This is just me rambling. I need to type some things out. You might want to ignore this.
I had an appointment for CME with a developmental pediatrician on Monday. We've known about his sensory processing disorder and dyspraxia for some time, but there's been something else going on, that we haven't been able to put our finger on. It's obvious he's going to need more help to succeed in first grade, so this trip to the Dev. Ped. was the first step in finding out what we need to know.
CME has "red flags" for so many things, but so far, there's no ONE disorder that fully "fits" him. And all these disorders are inter-related. The more I dig into this, the more symptoms I find match him, and the more confused I get.
We're pretty sure we're looking at some sort of Pervasive Developmental Disorder. PDD isn't a diagnosis, just an "umbrella term under which specific diagnosis are defined." Isn't that clear as mud? Under that you've got the autism spectrum, and within that spectrum, you've got dozens of other things. Some things are IN the spectrum, and others are not. They all overlap.
CME matches some of the "red flags" for Asperger's, Sensory Integration disorder, Hyperlexia, semantic-pragmatic disorder, OCD and ADD. He doesn't fit neatly into any ONE catagory, though. And a lot of his symptoms fall under several of these disorders.
It's like if you drew a giant circle on the wall, and labeled it "Autism." Within that circle there would be a few smaller circles with his symptoms listed inside. There would also be a ton of circles half-on and half-off the larger circle, with some of the symptoms in and some out of the larger "Autism" circle. Kids with autism tend to have some or most of these things, but not all kids who have these things have autism. But, how the hell do you know the difference, and does it even matter?!
I know I'm not making any sense, and that's okay. I told you to ignore me.
CME's main issues:
1. Sensory processing. (Fits all these disorders.)
2. Social difficulties, eye contact, conversations. (Same as above)
3. Rigidity/inflexibility. (Same as above)
4. Super reading skills. (Falls under Asperger's and hyperlexia.)
5. Poor communication skills (Asperger's, Hyperlexia, semantic-pragmatic)
6. Subject obsessions (Asperger's)
7. Inattention (All)
8. Poor motor skills (All)
9. Poor receptive language skills (semantic-pragmatic, hyperlexia)
OK, so I've typed a lot and havent figured anything out.
We're working on improving his diet, and adding more sensory diet to his day. We go back in six weeks for another appointment. In the meantime, we need to do a full speech evaluation, and a vision screening.
The speech eval was a surprise to me. He reads so well, and has a great vocabulary, but it's obvious to me now that his speech patterns are not normal. He doesn't partake in normal conversations, with "give and take." He talks AT you, usually about one of the subjects that he's "obsessed" with, and tends to make up gibberish to fill in for things he doesn't know. And it turns out, he's unable to understand three-step directions or answer more complex verbal questions. So there seems to be some sort of receptive communication problem.
Sigh. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.
I had an appointment for CME with a developmental pediatrician on Monday. We've known about his sensory processing disorder and dyspraxia for some time, but there's been something else going on, that we haven't been able to put our finger on. It's obvious he's going to need more help to succeed in first grade, so this trip to the Dev. Ped. was the first step in finding out what we need to know.
CME has "red flags" for so many things, but so far, there's no ONE disorder that fully "fits" him. And all these disorders are inter-related. The more I dig into this, the more symptoms I find match him, and the more confused I get.
We're pretty sure we're looking at some sort of Pervasive Developmental Disorder. PDD isn't a diagnosis, just an "umbrella term under which specific diagnosis are defined." Isn't that clear as mud? Under that you've got the autism spectrum, and within that spectrum, you've got dozens of other things. Some things are IN the spectrum, and others are not. They all overlap.
CME matches some of the "red flags" for Asperger's, Sensory Integration disorder, Hyperlexia, semantic-pragmatic disorder, OCD and ADD. He doesn't fit neatly into any ONE catagory, though. And a lot of his symptoms fall under several of these disorders.
It's like if you drew a giant circle on the wall, and labeled it "Autism." Within that circle there would be a few smaller circles with his symptoms listed inside. There would also be a ton of circles half-on and half-off the larger circle, with some of the symptoms in and some out of the larger "Autism" circle. Kids with autism tend to have some or most of these things, but not all kids who have these things have autism. But, how the hell do you know the difference, and does it even matter?!
I know I'm not making any sense, and that's okay. I told you to ignore me.
CME's main issues:
1. Sensory processing. (Fits all these disorders.)
2. Social difficulties, eye contact, conversations. (Same as above)
3. Rigidity/inflexibility. (Same as above)
4. Super reading skills. (Falls under Asperger's and hyperlexia.)
5. Poor communication skills (Asperger's, Hyperlexia, semantic-pragmatic)
6. Subject obsessions (Asperger's)
7. Inattention (All)
8. Poor motor skills (All)
9. Poor receptive language skills (semantic-pragmatic, hyperlexia)
OK, so I've typed a lot and havent figured anything out.
We're working on improving his diet, and adding more sensory diet to his day. We go back in six weeks for another appointment. In the meantime, we need to do a full speech evaluation, and a vision screening.
The speech eval was a surprise to me. He reads so well, and has a great vocabulary, but it's obvious to me now that his speech patterns are not normal. He doesn't partake in normal conversations, with "give and take." He talks AT you, usually about one of the subjects that he's "obsessed" with, and tends to make up gibberish to fill in for things he doesn't know. And it turns out, he's unable to understand three-step directions or answer more complex verbal questions. So there seems to be some sort of receptive communication problem.
Sigh. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.
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