About the Presenter

Dr Gemma Foxall is an award winning speaker who is passionate about inclusion and dedicated to supporting teams to implement practical strategies to achieve inclusion. Supporting a young person with PDA in a school system is one of the most difficult challenges - someone accurately diagnosed with PDA will have a neurobiological ‘reflex’ to avoid any perception of ‘must’ - whether this be from an external or internal source. There are usually subtle signs of PDA since very young, although often early imitation and social masking skills may delay the arrival of an autism diagnosis. Early signs of a PDA profile may be a child changing the mind often e.g. saving up their pocket money for a highly desired item, walking to the checkout with it, and then almost reacting in a panicked way and insisting they get something else.Something as simple as the internal demand of needing the toilet may cause a PDAer to try and avoid it for as long as possible and the strength of such demand avoidance can be detrimental to their own health. Similarly, a PDAer may be triggered into ‘fight/flight’ mode from very well-intentioned social interactions e.g. a friendly choice presented to them of tangible objects known to be preferrable to the child.

Gemma has personal experience as a teacher and a parent of successfully overcoming extreme challenges, from eating disorders, to self-harm, property destruction and aggression causing serious injuries. This workshop is an opportunity for those supporting the autism and PDA community to unite without judgement, and plan some new adjustments to trial moving forward. Developmental and social challenges will be changing and autism is a lifelong condition. It is important to understand that a person’s capacity fluctuates but the baseline can be increased through consistent support and ethical interventions.

The ‘reasonable adjustments’ that PDAers need sometimes require careful planning with a flexible and holistic approach as a very significant risk for young people with a PDA behavioural profile of autism is the development of co-occurring mental health decline and observable responses similar to post traumatic stress disorder. Positive behaviour can be shaped gently and slowly, with trust and predictable social responses being key to build an effective relationship, and attempts at traditional operant condition (token economies and reward charts etc) usually fail and sometimes can cause harm. In some cases, where systems are applied universally and the PDAer ‘approves’ or feels calmed by the predictability of the environment this can help them feel in control because they know what is going to happen - but individual strategies to modify behaviour in a group setting are adversive and unhelpful to the vast majority of school-aged PDAers.

A true PDAer usually has a high IQ and feels most relaxed when able to harness their creative talents, or engage in socially appropriate dopamine-inducing activities. Enabling a child to feel relaxed is critical to prevent unsafe behaviour and consequential barriers to education. The PDA Society report that approximately 70% of students with a PDA profile are unable to attend school successfully, despite wanting to be with their peers and often wanting to go to school.

Gemma has supported dozens of ‘pre-trauma’ and ‘post-trauma’ students with PDA to engage in education in a range of educational settings, and works with all stakeholders to implement individualised reasonable adjustments that introduce frameworks for safety, self-advocacy and a sense of autonomy in learning experiences whilst the adults are able to design environments that are beneficial to all students. Participants should come with an open mind, and a commitment to understanding that PDA is a classic ‘square peg round hole’ situation, and be open to learning how behaviour science can be neuro-affirming - for example, setting SMART goals in a student’s IEP that focus on targeting behaviours that only occur when a child is happy, calm and relaxed. - We can not achieve those goals without first understanding what needs to change in the environment (i.e. us, the adults) and how a child’s conditions impact their way of perceiving the world.

“Thus, Milton (2013) argues that demand avoidant behaviour must be understood as rational behaviour from the viewpoint of the autistic person when faced with situations perceived as highly stressful.”

AGENDA

• What is PDA?

• Signs of PDA?

• Diagnostic context

• Research Context

• Clinical Implications

• Supporting Strategies

• Reflections for Practice (educators and therapists)

• Trauma-informed practice