot use the words he knows appropriately. I also work in the special needs class and most of the boys in the class are the same way. Like my son most of the boys are just now starting to understand simple sentences. When asked a question like do you want the blue or the red popsicle, they will tend to smile and want to answer, but genuinely not being able to process knowing what to say and actually saying it.

Knowledge is truly power and I have never in all my experience met a child who did not enjoy games- computer, video and person to person games and in our day in age we are so lucky to have games for our kids that are educational as well. While you get your professional diagnosis on him. Don’t wait another minute in educating. It is the only cure no matter what the diagnosis is.

Reader Rabbit Pre School computer games are wonderful.

Leapfrog Movies are wonderful-

:wave: Brandi