Mild PDD

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Hello everyone,

My son will be turning 4 next month and was diagnosed as having some PDD characteristics.

These are his current characteristics:
He does not talk at all.
When he wants something he grabs as around and moves our hand to the things he want.
Drinks lots of water.
Does not point with his finger.
Loves to tear paper.
Eye contact has improved.
No imaginative play such as cars or the like.
Loves TV.
Quite social. Likes to go out.
Likes cuddling a lot.
He is seeing a motor skills specialist 3 times a week and has a shadow teacher at Kindergarten.
Speech therapy was useless. Told he was not ready yet. Will resume again soon.
When he was a baby used to love milk.
He is on GFCF diet since 7 or 8 months.
I'am worried about his speech. Please share with any experiences or expected age of acquiring speech.

I was initially diagnosed with mild PDD, starting acquiring somewhat adequate speech between 3 and 1/2 and 4 years old though I had early intervention.

My son is 3 1/2 and has just started saying words. He has been diagnosed since around 19 months and had early intervention, he attends a preschool program with "typical" children and has an individual aide. I have seen great improvements since he started school(he goes from 9-2) and will be getting in home therapy soon(6 hours). My son also like to drink alot of water, is also very social and like to go out, is also very affectionate and usually leads me around by the hand to something and I then figure out what he needs or wants, does not point. When you were told he was not ready for speech did they say why? If he can sit for part of the time with breaks I think it would be great for him to have speech I will say give him all the therapy he can get ABA, Speech, OT whatever he needs. Don't give up. All I wanted my son to ever say was "Mama" and he just started saying it (when prompted) and I just cried. I have heard the age of 5 as a age to watch I don't know if this is true, just what I have heard. How is the diet going? Have you seen any changes. I tried to do it just felt it was so hard (with 5 other children) and he does not seem to have any of the stomach problems that is sometimes common. If you need anything let me know. Things will happen it just takes time. Good luck!

As I recall, 5 is one of the times when the brain changes a bit. It ALSO happens to be the cutoff point for most of many peoples conscious memories. MAYBE it's a good sign that he started talking. Well One more year till first grade. I hope he makes it! It IS possible. For all you know, speech might be one of the few problems.

I HAVE to ask! What you are describing is supposed to be MILD pdd? In what way is it MILD?

Steve

Is there something significant about drinking lots of water?

I doubt it. ESPECIALLY if the urine isn't all that yellow. It could be diabetes insipidus(if he is drinking out of a STRONG desire/need). That can be treated by a pill taken once daily. Of course, diabetes melitus(sp?) is WORSE and treatment is more complex, but drinking would be the least of your problems. Of course, some nutrition, including overdoses of certain B vitamins have the same effect, but I think they will all make the urine more yellow.

Steve

I don't think there is any such thing as "mild" anything. Any difficulty causes significant problems for the one who has it. The more severe grades of disability are easy to distinguish, but even so-called "mild" difficulties cause problems with social acceptance and functioning in daily life.

SteveK, I never used the world mild. My son was diagnosed PDD-NOS but I never say PDD it is just Autism to me. I think all kids with Autism are different. I was just talking about things that are similar with the person who wrote the post. It is always nice to find others with similar qualities. I heard the 5 year old thing but one of the therapist that worked with my son worked with a girl who spoke at 9 so I just feel never give up sometimes things happen slowly, but they happen.

There is a user named "Spyder774" With a child who sounds a lot like your son.

She posted her story here. http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... ic&t=30216

Her daughter is 11 now, but when she was younger, they actually had to teach her sign language for communication. By 7, she mostly caught up to her peers, and her speech was in the "normal ranges"

Her daughter is also dx'ed with a non specified ASD. I bet you could have a lot to talk about!

AS is mild PDD. What you are describing with your son sounds like classic autism and I urge you to get your child into a special program as soon as possible.

My family with AS acquired speech later, but went from saying nothing to speaking in perfect sentences before the age of 3. We all acquired our speech between 2 and 3. Some children with AS may be electively mute (they don't speak to anyone they don't know), but they do have speech, they just don't choose to use it.

