I am wondering if anyone has a child who has high functioning Autism and what you can tell me about thier behaviors? My son was just given a preliminary diagnosis of PDD. They said somewhere on the higher functioning side of the spectrum. I am wanting to hear information about the symptoms, treatments, school issues and what ever else you can tell me about it. My son is six years old.

I am a Preschool teacher of a child who diagnosis is PDD. he is high functioning and his I.Q. and behavior flourished in the first 6 months of school. he is very high functioning in his receptive language and is starting to become more social. His atypical behaviors are that his expressive language is delayed. he uses mostly 2-word sentences. he is more social with his teachers but doesn't socialize with peers his age (i.e. cooperative play). he goes to the school district special ed intervention 3 hours a day and is mainstreamed in a classroom with his peers. he is a happy boy with but seems to keep to himself and is not bothered by his peers positive or negative behaviors.
Hope this helps,

My brother is a high functioning autistic. When he started school he was diagnosed with having ADHD (wrongly) and was treated for this for many many years. he was not diagnosed as autistic until he was about 12 years old, hes 17 now by the way.

Looking back on his childhood I remember alot of his behavior as being indicative of autism. he was always very precise with his toys, he liked the colors to make patterns. he couldn't have 2 lego's of the same color touching. he would only watch TV if he could sit in a pot or our wooden salad bowl (this was cute).

As he got older, he would speak very loudly and we would have to remind him to use his inside voice often. he bit people at school as well as himself.

My brother has Asperger's Syndrome. this is a high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. he doesn't understand social cues, body language, facial expressions and personal space. he had to learn all these thing like we learn our numbers. he over exagerated his facial expressions, much like actors do on TV.

I don't know alot about other forms off Autism, but if you have questions about Aspergers I would be happy to tell you more, my e-mail is in my profile.

My 9 year old was diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of 6. since then he has not really had too many problems since he is on medication for his adhd which helps alot. he also goes to therapy for dealing with anxiety and social skill building. With his autism he has problems with social skills since he gets along with adults better. as for school you need to be in contact with your child study team. In my opinion I would not have him classified unless he needs help academically in class. make sure you are on the same page as his teacher and get updated by he/she as frequent as you want. Really the more info and resources you have and a good team at school your child should do fine. there are a ton of great books and support groups online and in local towns. My son is a straight A student and does fine. most people do not even know that he has any problems. Good Luck!