The PDA Space Summit 2024

Meet the Speakers

CLICK HERE to Download Your Viewing Guide to the Summit

Speaker line up!

Weekend Access

 FREE

Free access between 1st-3rd April. Webinars released daily for 24 hours viewing.

Yes please! Weekend Access!

Our Speakers and their Message

All of our speakers bring unique values to the summit and their own message.
Some have a mix of personal lived experience and professional experience;
others bring support techniques and practical guidance.

You can find out more & how to contact each speaker when you register.

Thank you to our speakers, and thank you too for joining us this year.
CLICK HERE For The Summit Page To Select Your Summit Pass

Friday 26th April: Behind The Behaviour 

Educational environments are frequently unsuitable for our autistic and PDA young people. It is often perceived that a child is learning if they are within school. However, if they are struggling with their mental health and burnout, they can be in a classroom but won't be learning anything.

In this webinar, Christine shares her experiences as both a parent and an educator, sharing her journey as she learned about PDA. She talks about how she had to challenge her training as a teacher and revisit her beliefs about learning and safety in order to support her children as PDAers.

I hope to not only educate the general public regarding Tourette Syndrome and its links with co-occurring factors such as OCD, Autism and ADHD, but to promote the voices of lived experience so the audience can gain understanding, and acceptance about working and living with someone trying to manage daily with TS.

Parenting your creative, witty & determined PDAer is like running a never-ending marathon - without any training! Heidi, parent, former OT, author & support group facilitator, will share practical ideas (that she & her family have learned the hard way) to help you get strong, wise and last the distance.

Learn about the importance and benefits of embodiment, nervous system education, regulation and co-regulation in education, space holding, facilitation and care.

Children and young people with PDA use language and communication skills as part of their avoidance strategies. Their expressive language is often seen as superior to others of the same age and their social understanding appears to be one of their strengths. However, very often all is not what it seems

Alice discusses her childhood and adulthood as a PDAer. She covers what demands and meltdowns physically feel like, what she personally finds helpful and how she leans into this Neurotype to support her needs, giving further understanding and insight to family members of PDAers, individuals with this Neurotype and/or professionals who support neurodivergents.

Nick will be speaking about his experience as a father of PDA children and the unique challenges faced by Dads. Nick suggests ten 'rules' that he has found helpful, through trial and mostly error! We all learn from mistakes and find our own 'road map' to being a better parent.

An animated tour of the many ways in which PDA is hidden and the surprising diversity of adrenal reactions that fuel PDA people's frequently bizaare or over-the-top seeming behaviours. Sally's presentation is based on the second and third chapters of a book, entitled Hidden PDA, which she's co-writing with No Pressure PDA.

Emotional well-being and self-care tasks like eating and sleeping are at the top of concerns for our young people. Laura and Scott will discuss how these concerns are interconnected via hormones and the nervous system. From there, they will discuss in-the-moment and ongoing supports for our young people.

Steph shares her family's experience of the Lightbulb Moment and why and how the Pathological Demand Avoidance characteristics described their daughter better than the more general autism diagnosis. She goes on to explain approaches her family has used to live happily with PDA.

PDA and the nervous system. This talk will provide clarity on the role of the nervous system in demand avoidance. Also, why Pathological Demand Avoidance has developed the reputation of being an anxiety disorder and what the popular rebranding ‘Persistent Demand for Autonomy’ really means.

As we advocate for better provision for neurodivergent people, we can find ourselves repeating the same arguments time and time again. Often people have different foundations to their understanding of neurodivergent people. Being able to identify, and advocate to change, these foundations can be a powerful way of advocating for better provision.

CLICK HERE For The Summit Page To Select Your Summit Pass

Saturday 27th April: Understanding The Behaviour

Considering PDA as an Identity and how it helps validate acceptance from within, how values and beliefs affect attitudes; how you treat others and approach situations ultimately shows in behaviours. Neurobiology in acceptance and self-advocacy to thrive rather than survive, in a world that needs to know more about PDA.

This webinar introduces the approaches that I use when working with PDA children and young people, facilitating their learning. Covering interest-led learning, maximising options, aiming for the right goals and saying "Yes", it will help you meet the needs of PDA learners in a range of settings including at home.

Dr Greene explains why we need to look before we leap into punishing our children and young people. Research suggests that children lacking skills to regulate and manage their behaviour need parental support to learn skills & to understand capacity: a collaborative approach that considers flexibility, emotional regulation and frustration.

How Behaviour Impacts Learning will share real life stories and insights that will encourage you to keep prioritising your child’s mental health and wellbeing whilst also showing you how this impacts their learning for the better.

In her webinar, Julia shares some of the challenges of getting support for her PDA as a hidden disability, compared to the ease with which she is offered support for her physical disabilities that can be seen, and some of the strategies she uses to prepare when meeting professionals

This talk looks at the reasons why stressed students can't learn and common stressors in the classroom that many schools aren't aware of.

We look at how Panic Monkey and Dino Brain - the defensive duo of the limbic system interfere with the Air-Traffic Contoller - our logic centre, the central cortex, when we are anxious or under threat.

