Parents/Carers
Found 84 listings
Helen’s story – PDA in families and deciding to home educate
Helen self-identifies with a PDA profile and sees the same traits in other family members including her daughter and her Mum, with mutual understanding across the generations having led to an instinctively collaborative and compassionate approach to both parenting and education. Passionately believing that our education system is not [...]
The PDA-Saurus
The PDA-Saurus has decided to embark on an adventure to find her autonomy, but will she find it? Come along on her journey of self discovery, as she meets new friends and discovers who she really is.
This book invites PDA children into a world where they can see themselves [...]
Understanding PDA: For Kids & Grown Ups
'Understanding PDA: For Kids & Grown Ups' is a book about Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), from the perspective of a little boy called Ethan. Ethan shares his personal experiences with PDA, and how it affects his ability to handle certain demands and expectations. The book offers valuable insight and [...]
Parental Blame and the PDA Profile of Autism
This report presents the findings of a survey of 1016 parents and carers of PDA children.
The aims of the survey were:
to explore how prevalent parental blame is among families with PDA children
to identify any patterns around when, how and why parental blame manifests
to find out if [...]
Neurodiversity! What’s That?
Neurodiversity! What’s That? is for children aged 7 and upwards.
This book is a fun introduction to neurodiversity written by a neurodivergent mum aiming to improve the self-esteem and confidence of children.
The book includes many positive messages and can also help parents navigate the world of neurodiversity.
Neurodiversity! What's That? mentions [...]
Calendar Girl: The memoirs of a PDA child in a dysfunctional family
Calendar Girl is the first of Sally Cat’s planned series of short memoirs which, book by book, will recount her entire childhood with the aid of her rare photographic, calendar memory.
This first book, covering the author’s first eight years, includes crystal clear memories of babyhood, toddlerhood and young childhood [...]
All the Pieces of Me
From the bestselling authors of Can You See Me? comes the fourth exceptional Tally book!
Year 9 can be tough for everyone, but for Tally it feels even tougher. Everything seems to be changing as she and her friends get older. Make-up, boys, social media, GCSE prep – why is [...]
Q&A Live – What is PDA for parents and carers
This Q&A Live recording provides parents and carers with an overview of PDA and helpful approaches.
PDA Society training facilitators who are also parents of PDA young people answer common questions around the topics below, sharing a range of perspectives and lived experience:
What is PDA?
Helpful approaches and changing [...]
The Panda on PDA
In this positive, gentle and PDA-friendly guide for young children, PDA is explained by a playful Panda who is PDA and very proud of it. The Panda is full of talents and strengths, but finds it very hard to do what others want. In fact, the Panda has become [...]
PDA & Sleep
The PDA Society and The Sleep Charity have worked together to develop this resource about PDA & Sleep which is based on our sleep survey results and the lived experience of PDA people and sleep practitioners.
This 4 page resource covers the key difficulties people told us they experience around [...]
Sleep Misfits: The reality of Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome & Non-24
Sleep Misfits is the first book to extensively explore delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) and non-24-hour-sleep-wake disorder (Non-24) through the words of actual experients.
Although circadian sleep disorders have seen an increase in published research and media coverage, they are still little-known and little-understood. There remains massive prejudice and discrimination [...]
Keira’s story
Keira is 17 and currently doing very well after a 10 year struggle with an eating disorder and difficulties related to her PDA profile not being understood or supported by health and social care. Her story illustrates the life-changing impact when professionals adapt their practice to be person-centred and [...]
Eating Disorder Support
This page signposts some sources of useful information and support regarding eating disorders.
The PDA Society takes considerable care to check the services that we signpost, however we’re not responsible for the quality, experience or outcomes from third party organisations.
When accessing services and support, it is likely that you’ll need to [...]
Helping Your Child with PDA Live a Happier Life
Drawing on the author's personal experience of parenting a child with PDA, this insightful and informative guide offers strategies and tips for all aspects of daily life, including sensory issues, education and negotiation.
Full of information and support, this book is not intended to provide information on how to change [...]
PDA for social care professionals (webinar)
In this webinar about PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) for social care professionals, independent social workers Cathie Long, Mary Cartlidge and Rachel Gavin join PDA Society Trustee Vikki Threlfall.
