Information, support and training for PDA

PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) is widely understood to be a profile on the autism spectrum, involving the avoidance of everyday demands and the use of ‘social’ strategies as part of this avoidance. PDA individuals share autistic characteristics and also have many of the ‘key features’ of a PDA profile.

This short video is a brief introduction to PDA and the approaches that help. More details can be found throughout our website.

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The wide range of information on our website can be explored through the following sections …

Featured training

PDA Society training options and testimonials

We offer a variety of training options for supporting both PDA children and adults. In this video, various organisations explain why they sough training from the PDA Society and how our training benefitted their staff and the PDA individuals they support.

Please do get in touch with us if you’d like to know more about the individual training courses we can offer directly or on behalf of other organisations such as schools and residential settings; local authorities; social work, healthcare and community support teams; adult care homes; autism charities and support groups.

About us

The PDA Society is led and run by a small team, all of whom have a direct connection with PDA and many of whom are volunteers. We provide information, support and training about PDA for individuals, families and professionals. We aim to increase acceptance and understanding of the PDA profile within the concept of ‘dimensionality’ in autism, and to improve outcomes for individuals and families by focusing everyone involved on ‘what helps’. The PDA panda is our ambassador because, just like giant pandas, PDA individuals need specific support in order to thrive.

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The PDA Society is delighted to announce the milestone appointment of its first Chief Executive, Helen Evans. With this appointment, we look forward to furthering our reach and remit to improve acceptance of PDA.