Customer Reviews

Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Diagnosis, Options, and Answers

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I spent the better part of a year looking for the information that was right here in this book. Mitzi Waltz is not only an author but someone who understands what parents are going through from personal experience. If doctor's are telling you you're overreacting, or worse yet nothing is wrong...do NOT be deterred! While long this book is WELL worth the read. Your only problem may be the night of sleep you lose because you can't put it down.

Speaking as someone that is trying to get a better grip on PDD, this book has to be one of the most comprehensive that I have read as of yet. My friend has a child with PDD and I am on a journey to find out as much information as I can. The more knowledge that I acquire, the more support I feel that I can give to my friend and her son. This book equips you with a wide range of topics such as: medications, therapies, and educational techniques so that it enables you to make educated choices when it comes to treatment and intervention.

This book was extremely helpful. It inabled me to have a clearer understanding of our child's needs and work with the school district in a much better way. This is a must read for anyone who has a child on the spectrum or works with one.

This book really helped me sort out the diagnosis I received for my son. I was lost until I read this book. Definately worth buying.

Covers a wide range of topics from Medical facts, interventions, and diagnostic tools, to school, family, finances and support. It contains everything you need to know to get started in helping the individual affected by this disorder. This book is great for family and professionals alike.

And I find this book to have the same problem as all those other autism spectrum books. Discrimination.
They talk about PDD NOS as meaning something is "not quite right". Well, perfectly normal isn't. NT is not the "right" way to be, just one way. There is no right way to be, we must learn to value diversity. Yes, even if the person can't talk. If they can't talk, look at other ways of communicating, but they are still wonderful people with beautiful minds.
And regarding the label PDD NOS, I dislike it too, but for different reasons. It is pervasive, because it affects the basic way my mind works, how I form concepts, how I mentally represent things, how my emotions interact with my reasoning, and so many other things I can't quantify it. It is developmental, because it causes a different pattern of development - whereas developmental delay is also developmental but affects the rate instead. But I dislike the term for two reasons a) it's vague, as there are piles of conditions not on the autistic spectrum which are both pervasive and developmental, and b) the word disorder. Disorder, in Anglo-Saxon times, meant evil, whereas order meant good. Also, my thought processes are orderly, just have a different organization than most people. It reminds me of how I always respond to questionnaires with questions about "unpredicatable" behavior - I can predict my behavior, but others often can't because they can't see all the internal stuff leading to it. I think the idea of people as machines with one right way to work sort of works a bit with organs like the heart and lungs but definately *not* with the brain.