Nikki busts myths around what low demand parenting really is. We discuss how low demand parenting does include boundaries, non-negotiables, and what scaffolding is needed to support our young people to set them up to achieve. One of the reasonable adjustments Nikki’s family make is welcoming Luna, the trainee therapy dog.

My presentation is touching on some of the main struggles around parenting PDA in the adolescent age
(11-19) especially for those families who are late diagnosed. I try to give a picture of realistic expectations for applying PDA-supportive methods in this unique age range.

In this webinar, Paul shares his first-hand experience of the intricacies and nuances of living with Tourette syndrome and other co-occurring conditions. He provides empathetic and tailored guidance, offering insights that stem from personal encounters and a deep understanding of the experiences faced by individuals within the ND community.

Aimed at all parents and carers, especially males, as a father to a PDAer. I go through the lessons I've learned to improve the life of my family and my PDA daughter, ADHD son, and neurodivergent wife.  PDA is not a "problem to solve".

I'll be speaking openly and honestly about how to navigate distressed behaviour in your PDAer, and how to cope kindly and compassionately as a family. I'll give practical examples of what parents can do help ‘in the moment’, as well as looking at triggers and de - escalation techniques.

Award winning Children’s Physio, Jo McMeechan, shares her expert knowledge about supporting physical needs including hypermobility and sensory motor disorders for Neurodivergent children. Jo is Mum to Autistic, PDA, ADHD children with barriers to attendance. She and her team are SEN Parents, specialising in Neurodivergence and barriers to attendance.

In this webinar, Tigger looks at the lens we are given to look at behaviour and what is forced upon us, what gets in the way and what we can do to change that lens. He talks about the benefits this will bring shares sources of further resources on his website.

CLICK HERE For The Summit Page To Select Your Summit Pass

Sunday 28th April: Seeing Beyond The Behaviour

Mistakes made and solutions suggested based on my recent personal experience as a PDAer in a mainstream school who just did not understand me at all. No massive budgets necessary for my suggestions for inclusion and understanding either!

PDAers and highly anxious children have one thing in common – the need to feel safe. This is often the biggest barrier to accessing services. The SECURE planning tool offers a framework that can providing a unique profile of your child’s safety needs to share with education and other settings.

ND artist, multiple brain surgery survivor, professional illustrator, author, doodle meme creator has to use non dominant hand to draw due to neurological damage following many surgeries.🌈 Is profoundly deaf with an implant. Also illustrates books, tarot card art and other projects. Also nonbinary like their popular original character, Violet, who stars in their debut book

Caring for PDA children can involve navigating EOTAS and other support packages, which can be overwhelming! Parents/Carers often feel less authoritative than professionals. We will look at the vital safeguarding questions you need to ask, and how to get the safest and best outcomes for your children - because there are NO stupid questions!

This session is about forming positive relationships and strategies for developing relationships and understanding for PDA'ers. Why we need to invest in relationships where that PDA’er is right now . Immediately usable. I will explain why some of the usual ways that can be used at school and at home just don't work.

Barriers to school attendance, monotropism and autistic burnout

How we can move forward:
Reframing autism: Monotropism
Autistic burnout
How can we support at home?
How can we support at school?
What are the alternatives?

Barriers to school attendance, monotropism and autistic burnout

Understanding and critiquing the context:
Attendance - current and historic situation;
Barriers to school attendance;
Current approaches to attendance barriers;
Shifting paradigms.

The video is a conversation between two Dad's of PDA kids. It focuses on our journeys, experiences, and the supports we would have liked during our journeys to get our sons diagnosed. It will provide insight into gaps in the system and the need for supports that work for dads.

Dan discusses the benefits of gaming for young people, emphasizing mentorship and connection, memory, decision-making, and real-life skills that create a sense of community and a strong connection between gamers and game creators, especially in indie games; factors which create a safe space, for young people to express themselves.

This webinar is for any adults working or living with Autistic people, especially parents, teachers, and allied health professionals. Em helps you build a strong foundation in understanding and supporting your Autistic kids, with foundation knowledge and her NeuroWild Shift: a simple three-step approach for supporting neurodivergent kids with fluctuating capacity.

In this webinar, Nicola will be exploring the mindset and lens changes that parents need to make when looking at behaviour. We need to question our beliefs and values. A lot of the work is internal. Until we can make the internal shift, change will
be slow.

In this webinar, Riko shares some low demand techniques for building skills they use to support their family such as body doubling. They discuss why their household has non-negotiables, rather than ‘no rules’ and why low demand may appear to create a dysregulated young person.

As a member of the PDA community, Rosie will be documenting her findings on the impact of complex trauma (CPTSD) and lighting the path towards healing she has found for herself and wishes to share with others.

CLICK HERE For The Summit Page To Select Your Summit Pass

Presenting Your Speakers!

Click on each speaker for more information...

Back Pocket Pass

 Early Bird Price £49 £99

Full access to all webinars until March 31st, 2023, so you can watch them in your own time.

Yes please! Unlimited Access!

Weekend Access

 FREE

Free access between 1st-3rd April. Webinars released daily for 24 hours viewing.

Yes please! Weekend Access!