Article about PDA in The Mail of all places!

[akaemmafrost]

Not unsympathetic surprisingly. I'm just happy to see it being mentioned somewhere mainstream at all. Can't link as on iPhone but if you have the app for the mail as i do it's easy to find.

There was a feature in the Times yesterday as well. It was good to see it sensitively handled, rather than ignored or ridiculed as it usually is.

here

Oh the comments are awful. Typical DM

Just don't read the comments beneath the article. All negative and dismissive of not only PDA but ADHD, and a number of other things.

People are so quick to judge.....

Leonie I feel the same about ds. The HFA diagnosis fits in some ways but just not quite iyswim? He had been described as a "conundrum" and professionals say they are "baffled" as to why many autism behavioural aids and techniques do not work for him. I read about PDA on the NAS website and it just clicked. It would explain everything. With him he is ok at home, school is where we have issues. So much so that he is not even in school right now. His anxiety levels are so high that he meltsdown every day becoming aggressive and trying to escape. No one could handle him.

The trouble with a 'diagnosis' is it often becomes an end in itself.
It is what is being done about a presenting difficulty that really matters, irrespective of what you actually call it.

Unfortunately, in most cases, not a whole lot happens, hence burgeoning Special Needs 'industry' which costs £££££, emplys thousands and gobbles up time, energy and resources, whilst generally achieving very little.

Cannot believe the horrible comments it has made me feel quite ill!!!

The comments don't surprise me at all, really. People without experience of special needs and disabilities are very quick to judge and dismiss. It's too far beyond their scope of understanding to realise that conditions like PDA do exist and cause a great deal of difficulty for families, especially when faced with such negativity from the general public. PDA does look to the uninitiated like lack of discipline and effective parenting so I guess it's easy to link the two together.

PDA isn't all that new anyway, it's just that it's taken a while for the media to notice it.

I didn't read the comments, best not to with the DM I think.

The thing with getting the "diagnosis" in cases of PDA is that many of the techniques used with HFA just don't work with and actually what should be done is the complete opposite. No one who works with ds ever seems to have come across it so are clueless on how to deal with him. The keep pushing the HFA Agenda, which appears to be the trigger. So for us an official diagnosis of PDA would help greatly, even though they probably wouldn't know what the hell to do with it! Btw I live in London not a small town with little experience of these conditions and still everyone is clueless.

moondog I believe you work in the "industry"? Are you familiar with PDA and techniques for managing it? Because it seems very odd to me that NO professional involved with my ds even offered it up as a possibility preferring to believe that he had "control" over his issues etc. honestly not a trick question I would just like to ask a professional, ie yourself, what awareness of this condition there is generally?

Like I say ds is pretty much fine at home. Dd on the other hand.......I have posted about her before and concerns she might have autistic traits too and leonie she sounds exactly like your dd. I get butterflies in my stomach when I know we have to go out because I know what will happen. She too is perfect at school though.

My used to believe and all his family still do that ds is just a naughty little brat who had been "spoilt" and "knows exactly what he is doing" . Ex is on side now because he has read up on PDA and realised the description fits ds like a glove.

ex used to believe

Yes, ds as well, restricted interests obsessions, lack of eye contact, late speaking etc. I understand it to be another aspect of ASD that obviously not all children with ASD have iyswim? Or perhaps even a condition alongside the HFA iyswim? Eg ds also has dyspraxia, hypermobility and SPD, all diagnosed seperately. So surely it is possible for a child to have both HFA and PDA?

lenin where can I find that book? Sounds useful.

Interesting. Leonie my dd1 has an ADHD dx but I believe pda may be a better fit no reward or behaviour thibgs ever worked for her either!