OK - tell me how this differs from AS??

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Multisystem Developmental Disorder is one of the newer terms to describe a group of children with communication, social, and sensory processing problems who do not fit into other categories such as autism.
What kind of problems do children with MSDD have?

* Abnormal reaction to sounds, smells, textures, movement, temperature, and other body sensations
* Disturbed behavior that seems more related to unpleasant experiences than lack of interest in participating
* Some impairment in communication development
* Relatively normal interest in communicating and interacting socially when they are not reacting to their environment
* Varying amounts of attention and organization problems
* Varying amounts of coordination problems or clumsiness
* Varying amounts of problems regulating sleep, activity, and appetite

These problems must interfere significantly with everyday life, and interfere with normal development to warrant a diagnosis.
Is it MSDD or Autism?

MSDD is thought to differ from autism in several ways. First, children with MSDD tend to respond to treatment better than children with autism. They are less likely to have severe delays in mental ability, and less likely to have severe rituals or repetitive behaviors. Still, these diagnoses are hard to tell apart in young children since children with both diagnoses, Autism and MSDD, may have similar behavior problems.
What behaviors are seen in MSDD?

* Emotional outbursts or "meltdowns"
* Refusal to eat certain foods
* Insistence on wearing certain clothing, or not liking clothing at all
* Extreme reactions to noise or movement
* Avoidance of sensory experiences or seeking out extreme sensory experience
* Abnormal reaction to pain
* Sleep disturbance
* Avoidance or lack of pleasure in being touched or cuddled in spite of interest in being with you socially
* Refusal to have hair washed, touched, combed, cut, etc.
* Toe walking. Refusal to walk on certain surfaces (such as walking on grass in bare feet)

http://helpforkidspeech.org/articles/detail.cfm?id=64

Though MSDD appears very similar to disorders on the Autistic Spectrum, it is thought to be a secondary impairment, in which difficulties in communicating and relating, characteristic of autism, are in fact a secondary result of motor and sensory processing difficulties. It is thought to be related to sensory integration disorder. MSDD presents as milder than pervasive developmental disorders: children with MSDD tend to respond better to treatment, are less likely to have severe delays in mental ability, and are less likely to have severe rituals or repetitive behaviors. But the differences are very slight, and some would argue that they are in the eyes of the observer. Parents should be aware that the same child, diagnosed by a different practitioner, might very well receive the diagnosis PDD or PDD-NOS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multisyste ... l_Disorder


Does anyone know anything about this relatively newly identified 'disorder'? It reads very much like it's somewhere on the autistic spectrum. Why should all these 'experts' want to create yet another sub-set to argue about? Surely I'm not the only one who speculates that a) these 'experts' are almost autistically obsessional in their need to categorise and sort and/ or b) these 'experts' are simply out to make names for themselves with 'new' 'disorders'?

That's a really good question. Sounds pretty much like high functioning AS, right? The part that I considered ironic was this:

At first I thought it sounded like a case of both AS and ADD, but I don't know. If the impairment in communication is a result of sensory and motor processing, then of course it's not autism, is it? That's like ADD, like, they can't pay attention and thus may have huge problems in social interaction. But nobody considers ADD a true impairment in communication like they do with autism, because the people can understand social clues all fine if they would be offered a situation in which they are able to interact with another person without disturbance of motor, sensory problems or else. That's not like that in autism.

No wonder it's hard to distinguish between autism and this new MSDD, since these characteristics sound a lot alike. It would be interesting to know more about the causes of MSDD (and of course that of autism), because it there seem to be huge differences from what I gathered, reading this text.

But of course, maybe one ambitious scientist was just overreacting to a presentation of individuality in an autistic person, who knows.

Guys and gals,

....

***Multisystem**** Developmental Disorder is one of the newer terms to describe a group of children with ***communication***, social, and sensory processing problems who do not fit into other categories such as autism.
What kind of problems do children with MSDD have?

