Pervasive Developmental Disorders?

[jiggerj]

I am hoping to find some info and or experience from my dis friends. My ds is 6 and will be going for further testing within the next few weeks. Any feedback would be very much appreciated!

 

[SandrainNC]

You may want to post this on the DISabilities board too. FYI.


Sandra

 

[jiggerj]

Thank you!

 

[G8RFAN]

Needless to say you are your child's only true advocate, so seek more than one expert in determining his diagnosis and course of treatment. Our son was speech delayed and diagnosed as being on the spectrum at age 2.5. In addition to speech therapy twice a week and a behavioral therapist, we were searching for help with his social skills with other children, as staying with grandma all day was not helping on many levels. The school system had a highly recommended program that helped autistic and spectrum children learn skills to hopefully cope with the school environment and lead a more normal school environment. After testing and qualifying, it turned out to be a big mistake for us, as our son was picking up habits from completely non-verbal and autistic children and was actually regressing. We hired a child psychologist to do an independent evaluation and he agreed that our son should be placed in a more normal setting. Without getting into too much detail, after fighting a bureaucratic wall, we decided to abandon the State sponsored program and put him in a normal preschool setting with a "shadow" behavioralist just in case the teacher wouldn't be able to cope. His teacher now feels that we can eliminate the shadow. His last evaluation was in line with his age. We were fortunate to have the resources to afford the help that was needed, but check around to see if there are any subsidized programs where you live or if your insurance may offer some coverage.

The other thing we learned regarding therapists was to continuously gauge for improvement and positive interaction with our child. Sometimes kids just don't click with some people or they fall into a routine and don't improve. We tried different speech therapists and finally settled on one. However, through a parenting magazine, we found an ad for a speech camp run by a therapist in our area. We enrolled and immediately found marked improvement and decided to permanently switch to her after camp was over. It was the best decision as hands down he always shows improvement as if light bulbs are always turning on. Now if I can only teach him to be quiet....

Good luck

 

[belle&beast]

I am a pediatric speech pathologist and have worked with children of all ages with PDD, autism spectrum disorders and numerous other speech and language delays. My advice as G8RFAN stated would be to try to get your child into an inclusive program, meaning that he would be educated with children who do not receive special services, to serve as role models for him. Social development is so important for these kids and typically developing role models are a great way to increase social skills. I have also found that Stanley Greenspan's book The Out of Sync Child is a great resource for parents as well as professionals. I wish you lots of luck with your child!