Category — 2.1 Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD)

The Early Intervention Dictionary describes “Pervasive developmental disorders” (PDD)¹ as an “umbrella” term.

• This term refers to children diagnosed with autism/autism spectrum disorder (ASD), children with Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified, and Childhood Disintegration disorder.
• These disorders are termed “neurodevelopmental” (see full Glossary) because they affect the development of children’s social, language, communication and behavior.
• Children diagnosed with PDD as the “umbrella” term generally show stereotyped or “ritual- like” behaviors and have moderate to severe difficulties with social communication and interactions (or “reciprocal” communication).
• In North America, approximately one in 1000 children receives a PDD diagnosis by the age of 5 years. For children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD, the prevalence is even higher, 1 in 88 children.
• Children with PDD may also show symptoms of psychiatric conditions, including attention deficit disorder, oppositional defiant behaviors (see Module  1A and Module 2)

It is important for physicians and others in the medical and health professions to learn about the early signs of PDD.  This way they can work with parents and begin a referral process in order to assess and either rule out or confirm the PDD diagnosis between the ages of 2 and 3 years², as opposed to waiting until the age of 5 years.

To learn about PDD in the middle childhood years, please visit the six to 12 part of this course.

1. Coleman, 2006 (p. 309)
2. Rhoades, Scarpa and Salley (2007)