God is Crazy..?!......

Peanut has been saying grace for the family for a while now. We have always said the "Bless us oh Lord" prayer, however he has learned a new prayer at preschool and insists on saying that one also.

Check out what they are teaching him....

Peanut's Prayer

God is Crazy
God is Good
(Inaudible sounds)
Ah-men

It's official!

We went for Peanut's evaluation today. After testing and meetings with his therapist the psychologist feels that the diagnosis of PDD-NOS is appropriate for him. I was prepped for that though, I kind of felt like she was leaning that way after our visit last week. The good news is it is not severe.

That's all I got for today! I promise I will not focus on this every day!

A little more info on PDD-NOS

I have had a lot of questions posed to me about what PDD-NOS is exactly and what is the difference between that and Autism. To tell the truth I really did not do much research earlier (like I said before I was just to scared of what I might see) but since Thursday I have sat down a few times and did some research and this is what I found that may help to explain a little better.

How do professionals tell the difference between autism and PDD-NOS?

Primarily by the pattern and degree or number of characteristics observed or reported. However, there are difficulties associated with this differential diagnosis, and it often takes a clinician with extensive experience with both disorders to make the call. Problems may occur when a child's developmental level is quite low, so that assessing the areas of concern would be quite difficult at a similar age equivalent.

A second problem occurs with children who are toddlers and young preschool-age children. Many of the behaviors that are considered crucial for diagnosis are still very variable in typically developing young children in this age range. Some children may receive a diagnosis of PDD-NOS as a toddler because they did not have any communicative behavior; later they may qualify for a diagnosis of autism as their communication develops and it becomes more evident that a qualitative difference exists in that area. For parents and educators, the important thing to focus on is not the specific label a child receives, but what can be done to help the child develop skills in the areas of concern.

What is the long-term prognosis for children diagnosed with Autism/PDD-NOS?

Autism/PPD-NOS is a life-long disability, and individuals with Autism live a full lifetime. There are no cures, and even those individuals who proclaim themselves "recovered" continue to have difficulties with subtle social processes. However, with advances in education, early intervention, and research, today individuals with Autism/PDD have a greatly expanded range of outcomes as adults. In the past, the majority of individuals with Autism lived in institutional care as adults. Current trends, based on increased knowledge of how to educate children with Autism and the importance of early education, emphasize building skills and abilities in order to prepare young adults with Autism/PDD to work, to live in the community, and in some cases, to pursue higher education. Outcome appears to depend on both degree of overall impairment and intensity of educational/treatment effort. Prognosis is markedly better for individuals who develop verbal language before the age of 5 years

I found these two quesion/answers to outline everything pretty clearly. There is also a link to a great article that give a more indepth explanation about PDD-NOS if you are so inclined to read it.

Wow this must be the most boring blog to read right now, sorry but my focus is limited.

PDD - NOS

Not a good day for us today. We went for our follow up appointment with the child psychologist this afternoon and we are being re evaluated next week. Some issues have come out in his therapy that did not present themselves as strongly when we did the initial evaluation back in July. She had told us then that he had autistic tendencies, but she did not feel that a diagnosis at that time was appropriate. She now feels that he will fall into the PDD-NOS diagnosis and wants to verify with another test. I guess I should be happy that she said she really doesn't feel that he has full autism, but it is still in the spectrum. I did a little research before we went in for the initial evaluation, but stopped because quite frankly it scared the Shit out of me!

I just keep asking myself, what if it was something that I could have prevented? I know a lot of people blame vaccines, but like the psychologist said, the research just doesn't show a correlation. What about TV? Did I let him watch to much TV at a young age? What about all my cleaning stuff? (I have gone "green" recently) There are so many questions that I am going crazy.

Oh, wait I have already gone there...........
I'm just having a pity party!