Which one is it?

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My son was diagnosed at 4 1/2 with PDD-NOS, only to be diagnosed with autism by someone else 6 months later. What does that mean? I know it shouldn't matter, but it has never been explained to me. I know PDD-NOS is on the spectrum, but which one is it?

My son is 6 and excels at pretty much everything; especially colors, shapes, numbers, etc., but has trouble at two sided conversations. He has trouble with social interaction and has tantrums and screams when he doesn't get to do what he wants.

I am trying to make sense of this and I don't know who to ask. So if anyone can give me any info or explain this to me I would be grateful.

PDD-NOS = Pervasive Developmental Disorder-not otherwise specified......in a nutshell, it means that he has lots of symptoms, but they don't add up to a dx of autism or aspergers............

as far as differential diagnoses go, my son's had numerous dxes given to him by numerous different professionals who all thought they knew him like a book........son's been dxed with: ADHD, Major Depressive Disorder, Anxiety disorder-NOS, ODD, Bipolar, MPD, and finally AS. it took quite a while to get the AS dx. ended up going through a neuropsych. costly, but at least we feel that his dx is finally correct.

I was diagnosed with PDD-NOS because of having a history of late speech and many other autism traits. But now, that is obviously not an issue and my social skills are quite good considering. But I still have plenty of traits like obsessions, getting upset when things are out of place or if my routine is disrupted, etc. PDD-NOS is a "catchall" diagnosis. Plenty of autistic traits but not enough to fall under classic autism or Asperger's. My son also has PDD-NOS. He probably also has ADHD (my daughter is not at all under the spectrum but she has ADHD) and I do too. It's possible to have multiple disorders as well... and what fun it is, ugh.