a. How does it feel to be the parent of your child?
My son Noah is 5 years old and was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, or PDD-NOS, 2 year ago at the age of three. When Noah was about 2 ½ years old, my husband and I noticed a speech delay and through recommendation from our pediatrician, we got him evaluated at the Regional Center of Orange County. The regional center approved 2 hours of speech therapy and once they started doing therapy, there were some problem behaviors that were interfering with speech so they recommended an increase in hours to include behavioral therapy. When Noah turned 3, we received a diagnosis from a neurologist saying that he had PDD-NOS. From there, he received an IEP and was placed in a SDC (special day class) 4 days a week. An SDC is basically a special needs preschool class. With Noah’s social skills still lacking, at the age of 4 we put him in a social skills group through the Children’s Learning Connection. He is now just about to finish up his kindergarten year. It has been a little difficult for Noah at school because of various reasons related to PDD-NOS. First, let me explain exactly what it is. Pervasive Developmental Disorders are all “types” of Autism. PDD-NOS exhibits some characteristics of the classic Autism like difficulty socializing, repetitive behaviors, heightened sensitivities to certain stimuli, appears unemotional when interacting with peers, trouble with eye contact, and trouble transitioning from one activity to the next. What makes PDD-NOS different from Autism is that while a child may show these symptoms, they do not fulfill the requirements enough to classify it as Autism. PDD-NOS is basically diagnosed by a process of elimination after examining all the other “types” of Autism. Children with PDD-NOS usually start having difficulties at a later age (like 3 or 4) and while they might have the same challenges as a child with Autism, they might not be as extreme. However, every child with PDD-NOS is not going to be the same; every child has a different case. With Noah, he has difficulty socializing, transitioning from activities, repetitive behaviors (especially in play), is speech delayed, and has difficulty holding eye contact. What is difficult for me personally is having to deal with people who don’t understand. They see Noah as “misbehaving” when he can’t pay attention or not following directions of moving on to the next activity. It makes it even more difficult because while some people know the behaviors of a child with Autism, PDD-NOS does not exactly fit the criteria so others cannot pin point why he is acting a certain way. People are just very judgmental and insensitive because of incomprehension or plain ignorance.
b. How is your child developmentally the same or different from other children at the various ages?
Noah’s social skills have tremendously improved since the social skills class, but he still has a hard time watching a group of kids and figuring out the big picture of what they are playing, i.e. watching a game of tag and figuring out who’s it, how they tag each other (lightly, not hitting) and the general rules of the game. When he is playing with the kids, he’s able to play with them nicely in a small setting, but in a large setting he shuts down. When he is one on one with another kid, he just models the other child’s behavior instead of coming up with his own. He has a hard time coming up with his own play ideas. In the classroom, he has a hard time with the comprehension questions and following multi step directions. Physically, however, he is developing the same as other children.
c. What professionals/agencies do you deal with? What services are available to you and your child?
We dealt with the Regional Center of Orange County to get that first evaluation and are now working with the Children’s Learning Connection, which is basically an agency that provides therapy in various categories for children with Autism or Autistic tendencies. There are also support groups for parents of children with PDD-NOS and other Autistic Spectrum Disorders or ASDs.
d. How did you find out about the above services?
My pediatrician told my husband and me about the regional center. The regional center then told us about the Children’s Learning Connection. There is also a lot of information on the internet, telling about what kinds of services there are and where to find them.
e. What financial burden, if any, are you experiencing?
While my insurance pays for the one hour a week private speech therapy with just a co-pay to worry about, the private social skills group provided by the Children’s Learning Connection is not covered and is 100 dollars a class. Classes are normally an hour long.
f. What other information do you want to share?
PDD-NOS is sometimes referred to the miscellaneous category when referring to ASDs. When a child doesn’t fit any of the specific autistic labels, it is then decided that they have PDD-NOS. This can be hard on the parents of children with PDD-NOS because there is just not a lot of information out there, especially compared to all the information regarding Autism. Also, remember to be understanding when it comes to how a child is behaving; it’s not necessarily bad parenting. A parent with a child who has special needs is going to have extra stress in their life from trying to work with their child, understand their child, and give them the best life possible. It can cause strain on a marriage, like it did for mine at the beginning. My husband and I had different views on what was going on with Noah when symptoms first started. I saw Autistic tendencies, while my husband refused to believe our child had Autism, a trait I hear is very common among parents of children who have ASDs. We eventually got over those different views and just focused on what we needed to do so that Noah could life as much as a normal life as possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment