In this episode I talk with our coach Donna Georgen - parent of PDA 28- and 21-year-olds - about her top tips for parenting PDA teens.

We cover five of her tips in this episode and will release another episode soon with five more.

Here's the first five:

1. Try to keep autonomy and equality at the forefront
2. Shift from parent to mentor-friend
3. Be vulnerable and transparent
4. Release the pressure to figure it all out
5. Redefine regression

I hope you find our conversation helpful!

PS - Want to work with Donna to move your family forward? She offers private coaching that you can learn all about here.

In this episode Clinical Psychologist Dr. Alex Klein and I discuss ten common misconceptions about Pathological Demand Avoidance or Pervasive Drive for Autonomy.

Here are five from Dr. Klein:

1. The parent of a PDAer is doing something wrong, especially if they've lowered demands.
2. If a PDA child did something yesterday, they can do it again today.
3. Accommodations won’t prepare PDA kids for the real world.
4. Progress made by a PDA child is measured by what we see on the surface.
5. Behaviorism (behavioral parenting) will be enough.

And here are five from me, in strong collaboration with my PDA 11- and 7-year-olds:

1. PDA kids are bad kids.
2. How much freedom PDA kids need.
3. It's not behavioral, it's stress.
4. Why and when they can hide nervous system stress.
5. Potatoes are green and they smell like poop :)

I hope the episode is helpful to you!

xo,

Casey

PS - New to PDA? You can take our free 6-minute quiz to learn how well your child or teen fits the profile.

This episode is for parents who are interested in toilet training in a PDA-informed way.

This the third episode in my three-part series on toileting and Pathological Demand Avoidance.

In this episode I cover toilet/potty training with your PDA child or teen. Specifically, I cover the following:

1. Is my child or teen in a good place for toilet training?
2. Story of toilet training my older son before I knew of PDA, and why I think it still worked (spoiler - we intuitively did a lot of accommodating).
3. 10 tips for if and when you decide to toilet train your PDA child or teen.

I hope this is helpful for you and your family.

xoxo,

Casey

PS - New to PDA? You can take our free 6-minute quiz to learn how well your child or teen fits the profile.

In this episode, I spoke to a grandmother raising her 8-year-old PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance / Pervasive Drive for Autonomy) Autistic grandson who she had been homeschooling for a year-and-a-half after school trauma in first grade.

We discussed:

- Helping her grandson attend an in-person appointment with the pediatrician, so he could get a refill of his medication.

- The different approaches she could take to decide her actions in this tough situation.

- The fear of losing trust and the progress they have made by forcing him to the doctor's office.

- Experimenting with ideas for how to prepare her grandson for the doctor's visit with an indirect mode of communications, and how to leverage his special interest of elevators to support him accessing medical care.

We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. It's from our live show "Parenting PDA Your Way" that I host on our social media at 1pm ET on Fridays.

Warmly,

Casey

PS - The grandma in this episode mentions our Paradigm Shift Program. Want to join the waitlist for the next cohort? Here's the link.

This is my second of three episodes about toileting and PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance or Pervasive Drive for Autonomy).

This episode is focused on what to do if your child has challenges with:

1 - Wiping

2 - Accidents

3 - Holding and constipation

4 - Pooping outside the toilet

5 - Peeing outside the toilet

Of course, I'm talking through taking a PDA/nervous system approach to helping your child or teen with these challenges. If you want to take a deeper dive into understanding why your PDA child or teen has these challenges, please check out my previous podcast episode (Ep. 142).

Also, in this episode I mention the decision making process I teach parents who are trying to decide when they should change their child or teen's diaper if doing so causes activation. If you want to learn more about making such decisions (or others), I teach how to do so in my free masterclass: School, Screens and Siblings, Oh My! Here's a link to where you can sign up for it for free:

https://at-peace-parents-podcast.captivate.fm/sssoh

xo,

Casey

This is my first of three episodes about toileting and PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance or Pervasive Drive for Autonomy).

This episode is focused on how to think about toileting over the long term with your PDA child or teen. Specifically, I talk through:

1 - Your questions in the following categories: wiping, holding and constipation, potty training, going outside the toilet, and accidents

2 - Logic and root cause of toileting struggles through the PDA lens

3 - What a stickiest basic need is and whether or not your child is in burnout

4 - 5 things to try in your home now

5 - Tracking progress so you can see clearly if this approach is helping your child

I hope it’s a helpful episode for you.

Xo,

Casey

PS - New to PDA? You can take our free 6-minute quiz to learn how well your child or teen fits the profile.

In this episode I spoke with a mom of a 4-year-old PDAer (Pathological Demand Avoidant) and a 10-month-old baby living in an apartment in Scotland.

She had just learned about PDA one month ago and had already made huge and brave changes in her home and parenting to support he son.

We discussed:

- How to start making a parenting paradigm shift if you are new to PDA.

- The importance of an experimental mindset as you are trying out new ways of supporting and accommodating your PDA child.

- How to pick your priorities for boundaries in the home. In this case we focused on safety around the baby, bedtime, and bathing once a week.

- How nervous system activation is cumulative over time (months and years) for PDA children and teens, which means we don't have to be perfect with accommodations, just consistent.

This episode is from the show we stream live on Fridays on our social media, "Parenting PDA Your Way." I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

With love,

Casey

Sorcha Rice is an occupational therapist and the clinical manager of Neurodiversity Ireland, who I met at their 1st conference last year. She identifies as AuDHD and PDA and spoke with me about how she understands and experiences PDA, what her childhood and teen years were like before she was diagnosed, going through burnout and recovery, how she manages her nervous system now, and some of the practices she incorporates to support her PDA occupational therapy clients.

It was wonderful to connect with Sorcha and hear her insights and so much of her story!

I hope you enjoy it too.

Xoxo,

Casey

PS - You can find more about Sorcha on instagram at both @ot_sorcharice and @neurodiversityireland

And in our conversation she also recommended a resource for other OTs - Kim Barthel.