Childhood disintegrative disorder – Researchers work to help children with a rare form of autism

Childhood disintegrative disorder

Childhood disintegrative disorder

Dylan started life as a typical baby, meeting his milestones for walking, talking, and other markers of normal development. In a home video from when Dylan was about 3, he climbs, bursting with energy, on the couch and pretends to read aloud from a picture book. His conversation is animated as he talks about the book with his father, who is recording, and he speaks in full sentences. In kindergarten, his parents noticed some language delays, and Dylan received special education support, but his mother, Kim Covell, saw him as “just a quirky kid.”

That changed at the end of third grade. Dylan entered a period of intense anxiety that lasted nearly six months. In a video from this phase, he frantically paces his living room, shaking his hands, scratching his shoulders, repeating over and over, “I’m upset. … I don’t like it. … oowww, it hurts. … I’m scared.” He scratches under his shirt, giving the impression he wants to crawl out of his skin. “He cried all the time,” Covell recalls. “I’m convinced when he was looking at me, he was seeing a distorted version of me.” As this phase of terror ended, Dylan started new, dangerous behaviors. He jumped from high places and darted into the road. He developed tics and licked surfaces. Then he slowly ceased talking, began to lose vocabulary, and used simpler sentences. When his scores on his developmental evaluations dropped in every single area, his family convinced his school to get him evaluated at the Yale Child Study Center (YCSC).

In advance of the visit, Covell shared the videos of Dylan at the ages of 3 and 8 with clinicians at the YCSC. A final video shows him sitting limply in front of a puzzle, staring around the room. Occasionally, he picks up a piece and shows it to the camera before setting it back down. He does not speak. Minutes after the video ended, Fred R. Volkmar, M.D., the Irving B. Harris Professor in the Child Study Center and professor of psychology, and Alexander Westphal, M.D., HS ’11, Ph.D. ’12, FW ’12, assistant professor of psychiatry in the YCSC, broke the news: her son had childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD).

Read the full article here

Some of Different Types of Autism and Impact

 

Autism & Asperger’s: What’s The Difference? Do you agree?

Autism & Asperger’s: What’s The Difference? Do you agree?

The Different Types of Autism and Their Effects

Very interestuing video looking at different types of autism including Aspergers’ syndrome, Kanner’s syndrome,Pervasive Development Disorder – not otherwise specified, Rett’s syndrome and Childhood disintegrative disorder.

 

Autism – Condition or Disorder? How should autism be described? What’s your view?

Autism – Condition or Disorder?

Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity

That is it – really simple.

How should be refer to autism now that it constituent parts ( ie Asperger’s syndrome, Autistic Disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (Not Otherwise Specified)) have all been rolled in together?

(I was told one of the reasons in the UK was that the responsible local government bodies were trying to say that Asperger’s syndrome was not serious enough to warrant funding.)

Anyhow in the last few years there are been a further conversation in the autism community about nomenclature.

Should we call it Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC)?

What do you think?

Please take the poll and share your thoughts in the comments box below.

Many thanks in advance!