The Educator's Experience of Pathological Demand Avoidance: An Illustrated Guide to Pathological Demand Avoidance and Learning

I realised EVERYTHING I was doing was wrong.

I needed to learn.

I needed to change.

During Laura Kerbey's time teaching autistic children, she had a sudden realisation that those with Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) are children like no other! None of her tried and tested autism strategies would work to help them focus or learn and most of her time was spent wondering, what am I doing wrong?

If you feel the same, this short, easy-to-read guide is here to teach you everything you need to know from one educator to another. With an introduction to what PDA is followed by PDA tailored advice on how to connect with your student and create an autonomous, spontaneous environment that is personalised for you both, this guide is here to ensure that you and your PDA student thrive!

Illustrated by the popular Eliza Fricker and packed with entertaining anecdotes (including one about Jabba the Hut's poo), this go-to-guide contains everything you need to start implementing PDA friendly learning to help you connect with your student and help them make the most of their learning experience.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. What is PDA?
2. Making Connections
3. The Antidote to Anxiety is Trust
4. The Importance of Humour
5. Non Verbal Language
6. The Power of Choices
7. Wondering, learning together and sharing demands
8. Weaving in Interests and Learning from Each Other
9. Praise and Rewards
10. Reducing Pressure and Picking your Battles
11. Be Flexible enough to Bend so that Neither of you Break
12. Blame the Government!
13. Using Empathy
14. Choose your words carefully
15. The Importance of Self Care
16. The Importance of Collaboration

"I don't think I've been so excited by a book around PDA before, well, no some I have, but I actually think this is the best book so far I've read on helping "educators" understand how it all actually should happen. Because of the lived experience and personal stories, (both of successes and failures), and the language used, (omg plus those awesome images!), this is an incredibly important tool in supporting those in education to begin to reframe and rethink their approaches and education styles. The frankness, the examples and then the explanation of how and why really works, and I think can be accessed by educators, new and old."
- Tigger Pritchard, Autistic/PDA Advocate, Consultant and Trainer Mind the Gap-Bridging the Neurodivide

"This positive and lively guide to working with children with PDA will become an essential part of every educator's library. Easy to dip into, entertaining and yet also full of important truths, you'll finish the book excited about the opportunities which arise when you stop fighting and instead get alongside children with PDA. You'll be shown how to rethink your interactions with children with PDA and through this create the circumstances for them to thrive. It's well worth the effort."
- Dr Naomi Fisher, clinical psychologist and author of Changing Our Minds