Expert: James Michael Roan - 1/22/2008

Question
My Grandson has been diagnosed with PDD, he is 7 years old.  Can a child be borderline PDD.  It appears to me that if you ask him to make eye contact when speaking to you he will and his speech improves.  If you ask him to slow down when he speaks, his speech improves.  He does have a tendancy to have anger issues at school, however I have found that if you correct him at the onset and explain to him that his behavior will have consequences such as timeout he will generally apologize and calm down.  I have a little game that I play with him and I am now concerned how it may affect him... I sprinkle him with "goody dust" which is glitter... and tell him that it will help him to be good and put a smile on his face.  I also give him a dose of OMA Power (OMA is what he calls me) which helps him to be good. If he is having some bad days at school he will call me ask for OMA Power to help him out.  In your opinion am I helping or confusing him?

Answer
Hi Paula;

That's a great idea and I think you are helping him! Belief is a very powerful tool. Yes, autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are on a continuum from severe to high functioning and up to normal. PDD is considered a high function ASD but among that population of individuals you have some that are less affected than others.

Behavior problems of PDD children are directly related to their high need for justice and sameness. They have a hard time understanding the situationality of meaning and thus tend to attribute other students' behavior to intention rather than an accident.

Kind regards,
James