Autistic for the last 9 years now not! - Autism Spectrum Message Board

NineLives · 09-27-2004, 07:08 PM

My son recently had testing done to see if he qualified for help from our state voc rehab. Now I'm told after 9 years that he doesn't fit the diagnosis of autism and their diagnosis is PDDNOS. I'm really confused because I believe that my son is autistic, but that he has been able to improve his coping skills enough that the autism is not as apparent. I guess I should be happy that the autistic traits are not as evident but now it's got me wondering if the first diagnosis was correct. He will still qualify for help from voc rehab, but I just wasn't expecting this change in the diagnosis. He is 17 and will be 18 in a couple of weeks. Really confused here!

edaisy80 · 09-27-2004, 07:59 PM

Mt brother-in-law is 22 years old. He was daignoised with ADHD when he was 5 years old. Then when he was 9 he was diagnoised with Autism. Well about 2 months ago they said it was Autism after all but Aspergers syndrom. Its weird. He's been seeing the same doctor (phyciatrist) since he was 9. How does it change I don't understand. I just thought I would let you know about my brother-in-law.

Redhead23 · 09-28-2004, 04:55 AM

PDD-NOS is another term used for people with symptoms resembling autism, but who either have too few symptoms to match the minimum requirement in the diagnostic criteria, OR they are only very mildly affected in one or more of the key symptoms of autism.

PDD-NOS is still an autism spectrum disorder. It's just not "classic" (Kanner) autism.

NineLives · 09-29-2004, 05:55 AM

Thanks for your replies. The brother in law thing is interesting because he has been seeing the same physician. This was a different physician in our case. Also when he was first diagnosed the psychologist told us to learn as much as we could about Aspergers syndrome. No matter what their tests show I still feel very strongly that it's an autism spectrum disorder which I did not realize PDDNOS was considered. At an autism conference that I attended that diagnosis was discussed and they basically said that a diagnosis of PDDNOS was really not a diagnosis at all. We are still going to continue with things the way we have thus far because he is doing really well. I just never imagined that they would give us a completely different diagnosis.

Redhead23 · 09-29-2004, 06:15 AM

"At an autism conference that I attended that diagnosis was discussed and they basically said that a diagnosis of PDDNOS was really not a diagnosis at all."

The reason for that is that many want a precise label, and if their kid does not fit the AS description, and does not fit the Autism description, then the kid gets the PDD-NOS diagnosis, and people are upset because they want their kid to have a specific label for their disorder.

PDD-NOS is not given to spite people or to mean the kid is not autistic. Until more research is done to determine more specific sub-types of PDDs, it's the only way to describe a child who has neither AS nor classic Autism, but still shows some clear signs of autistic impairment.