Pervasive Developmental Disorder

Autistic Disorder

Asperger Syndrome

Rett Syndrome

Childhood Disintegrative Disorder

Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified is a disorder that includes disease headings.

It is one of the urgent conditions in child and adolescent psychiatry where early diagnosis has the most important consequences. For an autism diagnosis to be made, there must be problems in communication and social areas, restricted and repetitive interests and behaviors, and these must have been present since before 30 months of age.

Clinical features

Every individual with a pervasive developmental disorder is different from another. Therefore, the descriptions here are only guiding. Behaviors in infants:

Most infants are calm; they may be called angel babies. A minority group, on the other hand, cries day and night and is difficult to calm down.

They may dislike having their diapers changed, being dressed, and being bathed.

They may not make the gesture of being picked up when their mother approaches.

Lights and any shiny, spinning object may fascinate them, but they may be indifferent to other things that attract the interest of other babies.

They may show excessive interest in television and music at a very early age.

Eye contact with their mothers may be limited.

There is no behavior of pointing to things that catch their interest to share them with their mother or to share enjoyment.

In baby games such as waving bye-bye or clapping hands, they do not perform their parents' movements together with them.

The intonation pattern and variety of ordinary speech sounds, which normally begin to emerge toward the end of the first year, do not develop.

Deficiencies in social communication

Those who are aloof behave as if other people do not exist; when they are called or spoken to, they do not respond.

There is little emotional expression on their faces; if you touch them, they may withdraw.

When they want something they cannot reach, they may take you by the hand and lead you there, and once they get what they want, they may ignore you again.

When you are in pain or distress, they do not show interest or understanding.

In a play group, they are indifferent to their friends and reluctant to go to them and join the game.

Those in the passive group may not be this indifferent. They do not initiate social activity, but they do not move away from other people either.

Communication disorders

All children and adults with autistic disorder experience communication problems. Delay and abnormality in speech development are very common. The severity of speech difficulties varies. One in every five children with pervasive developmental disorder remains silent throughout life. Among the rest, speech develops. There may be a behavior of repeating words that others have said during speech. This mindless, parrot-like repetition is called 'echolalia'. They may reverse pronouns. The content of their speech may be repetitive and does not have the character of a back-and-forth conversation. They may ask the same things over and over without listening to the answers. Their comprehension of speech is insufficient; they have difficulty understanding metaphors and jokes. They may have difficulty with stress in sounds. Imitation games and activities based on imagination do not develop as they do in other children. They cannot use toys for their intended purpose, for example feeding a doll, rocking it, or putting it to sleep. Or, instead of parking cars, racing them, or driving them while making sounds, they line them up and spin their wheels. They may show simple and repetitive activities: listening to mechanical sounds (hitting a pot with a spoon), bending or rotating their hands or objects close to their eyes, turning lights on and off, and watching things that spin in the environment or spin around themselves. Some may have their own invented activities; they may play the same game in the same way over and over. They may be resistant to change, such as going home by the same route every day, going to the same bed, or constantly watching the same video.