Expert: Trey McGowan - 8/25/2007

Question
Hi, I am a single mom of 3 boys ages 12, 14, and 16.  My youngest son was just diagnosed with Autism.  The person who diagnosed him said that although the scores are consistant with Autism, she was labeling him as PDDNOS.  She said she is very high functioning.  My second son, we believe has some form of autism as well and will be undergoing testing soon.  His councilor feels he has aspergers.  He also has Dyspraxia of Speech.  My question is two-fold.  
1.  In the case of my youngest child, Jason (12)Is a diagnosis of pddnos still autism?  Also, what does this mean for him and his future?  Is it "curable" or not?
2.  In teh case of my middle son, Devin, though we are not sure if he has Aspergers or some other spectrum disorder, Does Dyspraxia of Speech interfere with a proper diagnosis or does the fact he have the Dyspraxia complicate Aspergers.  Are these conditions "treatable"?  Are there resources on how I can deal with having 2 children with these issues?  
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Michelle Martin

Answer
Hello there, Michelle!

I'm going to approach your questions in the order they were asked, and hopefully be able to sum up the information well enough while I'm doing so. Brace yourself: this'll be a long one!

1) What PDDNOS is is 'Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified'. This means that he is showing signs of an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (or in this case, named Pervasive Development Disorder), but that there are various differences in it from the 'typical' exhibitions of the common disorders. I'm not sure what the differences in this case would be from autism without knowing more details. In all treatment for it, he should be treated the same way as if he had high-functioning autism, though. Primarily what the treatments are tend to be an intervention, training for parent and child, and various therapy for real world experience, after all, rather than medications. What medications are there will be tailored to the 'symptoms' of the situation, rather than to specific diseases.

As for curable, I'm assuming you mean 'Will he be able to function'. The answer to that is a big 'yes' in most cases. With him being high functioning, the intervention given will be helpful to work around his differences, and should hopefully get the necessary education and treatment to help him out. If you mean literally 'cured', as in 'will he ever completely lose his disorder', that's a 'no'. The various difficulties can be worked around, but he will always have it. Think about it in the same line as someone who is walking with a prosthetic. They will never have their leg regrow, so the fact they have one leg isn't 'cured', but they can get around just as well as other people with the help of that prosthetic. Possibly without it even being noticed unless they speak up.

2) There are a lot of types of speech Dyspraxia, and without knowing the exact type (or at least the basic type) I don't know for sure how to answer 'will it complicate it'. Speech difficulties is a fairly common symptom of Autism Disorder (and in fact Aspergers is often characterized by its *lack* of speech difficulties compared to Autism), so it's likely that it won't interfere with the diagnosis at all. It is likely that either PDD-NOS or Autism will be the diagnosis in this case, though I'm not a doctor and wouldn't say that this is correct; just my two cents for the 'most likely'. Probably PDD-NOS, since your other son is diagnosed with the same.

Now, likewise with the above, this is treatable in that the different issues are going to be handled by symptom, most likely. If the dyspraxia is mild to moderate, a speech therapist will do your middle son a world of good, very likely. Both because they will be able to help him work with the speech difficulties as well as communicating around them. A severe one, I'm not so sure; that would be best to ask your doctor. Again: without knowing what level of speech difficulty he has, I can't say for sure how the treatment would go. I do, however, suggest that looking into a speech therapist would be a very good suggestion. Even a little speech intervention can do a world of good.

Your last question is hard to answer without knowing where you are in the world. Asking your doctor that exact question might get some information for you for local places. As for less than local, there are a number of support groups online for information pertaining to autism and the parents of them.

http://www.kylestreehouse.org/local_support_groups.cfm
Kyle's Treehouse has an extensive list of support groups from all over the world. Find one that's close to you and start dealing with them. Peer support can be the best help you can get without getting a specialized doctor, I find!

http://www.maapservices.org/MAAP_Sub_Find_It_-_Prof_and_Parent_Support.htm
A map you can check out to see support groups in your area.

http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=97
An active board for Autism.

http://www.asperger.net/
And an entire publishing company for books on Autism and Asperger.

Check through some of the past postings from other Experts in Autism as well as my own for other links to aid, and if you have specific questions about something, don't hesitate to ask your doctor, your therapist(s), or the experts here at AllExperts for help. You don't need to do this alone, after all!

Hopefully my long-winded answer helped out,

Trey