Garrett

I haven't talked to many people about this because quite frankly, I was trying to decide what was "normal" 3 year old behavior, what was immaturity, and what was just my lack of ability to handle my child.

Over the summer, I decided to talk to the Doctor about some of Garrett's behaviors, emotions, etc...

We just came to a point where I realized that Garrett's emotional outbursts, peculiar behaviors, social issues, and inability to slow down were getting the best of me. I realized that we can't parent Garrett the same way we did Ethan and wanted an opinion on whether the things we were experiencing should be of concern or not.

The Doctor saw validity in our concerns and wrote a referral for a psych eval. Today, we finalized all of the testing and looked at results.

Garrett's IQ is 105, with the average range being 90-110. His verbal and global IQ are 116, with the average range being 90-110. His performance was a 93, which means there is some discrepancy between his ability and his performance. So we have a smart little boy on our hands that is determined to do things his way and sometimes can't handle everything going on around him.

We completed behavior checklists on him and have determined that Garrett does, in fact, have some behaviors that are not "normal" and some sensory issues and will need to do some behavior modification, but he doesn't fit neatly into any category.

We ruled out Autism.

We did an Asperger's checklist even though it really doesn't get diagnosed until 5, and that is ruled out for now.

So the Dr. says that his determination is that Garrett has PDD-NOS, which is a disorder that falls onto the Autism spectrum.

You can read about it here:

PDD-NOS

I've done some research, very minimal at this point. I've looked at YouTube videos of kids with this diagnosis. I'm going to call the school system tomorrow to talk to them about it. I know there are things that Garrett does that are definitely out of the ordinary. I know that we need help with managing his emotions and behaviors. But I feel that PDD-NOS has made me even more confused than I was to begin with because it seems like a dumping ground for all things that don't exactly fit into any other category.

I'm not looking for a diagnosis, rather looking for support for Garrett because I know it will eventually impact his education and early intervention is key here and I'm hoping that the Dr's report and recommendations that we pick up in two weeks will help give us a little more direction.