Sorry guys, its been so hard to come in here lately for me, I haven't felt right .

With Lu... My DD1 was diagnosed first, but she and Cyclone were 3 days apart and we started noticing the similarities in them from the time they were 6 months. DD1 is diagnosed with Autism only because her communication was lower... but other than that they are amazingly similar beings.

The thing with PDD-Nos, Asperger's or Autism is that it affects ALL the children differently, yes there is a check list, and yes its hard to figure out but all three are on the same spectrum. Think of it as a Rainbow... some are on the right side in the red, some are in the left in the purple, some are in the middle in yellow... but they are all on the same rainbow (this is how we explain it to our DD's). Matilda is in the yellow somewhere on the right hand side... she is considered high functioning autism but at the same place in the red would be Cyclone. Its all to do with IQ levels and communication abilities. DD1 refuses to communicate, she has a high IQ, medium social IQ but her communication abilities are quite low. She actually has a large vocabulary but is unable to put it together when the smallest amount of stress enters the picture. That is how she crossed the border from Asperger's to Autism. Does that make sense?

Personally, I won't worry too much about where on the spectrum they are, only that once you have a spectrum diagnosis, you can get started on getting help for them for survival in our world.

Over and over I've had people tell me that DD1 doesn't "look" Autistic. I can't believe that people think you should be able to see autism. Its not like she needs a walking frame, its that her brain processes things differently! I want to say back "oh thats funny, because I didn't think you looked ignorant?" instead I say "What does Autism look like to you?" If Matilda is around, I say "Yes well super heros like to hide their super powers in their day to day life".