The webinar includes presentations about:
assessing PDA in children and working with families in accordance with relevant guidelines and legal requirements (Mary)
[...]
The Adventures of Pickle
To most people, a pebble on the beach is just that – a pebble.
For a little girl with Pathological Demand Avoidance, it’s much more and a very special bond is formed. To help with her anxiety, the little girl chooses Pickle the pebble to accompany her through all that [...]
The Family Experience of PDA
An Illustrated Guide to Pathological Demand Avoidance.
Eliza Fricker gets it. Describing her perfectly imperfect experience of raising a PDA child, with societal judgements and internal pressures, it is easy to feel overwhelmed, resentful and alone. This book's comedic illustrations explain these challenging situations and feelings in a way that [...]
Helpful approaches for special occasions
Special occasions, celebrations and holidays can be overwhelming for autistic people, so we've put together some general suggestions of helpful approaches for PDA families & individuals which can also be shared with wider family & friends to help everyone understand what helps.
This one-page information sheet is free to view and [...]
Helpful approaches for parents/carers
This 2 page information sheet provides a summary of PDA helpful approaches for parents and carers.
Autism and the PDA profile are ‘dimensional’ – meaning they vary a lot from one person to another and at different times or with different people – so parents/carers need a ‘toolkit’ of helpful [...]
Jim’s story
Jim is a 33 year old PDAer and has worked at Waitrose for 7 years. He likes to raise awareness of PDA and share his story so that parents know that things can turn out well for their child despite how challenging circumstances may be along the way. Jim [...]
PDA & school avoidance podcast with James
15 year old James shares his thoughts on why school is difficult for young people with a PDA profile. He openly talks about his experience of school and the daily challenges around demands, masking, sensory difficulties, school avoidance, friendships and transitions. He also offers some possible solutions and tips [...]
Being Julia
A Personal Account of Living with Pathological Demand Avoidance.
Diagnosed with Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) at aged 12 and writing this memoir at age 37, Julia Daunt depicts the ins and out of PDA and its symptoms, while maintaining a positive outlook on what is possible to achieve. Co-written with [...]
How to Cope When Your Child Can’t
How to Cope When Your Child Can't: Comfort, Help and Hope for Parents
This book combines stories from parents, whose children have experienced difficulties and distress for a variety of reasons, with information from psychological research. It signposts resources and techniques that can help parents to cope with their own [...]
The Amazing Autistic Brain Cards
150 Cards with Strengths and Challenges for Positive Autism Discussions.
This deck of cards is a resource to help professionals, parents and anyone working with autistic young people to have discussions about an Autism diagnosis in a personalised, positive and meaningful way.
The beautifully designed cards each show a strength - [...]
Declarative Language Handbook
Declarative Language Handbook: Using a Thoughtful Language Style to Help Kids with Social Learning Challenges Feel Competent, Connected, and Understood.
This book was written to teach you how making small shifts in your language and speaking style will produce important results. You will stop telling kids what to do and [...]
PDA & masking with James
In this video 14 year old James kindly shares information about his experience of PDA and masking.
Hi, I'm James and I'm 14 years old. I was diagnosed with PDA at the age of 12 and would like to share some information about masking. A lot of people with PDA [...]
Ways to Be Me
From the bestselling author duo behind Can You See Me? comes this exceptional portrayal of autism diagnosis, with diary entries by 12-year-old autistic author Libby Scott based on her own experiences of autism with a demand avoidant profile.
Taking place before Can You See Me? and Do You Know Me? [...]
What is PDA? information sheet
This information sheet contains some essential information about PDA and what helps, in an easily shareable format... it can be downloaded & emailed or printed & shared with others.
Published by: PDA Society, May 2021
Download/print sheet
Also available in this series are our What is PDA? booklet and What is PDA? video.
A third party [...]
Letter to professionals
Sharing information with the professionals you’re in contact with is a great way to raise awareness and increase understanding of PDA. For PDA Day 2021 we created this new one page letter with some essential information about PDA that’s easy to share … it can be downloaded & emailed [...]
PDA best practice – the PDA community’s voice
PDA best practice - what the PDA community would like professionals to know
This is one of two resources created for PDA Day 2021 that share best practice about PDA for professionals from all sectors – including healthcare, education, social care, the law, therapists, counsellors, advocates and policy makers.
This video [...]