""I don't know why everything with him has to be such a fight. He argues with everything I ask him to do, no matter how small. Every morning when I wake up, I have no idea what terrible thing will happen. From the minute I wake him up for school until he finally goes to sleep at night, everything in between is a living hell for our family.""
"What Is Pathological Demand Avoidance? The term pathological demand avoidance (PDA) was coined in the 1980s by British developmental psychologist Elizabeth Newson, who worked with autistic children. She used the term to describe what she believed to be a subtype of autism marked by an extreme and persistent resistance to everyday requests, which did not fit the typical presentation of autism."
A parent described daily, severe resistance from a 12‑year‑old that turned routines into family conflict. Pathological demand avoidance (PDA) was coined in the 1980s to label an autism subtype marked by extreme, persistent refusal of everyday requests that differed from typical autism. PDA did not enter mainstream clinical training or diagnostic criteria. Around 2010, social media accelerated PDA's popularity within autism parenting communities. Exhausted caregivers adopted the label as a biologically based explanation. Many behaviors framed as PDA correspond with long‑recognized oppositional behavior, and social media‑driven low‑demand strategies may risk harm to children.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]