The fact that your child is using your hand as a tool to get what he wants speaks strongly of autism. It is well documented in the literature. Even though this child had speech (but lost it):

http://discovermagazine.com/2006/apr/vital-signs

The most telling signs are present and obvious to professionals familiar with autism.

It sounds to me that the professionals involved with your son are not up on the best practices. Demand some help now.

Marwan posted to me privately and I gave our story. So, I hope that Marwan is busy ingesting all of this and then using it for their advantage.

Thank you for your replies. I guess labels are not that important afterall. I read that autistic are non-social and do not like cuddling or affectionate. They may hurt themselves and do repetitive behaviour. They also have meltdowns. These characteristics are not present in my son. Sure the other charactersitics are also part of autism.

I read also that PDD symptoms are excessive thirst. My son drinks around 3 liters per day. We had a blood test. No diabetes.

We will resume speech therapy soon. His motor skills specialist says that we should not put too much pressure on him.
He will be enrolled in a special education program in October. Hope by then some speech develops.

Blood tests showed he was allergic to Wheat. The GFCF diet seems to help him concentrate more. Though I'am not sure if it is the main reason or his is just developing with time.

That is not necessarily true. In the US, we have a form of autism called PDD-NOS. It is important to know exactly what is going on with your child through extensive testing.



There is nothing in the DSM-IV about thirst. There is no scientific eveidence relating autism to wheat allergies, except perhaps as a co-morbid. The not speaking at age 4 - and I assume you mean no words? - is a very negative sign and your child needs to be in an intesnvie program NOW.

Pardon my being blunt, but I think the attitude your doctors have taken with your child is ignorance bordering on the criminal. It would never happen in the US. The child would be in an intensive program to learn speech if possible. The sooner the better.

These programs are very expensive and the expense may be a factor in why your doctors are not pushing intensvie therapy at an early age which is the best practice with autistic children.

Last edited by SeriousGirl on 18 Apr 2007, 12:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Serious girl is right, AND....

the other things you list here might not be present in autistic people and.....

there is *******NO blood test******* for diabetes! They only have one that can expose a major symptom of diabetes mellitus(blood sugar instability). Even then, a negative result doesn't say you don't have DM. In fact, they sometimes keepp people in the hospital and feed them sugar water and do a BATTERY of tests to prove that DM is likely not a problem.

Diabetes insipidus ALSO has no test! They have to reinforce the finding of the main symptom(THIRST), by looking at the URINE, as I said earlier. AGAIN, they may keep him in the hospital with a battery of tests!

http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/ ... /index.htm

Steve

Hi, I hope you review what I told you in the private message about language.

These are stereotypes and not true for all autistics. I have to say that my son had to learn to be affectionate. Some never learn it. Some stimming activities (spinning, wrapping oneself in blanket tightly, or standing upside down) are coping mechanisms that replace or supplement affection and physical contact.

There are many people that do this and this happens for various reasons.

If your son doesn't have meltdowns or tantrums, than he's lucky. Meltdowns can occur because of communication barriers or sensory integration disorder.



I have also read this too, anecdotal stories. I haven't read or heard about this from a doctor or a study. My son drank a lot of water until very recently. I believe it's common. I thought it might have to do with a combined dislike of most food, solids, and taste. Now my son eats a lot more and isn't drinking water as much, but still drinks a lot of other fluids.

Allergies are very common with autistic kids and allergies can make "autistic behaviors" seem more pronounced. So, it doesn't surprise me that excluding wheat helps your son. My son has the same issue with some skin allergies.

As I told you, Marwan, in the mail I think you need to concentrate on helping your son communicate. That does not necessarily mean verbal. Speech isn't the end-all, be-all of communication.

Don't you think that being unable to communicate by speech will limit the child's life in a profound and negative way? And Marwan hasn't talked about the kind of testing the child has received - hopefully neuro, developmental and speech and hearing. Has deafness been ruled out?

Has anyone shown her how to interpret the hard data from the tests?