GDD or Autism?

[Lakette]

Just wondering as still our dd (14 months) has no dx - I know that some of the 'red flag' signs of autism are not pointing, speech, involvment/interest etc none of which my dd is doing but she has currently been labelled as having GDD (about 8 - 10 months) so how can you tell the difference?

Who made the dx of GDD, Lakette?

I don't have any experience of GDD but I would say that one big difference would be that IME with ASD the development is usually disordered rather than delayed. With both of my boys I found that although there were things that they couldn't do that they should have been doing, there were also things that they shouldn't have been able to do but could.

Couple of things here.

1. Paeds will tend to diagnose GDD first and ASD later, as GDD is a "softer" (both in the sense of being more vague and less alarming) diagnosis.

2. They won't diagnose ASD if there are other delays that might "muddy" the picture.

DD1 is nearly 3, and also operates around 9m. She has severe communcation/social difficulties, but also cognitive delays, some motor issues etc. Her paed has said that "there is probably ASD in there somewhere, but until the other delays resolve somewhat it is impossible to measure". I think there is some implication that with GDD you can sometimes get these social skills emerging later. Although Helena doesn't do much measurable now that she couldn't do at 14 months, she is more interested and engaged with people and is starting to grasp eg that people are there to get you stuff, which is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Autism is a picture of peaks and troughs. So even severely autistic ds1 aged under 2 knew the whole alphabet and could count to 20. Age 2 and a half he could pick out a trapezium when asked, but aged 7 can't say Mummy. It's those peaks and troughs that would stand out.With GDD I would expect delays across most areas of development- including physical development. It is very common for children/adults with learning difficulties to display symptoms of ASD. For example one group of children with quite a high ASD rate is children with DS.