We don’t know. Because demand avoidance is currently understood as one characteristic in a person’s neurodevelopmental profile and is neither a diagnosable standalone condition nor is there a standardised assessment for the characteristic, there are no data to reliably indicate how common it may be. It is hard to draw conclusions from the limited and often low-quality research that exists. Demands, particularly external ones, cause me great distress, even if I want to participate or do the action, every suggestion always has a knee-jerk ‘NO!’ response.” inability to attend education or employment due to distress and/or burnout, which may result in exclusion or termination. Title: Intolerance of uncertainty and anxiety as explanatory frameworks for extreme demand avoidance in children and adolescents As a mother, grandmother, educator, and counsellor of quirky-brained kids, I have 30+ years experience supporting children, adolescents, young adults, and caregivers/parents. As an experienced teacher, school counsellor, and college tutor I can help in advocating for inclusion within the systems. As a homeschooling parent for 15+ years, I have experience supporting home educators and their students. I am currently in private practice as a Solution-focused Strengths-based counsellor, parent coach, and educational consultant. I am available to any North American time zone via phone or video chat.

they adopt coping mechanisms or attempt to reduce anxiety associated with social norms or assert self-agency (their desire to make their own decisions.) The Teacher’s Introduction To Pathological Demand Avoidance, Essential Strategies for the Classroom by Clare Truman Although advocates of PDA most often think of it as a potential profile of autism, some have suggested PDA may be a distinct neurotype or neurological difference, not connected to autism or the conditions listed below. This essential guide for working with PDA pupils outlines effective and practical ways that teachers and school staff can support these pupils, by endorsing a child-led approach to learning and assessment. We know that autism is dimensional – it involves a complex and overlapping pattern of strengths, differences and challenges that present differently from one individual to another and in the same individual over time or in different environments.

In every interaction, the aim is to offer invitations and casual suggestions but to avoid clear and absolute instructions. It can be difficult to get into the habit of doing this. As teachers, we generally start at the level of clear instruction: ‘Right, Year 10, put down your pens and face this way.’ There is limited research on support strategies; however, general advice from personal accounts and professional resources includes:

To support all autistic (or neurodivergent) people, whatever their strengths and challenges may be, there must be: Zach offers A PDA Homeschool Circle for parents that provides a space for sharing experience and developing strategies to help cultivate increased connection, collaboration, and understanding as it applies to learning and the dynamic at home. The circles will explore topics such as co-regulation, conscious communication, interests and resistances, structures for healing/strengthening. Current PAST Certified PDA Professionals and Trainers Certified PDA Professionals appearing sociable, but experiencing differences in social understanding (such as recognising hierarchies) There are stark disagreements within the autism community about the validity and usefulness of the concept of PDA. One point on which there is broad agreement is that more and better research is required. Examples could include things like: there was something I was going to do, I planned to do, but before I could actually do it, before I had a chance to do it, someone intervened and asked me to do it – and now, I can't do it. … When I say unable, I do not mean 'don't feel like it', … it's an inability."

Books

often including a different sensory experience in relation to sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, vestibular, proprioception and interoception. The overwhelming anxiety of realising that a demand cannot be avoided, or that these forms of resistance have been exhausted, may result in meltdown or panic, potentially including aggression. These states are usually out of the person's control.

are driven to avoid everyday demands and expectations (including things that they want to do or enjoy) to an extreme extent We have prepared a letter for parents and carers of children and young people who experience demand avoidance to send to schools and local authorities in situations where support may be being denied or withdrawn with reference to this characteristic. The letter explains our position on best practice in autism assessments, which must record all of a person’s characteristics, including demand avoidance, and details the school and local authority’s legal duties in providing support that is tailored to an individual’s unique profile and needs. PDAers'demand avoidance can apply to every single instance where they perceive a demand; this could be getting up in the morning, eating, drinking, going to see a movie that they have been really looking forward to going to, playing with a new toy etc. It is uncontrollable and all encompassing.” PDA is not clinically recognised (it does not appear in the international medical manual, the ICD, nor in the American medical manual, the DSM), which means you cannot receive a standalone diagnosis of PDA. There is debate around how the characteristic of a persistent and marked resistance to demands relates to autism (and other conditions) and whether its grouping with other traits as ‘PDA’ is helpful. For more information about this, see the following subsection ‘Debate about PDA’.It has also been argued that the PDA label represents an unnecessary pathologising of differences in autistic people when: Psypact certified to work with clients in 23 other states providing neuropsychological and social cognition evaluations. The activities provided are aimed to make the students feel more at ease, and, consequently, more able to learn. These are guided by an ethos that is based on being flexible, child-led andcollaborative. Truman makes the point that this approach can be used for all class members and helps develop autonomy and an inquiring approach to learning.

This book offers many insights that would be extremely helpful to anyone working in education. The chapter on managing the needs of the PDA student in a class of thirty and the subsequent chapter about paperwork and EHCPs include great advice that could help both children and adults. This book might be one that parents would like to pass on to whoever is working with their child in another setting. remove any spectators to a distressing situation (by asking people to give the distressed person space or by moving the person to a quiet space if possible) Although it is not possible to receive a diagnosis of PDA, some people have a diagnosis of autism with a 'demand avoidant profile’ or a ‘PDA profile’ noted, and others self-identify with the PDA label. ‘PDAer’ is how many of these people prefer to be referred to. Some object to the use of the word ‘pathological’ in the term ‘Pathological Demand Avoidance’ and have suggested ‘Persistent Drive for Autonomy’ as an alternative. Others think the use of the word ‘pathological’ is appropriate because they find these characteristics ‘all-consuming’.When teaching or supporting a child or young person with PDA this approach is unhelpful and often counterproductive. For our students with PDA, non-compliance is generally a sign of anxiety surrounding the demand. If we use increasingly firm or even fierce language and tone of voice, then we make that demand more and more immovable, thereby increasing the anxiety experienced by the student with PDA. The greater their anxiety, the lower their tolerance for demands and so as we work through the levels from clear instruction to firm ultimatum, we make it less and less likely that the instruction will be followed and in the process we make an already anxious child or young person even more anxious. passivity/withdrawal (becoming floppy; curling up into a ball; not responding; walking/running away; withdrawing into fantasy)