I am in agreement with the delays in diagnosing – unnecessary, unhelpful, potentially harmful. I even use the term ‘grandma factor’. Grandmothers frequently know when an infant is showing developmental issues even if they cannot verbalize more than ’something is wrong’.

I am reviewing a new book that adds to this dicussion – will post on it next week probably. Title: Alphabet Kids.

Large children’s hospitals can be the biggest offenders of the “non-helpful” diagnosis. Unless a child never makes direct eye contact with another human being, the hospital group never gives an AS diagnosis, instead calling it “global developmental delay,” or worse, “complicated neuropsychological profile.” Try getting services with that on your neuropsych report! I end up giving these families the diagnosis so they can move forward with treatment. I have had to engage in “long talks” with my neuropsychologist collegues about this problem. Funny thing happened this week — a family who got the non-dx from the hospital came to me and, as their son was lining up marbles on my office rug, I told them I would dx him with PDD-NOS and he needed a speech language eval. So off to the hospital they go. The Speech specialist mentions I made the referral and “suggested a diagnosis of PDD-NOS.” The child’s language skills are much below average
(some < 1%), and yet the specialist recommended he receive the limited services he gets in school and that the family engage in story telling at home to improve his skills. I just want to scream. So unfair to this child b/c he has behavioral issues that are a directly related to his inability to communicate.