Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) is a term that often confuses parents. That’s because some professionals use it interchangeably with “autism,” while others refer to the two as distinct conditions. Sometimes in medical reference books you will see both terms listed side by side, as in “Autism/Pervasive Developmental Disorder,” with the same definition for both. So the question becomes… what exactly is pervasive developmental disorder, and how does it differ from autism? The answer is that, according to the DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) a reference book used to identify disabilities, pervasive developmental disorder is actually a large umbrella term describing … Continue reading →