can you have multiple diagnoses? say ADD, Language disorder and Auditory Processing disorder

[Anonymous]

Also PDD-NOS was never a mild diagnosis. The kids I knew who had that diagnosis were more impaired than my DS. All it meant was that they didn't meet all the criteria but often the criteria they met were in a severe form. Again, you don't know what you are talking about. Stick to MERLD.

[Anonymous]

Stick to MERLD and stop trying to make yourself feel better by running down kids with ASDs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Now you've done it. MERLD mom will now say that when the kid's speech comes in, the a MERLD kid will be NT.

The catch is that not all MERLD kid's speech "comes in" then it's a good bet that there is something more going on than just MERLD.

If your kid is 10+ yrs old and still has MERLD, it's probably a good idea to see exactly what is going on.

My kid is 12 and still has severe MERLD -- as well as other additional diagnosis that complicates things for him academically.

He's still not autistic, though.

Why do you so desperately want MERLD children to be autistic? Is it because it makes your situation not appear so hopeless?

Why do you stigmatize kids with ASDs as hopeless?

Kids with MERLD don't have good outcomes. Most kids with MERLD have worse outcomes than kids with HFA or Asperger's.

http://www.medmerits.com/index.php/article/developmental_language_disorder/P10

I am not the PP to whom you respond.

I read the link posted. It doesn't say anything about MERLD outcomes compared to ASD outcomes. It does say that kids with mixed language disorders (like MERLD) have long term issues, but there are no stats and no specific comparisons to non-language disorder diagnoses, so your statement is not supported by your citation/link.

Personally, I think it's pointless to make an overarching statement about MERLD vs. Autism outcomes. Each diagnosis has a very wide range from mild to severe disability. In each group you can find one mildly affected person who will have a better outcome than a more severely affected person with another diagnosis. In other words, a person with mild MERLD will likely have a better outcome than a person with severe autism. Or a high functioning Asperger's-like autistic child might have a very good adult outcome when compared with a MERLD child who is so severely affected that they really don't have much expressive speech. IQ is probably also a confounding attribute.

It's not a competition.

No shit.

Therefore you shouldn't characterize kids with ASDs as "hopeless" while you (or PP) insists that kids with MERLD fare well after their language "comes in." You can't make that kind of blanket statement.

Please don't curse at me. Although I am the PP to whom you direct your angry rant, I am not the PP who made the comments you reference. In fact, the entire point of my post is that it's not really possible to make sweeping generalizations about the outcomes of MERLD vs. ASD since they both encompass such a wide range of symptoms/disability.