hi learning mom
we are in the same boat with a quirky kid with a PDD-NOS diagnosis. My take on how the diagnosis works is that there are lists of symptoms that fall into Language, Social, and Behavior categories. To have autism you must have 7 things that fall across all three domains. To have aspergers there is a whole separate list of (very) specific things. To have PDD, you can't have either aspergers or autism but have three "symptoms" from the lists. The funny thing about it is it says nowhere that those three things must be across the three domains in order to get PDD-NOS diagnosis. So presumably a kid who is socially ok but who has quirks of language and of behavior (such as fixation on subjects, or flapping hands).. can end up with the PDD-NOS label. However this totally misses the boat as far as PDD. Many think the social piece is the defining piece of it and without real pervasive social issues its just not really PDD at all. This is alluded to in James Webb's book. What is interesting is the DSM new version is currently being written and is streamlining the diagnosis as "Autism Spectrum Disorder" and eliminating PDD-NOS and Aspergers (which is controversial).. But what i do like about the new diagnosis is that it gets to the POINT. and demands a pervasive deficit in three domains in order to get a diagnosis.
irene
