Question about pdd?

[Samantha Becker]

My son 6 has ADHD but I am wondering is there is something more.
Fot the last six months he is always wanting me to write down words that he learns, it's like he has to see it written out. I just have not heard of 6 yo doing this. He also loves picking stuff off the ground. We will go to kohls or target and he will pick up lint clothes tags ect and collect same thing with playground at school he will find bottle caps, tar, wrappers and put them in his pocket. Last year in 4k he found a piece of glitter on the ground in classroom and was mesmerized for the whole day he could not or maybe wouldnot partiipate in class fully.

Sometimes when he sings or talks he covers his ears. Not sure if he does this to block out sounds so he is not ditracted.

Sometimes I just feel like there is more than his ADHD. Anyone have children who do similar things.

I told his pschchologist and she suggested pervasive developmental disorder,
but did not elaborate.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Sounds like your son is a very visual learner. Some kids need to see things up close to understand them. Other kids are auditory learners and satisfied without seeing words spelled out. As for pickup things up, lot of kids do this. (But fixating on a piece of glitter sounds interesting.) When he covers his ears, he could be blocking out sounds because they're distracting or because loud noises hurt his ears. I would ask the psychologist to elaborate on her suggestion of PDD. Ask her to be more specific about why she came up with that thought and what she recommends as the next step in getting him evaluated.

My son was diagnosed with ADHD by a pediatric neurologist when he was 4. The Dr. insisted that was the correct diagnosis and he couldn't possibly be on the spectrum. An occupational therapist who worked with him said it was PDD and not ADHD at all. We finally took him to a psycholgist who tested him and diagnosed him with PDD when he was 5. She also didn't see any ADHD. A school psychologist noticed components of Asperger's Syndrome when he was 7. Now, at age 12, he is definitely an Asperger's guy with no ADHD to speak of.

My point is that diagnoses can change, especially when the child is so young. One doctor may see one disorder and another may not. Plus, as kids mature and develop, other things may come into play and the diagnosis may change yet again. It sound like you're on the right track in observing and questioning your son's behaviors. Keep plugging away. Good luck!

 

[LuvsTinker]

My 8 yo son is PDD-NOS - has some ADD, some language delay, some obsessions, and is a very visual learner (and early on loved the alphabet and seeing words and letters on paper).

Basically after many evals and no one could dx him, our current Dr. told us when you add all the sub groups of dx up you end up with a child on the spectrum. But because there may be more subtle symptoms, it ends up as a broad PDD dx - the spectrum is extremely broad. I had one psych. tell me she did not observe PDD.

We definitely had suspicions that there was something more going on than just ADHD.

Ask around, you may find a Dr. in your area that has an ASD child. Our Dr. does and has been very helpful in really understanding things I try to explain that other Drs. were hesitant to dx.

Good luck to you.

 

[pcparamedics01]

My son 6 has ADHD but I am wondering is there is something more.
Fot the last six months he is always wanting me to write down words that he learns, it's like he has to see it written out. I just have not heard of 6 yo doing this. He also loves picking stuff off the ground. We will go to kohls or target and he will pick up lint clothes tags ect and collect same thing with playground at school he will find bottle caps, tar, wrappers and put them in his pocket. Last year in 4k he found a piece of glitter on the ground in classroom and was mesmerized for the whole day he could not or maybe wouldnot partiipate in class fully.

Sometimes when he sings or talks he covers his ears. Not sure if he does this to block out sounds so he is not ditracted.

Sometimes I just feel like there is more than his ADHD. Anyone have children who do similar things.

I told his pschchologist and she suggested pervasive developmental disorder,
but did not elaborate.

You need more than that it needs to be specified. PDD is a catch all umbrella, although he can be served under that without a problem. At his age they should know specifically what his diagnosis is. I would seek out a new Psy. It must be Clinical Psy to get your answers. Covering his ears to specific noices is definately an ASD issue most of the time and being obsessive about tags in the store is something my son does too. He would rip off tags off hangers that say 6x for example. He does this still today. He is 10 and ASD.

 

[Samantha Becker]

You need more than that it needs to be specified. PDD is a catch all umbrella, although he can be served under that without a problem. At his age they should know specifically what his diagnosis is. I would seek out a new Psy. It must be Clinical Psy to get your answers. Covering his ears to specific noices is definately an ASD issue most of the time and being obsessive about tags in the store is something my son does too. He would rip off tags off hangers that say 6x for example. He does this still today. He is 10 and ASD.

What is ASD?

 

[LuvsTinker]

What is ASD?

Autism Spectrum Disorder

 

[BeckyScott]

I'm wondering if there are just a bunch of sensory issues going on? Maybe part of ASD, may be part of PDD-NOS, may be SID by itself. If you can get a copy of "The Out-Of-Sync Child" you could read thru that and see if any of it sounds familiar.

Justin (ASD) is also very very visual, and wants words written down. Part of this is because spelling is a "thing" with him, so if he hears a word he doesn't know he wants to see it spelled out. This has also come in very handy for us, because he has speech problems, so if there is a word he is saying that we don't understand, we will ask him to spell it. It works! He can spell the word and then we know what he's trying to say. Because of all this, his spelling and reading are well above grade level, so I see it as a big plus for him.

Collecting things in his pocket may be something, and may be nothing. I think some kids just do that. I was told (do not remember) that when I was about that age I used to put worms in my pants pockets (which grosses me out to think about now), and I turned out perfectly normal. My mom would forget to check the pants and would put them in the washer and then find dead worms stuck to the inside of the machine. On the other hand, maybe each of those items has some particular appeal- the texture or shine or something- it could be that he's seeing it as trash and wanting to clean it up- it could be that he likes to have a "fidget" in his pocket.

Has he had a full vision exam? That's another thing you might want to do, with someone who really knows what they're doing. The whole thing could be vision-based.