02/08/2022
Written by Ruth Fidler and Phil Christie, Collaborative Approaches to Learning for Pupils with PDA is a great follow up to their first book, Understanding Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome in Children. Ruth is an education consultant who was on the senior leadership team of an all-age, non-maintained special school for 94 autistic children for 22 years. Phil is a consultant child psychologist who worked closely with Elizabeth Newson to set up the Elizabeth Newson Centre (Elizabeth Newson was the autism expert who first recognised a group of children as being similar to other autistic children but having some common differences). I've heard both Ruth and Phil speak at the PDA Society conferences previously and their experience and understanding of this complex area is immense.
The subtitle of this book is 'Strategies for Education Professionals', which means it has been written for those working with children with Pathological Demand Avoidance rather than for parents. That said, as a parent I still found it helpful; the book is littered with many examples of strategies which could also translate well to being used in the home.
One chapter which jumped out at me was 'Encouraging social understanding and promoting emotional well-being'. This covers various aspects common in PDA children such as them being perfectionists, which can often lead to low self-esteem and negative cyclical thoughts, as well as the whole way in which they can become fixated (in a good or bad way) with certain adults or children. Strategies are discussed and some visual options in the form of mind mapping and flow charts are given.
As happened to me with Ruth and Phil's first book, tears sprang to my eyes as I began to read this book. Honestly, it's like they've been in my house and understood our girl. I think it's a relief in a way; it brings home to me just how complex the situation is here on a daily basis and with that comes some acknowledgement that I am doing my best to hold things together all the time. Not just at times of meltdowns, but all the times before and after when I'm constantly planning to avoid those meltdowns and that distress. It is exhausting, there's no point lying about it. This book, whilst not aimed at parents like me, is a support because it's almost proof of the kinds of strategies which need to go into every day - not because that's how we want to live, but because that is what works to enable our children with PDA to have the best life they can have.
This is an extract from my post that shares what I think of some of the books on PDA that I've found helpful so far: https://www.stephstwogirls.co.uk/2019/05/books-about-pathological-demand.html
