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Autism/Difficulties in the future.

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Expert: - 11/13/2006


Question
Hi! My name is Megan and I have a 3 year old son that is diagnosed with PDD-NOS.  He recieves excellent speech therapy and special ed.  He is very smart.  He can read, play piano, and memorize everything he sees.  The question that I have is how will his PDD affect him when he's older?  Meaning like, the age of 30.  What difficulties might he have?  None of his doctors or therapists have been able to give me any kind of answer.  Any information at all would be greatly appreiciated.  Thankyou so much for your time.

Answer
Hi,

to give you an idea, I can tell you a bit about me.
For a start: I'm female, almost 30 and I have a diagnosis of Asperger's (because I did speak very early) but I basically have much more in common with people with Kanner Syndrome so I guess I rather have some form of atypical autism or high functioning autism "plus speech". In spite of being able to speak, language in all forms (spoken, written...) doesn't feel natural to me.
Having said that. What's my life like, as an autistic adult. Well, basically not so different from yours, probably :-).
I even went to university and finally graduated from it (in spite of major difficulties with learning and studying on my own) and in the last few years I made so much progress socially that I'm able to hold a "normal" job in a small company. I'm working in an area that's also my special interest, and I don't have much contact to coworkers and customers so this works well.
I live in my own appartment, but still need help with things like laundry, cooking and shopping (like, on a once-a-week-basis). My parents help me with that.
I have a driving licence (but don't drive and don't own a car), and I can travel alone by bus or train, which I enjoy and do alot.
I also have a small group of friends with whom I meet regularily, most are from a support group for autistic adults but I also have two friends from university, so I also have some sort of a "social life".
Basically, I'm quite happy with my life as it is. It's never been easy, and never will be, and I will probably never be able to live without some degree of support but I like being who I am.

Hope this helps,
you can always ask again !
C.  

Autism

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*DISCLAIMER*

Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist
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Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day. I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.

I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).

Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.

Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.

Experience


As I'm not doing well right now and am not in the shape of answering questions well - I recieved a few low ratings lately - I'll take a break from AllExperts for the next few weeks/until I'm doing better

I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.

In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area (AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).

Education/Credentials
None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !

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