* Abnormal reaction to sounds, smells, textures, movement, temperature, and other body sensations
* Disturbed behavior that seems more related to unpleasant experiences than lack of interest in participating
* ***Some impairment in communication development***
* Relatively normal interest in communicating and interacting socially when they are not reacting to their environment
* Varying amounts of attention and organization problems
* Varying amounts of coordination problems or clumsiness
* Varying amounts of problems regulating sleep, activity, and appetite

These ***problems must interfere significantly with everyday life, and interfere with normal development to warrant a diagnosis.***
Is it MSDD or Autism?

MSDD is thought to differ from autism in several ways. First, children with MSDD tend to respond to treatment better than children with autism. They are less likely to have severe delays in mental ability, and less likely to have severe rituals or repetitive behaviors. Still, these diagnoses are hard to tell apart in young children since children with both diagnoses, Autism and MSDD, may have similar behavior problems.
What behaviors are seen in MSDD?

* Emotional outbursts or "meltdowns"
* Refusal to eat certain foods
* Insistence on wearing certain clothing, or not liking clothing at all
* Extreme reactions to noise or movement
* Avoidance of sensory experiences or seeking out extreme sensory experience
* Abnormal reaction to pain
* Sleep disturbance
* Avoidance or lack of pleasure in being touched or cuddled in spite of interest in being with you socially
* Refusal to have hair washed, touched, combed, cut, etc.
* Toe walking. Refusal to walk on certain surfaces (such as walking on grass in bare feet)

Parts I put in asterisks are EXCLUDED by AS.

Frankly, I think this covers a gap that AS doesn't cover. ALSO, I guess you can have MSDD and still be ret*d, though AS excludes THAT also ALSO, MSDD culd concievably be acquired, but AS stops after 2. But HEY, I saw a sensory disorder, and it fit me. It was ALSO included in autism and AS though! AS fit me so well that I can look back on my life, and even have my mother tell me about earlier things, and just say WOW! They might as well have been talking about me. That sensory disorder didn't exclude them, but it didn't include them either.

Steve

These professions also say that I' an aspie' have no sense of humor' that I do not get metaphors, and while I can memorize by rote that I have no understanding.

Yeah.

And although there is no chemical to confer any NT social/emotional skills on us; they carpet bomb young aspies with chemical warfare.

I say we are better off on our own.

I have a member of the family who wouldn't be all that far from this. Diagnostically he landed squarely between AS and neurotypical. Too many Autistic traits to be NT. Too social, too verbal, and functioning too well in the outside world to be on the spectrum. I always called it "spectrumish"

When he was younger he was very susceptible to outside environmental factors and changes, including one year of severe anxiety and a long period spent in sensory overload. But he was, as the description suggests, very responsive to any supports such as help with social skills, learning coping skills for the sensory stuff through OT and lots of understanding at home, etc. Plus I didn't catch it in the above description but he absorbed a great deal from kids around him and on his own developed ways to conquer things that were hard for him. I would guess the responding is key here because once he was over the huge sensory and anxiety hurdles it wasn't long until his teachers started commenting that he wasn't distinguishable from classmates any longer.

[quote="SteveKActually, HFA doesn't exclude social skills! NEITHER excludes functioning well. NEITHER excludes verbal, in fact AS REQUIRES it! Maybe he is just a very HFA. In fact, maybe he is AS and you don't know it. FRANKLY, I think the ideal AS or HFA diagnosis should be done by three people, and one should be the "sufferer". The other two should be someone that knew them WELL from infancy to 2yo, and an unbiased person that is smart and knows the basis for diagnosis, and can guide the others.

Steve[/quote]

He was evaluated by two developmental pediatricians plus a few years later by one of the co-authors of the ASDS (Asperger's Syndrome Diagnostic Scale). All agreed that there's no way he met the criteria to be on the spectrum but that there were definitely signs. Once those sensory and anxiety stressors were removed most of the autistic traits just started to gradually fade and now at age 11 he his teachers are reporting that he's pretty much indistinguishable from his peers.

I don't know what I think of this MSDD since this is the first I've heard of it, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be a closer fit for a child like him.

Very interesting discussion.

I just want to point out that it is rumored that the diagnostic criteria for all autism spectrum disorders, among others, is being rewritten as we speak.