How can I support children in my class with PDA?

PDA (Pathological demand avoidance) is seen when a child avoids everyday demands and requests to an extreme level. This can mean not or only part attending school, missing events or complete refusal to initiate common everyday tasks at school. PDA is common in autistic and other neurodivergent children, with one research study reporting that 1 in 5 autistic children show PDA.

So what are common examples of PDA behaviour?

Examples reported in the literature include:    

• Avoiding ordinary demands
• Elaborate excuses
• Bossy towards peers
• Rapid changes in mood
• Ineffectiveness of traditional reward or consequence based behavioural techniques

What is low demand teaching? This is an educational approach that reduces unnecessary everyday pressures and reduction of direct demands to help anxious children feel safe enough to engage. At the heart of this is a partnership model where the pupil is treated as an equal collaborator and not a subordinate. Here the teacher sees the child’s refusal to do something as anxiety induced or caused by something else that is overwhelming the child.

An example of this overwhelm is sensory overload. A recently published study has shown that sensory reactivity, especially touch and sensory seeking behaviours, are related to extreme demand avoidance. The authors recommended addressing environmental sensory demands. By using this perspective the approach is focused on identifying what is overwhelming the child and making steps to try and reduce it e.g. a break away, use of a fiddle toy, or using ear defenders or similar device.

What are practical strategies teachers can adopt to help the child with PDA to engage and participate? One important tool is thinking about language used and changing commands to collaborative language such as “Let’s see if we can work this out together” rather than “Do this task next”. Offering choices such as being able to stand to do a task or move about once the task is done can help. Some teachers have now told us they have a makeshift standing desk in their classes for this exact purpose.

We know that intolerance of uncertainty is related to anxiety in autistic children.   As anxiety is linked to demand avoidance creating situations that de-escalate anxiety, keeping demands low, instructions brief, and increasing the child having control of decisions have been strategies suggested that can help.  Keeping to a routine where changes are planned out as much as they can be and reducing uncertainty is also thought to help.

A study that looked at experiences of parents strongly suggests that understanding and acceptance of the child is paramount. One parent in the study stressed the importance of listening not blaming saying “listen to the parents, they know the child the best’. Teachers and parents working together to understand the child and accommodations that will help is the way ahead.

To learn more about PDA join our teacher webinar on the 1^st October at 3.30pm delivered by PDA expert Laura Hellfeld.  To attend the webinar please book here.