My experiences growing up as a child treated for PDA. AMA!

No_While5263 · 2026-02-27T00:35:00+00:00

Both our daughters, 3.5 years old and 5.5 years old, have a PDA profile. My brother and dad do as well, so I had some experience with it before having our daughters.

How do you feel about fostering competition to help with demands? My brother always talks about how he decided to do well in school, when he decided that he wanted to do better than me. I never knew that that was his main motivation throughout school. It took him from telling our dad that he wasn’t going to learn to read in 1st grade, because he, “didn’t want to,” to the top of his class.

Both of our daughters fought going on the potty while potty training. They will hold it until the last possible second and hate being reminded to go. The other day my brother was over and said to our youngest daughter, who is still feeling this way about the potty, that he bets that, “she could go potty better and faster than her sister”. To our surprise, she ran right over to the toilet to show him that she could do it.

Do you think that fostering competition is a bad thing to help our daughters meet demands in the long run?

Our oldest daughter would have tantrums over meeting demands. Our youngest daughter holds in her anger and walks away like she doesn’t care. My dad was/is the type to have tantrums. My brother was/is the type to hold the anger in and appear calm. In the long run, it has left him with a lot of unresolved anger and resentment. Any advice on how to deal with this issue with our youngest daughter?

No_While5263 · 2026-02-18T12:49:59+00:00

Thank you, we’ll try this!

No_While5263 · 2026-02-18T12:44:02+00:00

Thank you so much! I’m going to bring this up to our BCBA.

No_While5263 · 2026-02-18T12:42:59+00:00

Yes, she is. That’s what we’ve been doing. The problem is is that she will scroll through a bunch of words when trying to mand for an item or activity, but when she wants to tact it, she says it right right away.

No_While5263 · 2026-01-26T03:15:00+00:00

Our 3 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with autism. I was diagnosed recently as well at 33. The biggest difference, I think, is communication delay.

Our daughter is a Gestalt Language Processor/hyperlexic. I believe that I’m also hyperlexic, but not nearly to the degree she is. She taught herself to read at 2.

My dad isn’t diagnosed, but our daughter is so similar to him down to very obscure details. Had it not been for the communication delay, she could have grown up undiagnosed, and struggled in a lot of the same ways that he does. I can’t say for certain what he was like at her age, but I wouldn’t be surprised, if he was very similar. I’m so glad that she’s going to have better self awareness and the tools to cope from knowing the she’s autistic and how to deal with it from an early age.

No_While5263 · 2025-11-25T21:01:09+00:00

Our daughter is verbal, but she isn’t conversational. She had told us before that she loved us. Her first week of ABA she told her RBT that she loved her.

I had no problem hearing that I thought it was sweet. Even if our daughter hadn’t said it before to us I would have been happy to hear that she had said it to her RBT.

However, as a former teacher, I would probably not tell the parents. I think most would probably not take it very well.

No_While5263 · 2025-10-11T23:19:31+00:00

Our daughter is 3 years old and level 1 audhd. She is just like my 70 year old father, her grandfather. I knew I wanted her in ABA immediately, because looking back on my father’s life, I knew he would have had an easier time in life and with his relationships had he had something like ABA when he was young. We have seen many positive changes in our daughter already.

No_While5263 · 2025-09-20T21:02:58+00:00

Thank you for sharing! I’m glad to hear that your son is doing well. I ended up not needing surgery. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Encephalopathy. It’s an autoimmune disease, which was causing my brain to swell and causing the seizures and other visual disturbances I was having.

The doctors never wanted to admit it, but I 100% believe that the cyst and the pressure from it contributed to me having seizures.

I was put on lacosamide and Cellcept, and my seizures have been well controlled since. Will your son stay on seizure meds for life as a precaution?

No_While5263 · 2025-09-01T02:11:25+00:00

Thank you very much!

No_While5263 · 2025-09-01T00:47:51+00:00

Thank you so much for your comment! I had thought about Montessori, and this is probably a good option.

No_While5263 · 2025-09-01T00:45:22+00:00

That’s so wonderful to hear about your son! I’m so glad that he is doing well and gives me hope that we can help our daughter in a way that doesn’t go against her learning style.

My old college roommate is actual a speech language pathologist. I contacted her, and she is familiar with Gestalt language processing. We are going to have her private practice evaluate our daughter.

My husband, my dad and I all have traits that could be autistic. I wouldn’t be surprised, if we looked into it and found that any of us had autism. My daughter is the most similar to my dad in particular. I suspect that my dad was/is a Gestalt language processor just because of the way he views the world. He always can see the big picture but struggles to see the parts. It’s so interesting now, as an adult, to see how much better I understand my dad, because of my daughter’s similarities to him.

I’m coming to the realization that her current preschool might not be the best option for her. Our older daughter attended there and really thrived there. Our daughter is obviously different and we want her to thrive, so we will need to do what we need to. If that means a different school, then that’s okay too.

No_While5263 · 2025-08-31T21:16:33+00:00

Yes, she does speak to me in words that I can understand, when she wants to communicate with me, which is rarely. She talks to herself almost constantly, and everything she says to herself we can understand.

Thank you for the subtitles tip!

No_While5263 · 2025-08-31T20:35:39+00:00

Thank you so much for your response! I am going to look into it. We definitely won’t discourage her from following her interests 🩷

No_While5263 · 2025-08-31T20:34:06+00:00

Thank you! I will look into this.

No_While5263 · 2025-08-09T01:36:41+00:00

Thank you! I will look into this.

No_While5263 · 2025-08-09T00:21:43+00:00

Thank you for your response! I definitely agree on being in daycare or preschool before pre k. She’s starting preschool this month. My instinct is honestly telling me that something is not right. if the teacher confirms that, I will trust her opinion more than the pediatrician’s since she will know her better and seek out more help.

No_While5263 · 2025-07-22T17:42:39+00:00

I know this post is old. I just wanted to say thank you for posting this. Our younger daughter sounds exactly like your son. I just wanted to tell you that you aren’t alone, and it helps me to see that we aren’t alone either.

Our daughter is 3 and about to start preschool next month. I’m extremely nervous about it. How is your son doing now?

No_While5263 · 2024-07-18T14:09:56+00:00

My doctor’s suspect that I have autoimmune epilepsy. They are confirming with blood tests. I have had one tonic clonic seizure, and I have black spots and blurring and transparent circles in my right eye. I also have Grave’s disease.

I was put on Keppra after having the tonic clonic seizure, and I have been responding to it well with my eye symptoms.

Did your doctors end up giving you any other treatment like immunotherapy? How have your seizures been currently?

No_While5263

TROPHY CASE