apple Report post Posted February 6, 2008 (edited) Living and learning with PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) CONFERENCE Tuesday 15th April 2008 Richard Herrod Centre, Carlton Nottingham (Millennium Suite) 9.30am to 3.30 pm Children with PDA and PDA traits present a particular challenge both at home and at school. This event will allow you to develop an understanding of PDA and the reasons for many of the behaviours that these challenging young people display and also offer practical strategies for supporting PDA children at home and in the classroom. The day will be made up of two sessions. The first will be presented by Mandy Haxby. Mandy Haxby is the project Manager of The Maze, a registered charity that provides support for families with children on the Autistic Spectrum. Mandy is the mother of a teenager with Autism and PDA and has delivered training on many subjects including PDA. Mandy has been funded by The Community Champions Fund to deliver training on PDA and produce literature for both parents and professionals. This First session will introduce you to PDA, its characteristics and the reasons behind the behaviours we see. Using some of her own personal experiences Mandy will talk about how managing the environment has been the key to managing her child. The afternoon session will be led by Fiona Speirs. Fiona Speirs is former Assistant Headteacher at Rosehill School in Nottingham, a school that caters for pupils on the autistic spectrum. She now works on a part time basis at the school having decided to focus on training and consultancy work as there has been an increased demand for her to do this over recent years. Fiona has extensive ?hands on? experience of working with young people with learning difficulties and ASD in particular, having graduated in 1985 with a B.Ed 2(i) Honours degree in Special Education. In addition to gaining the Advanced Certificate in Education relating to ASD awareness, Fiona has also attained qualifications relating to skills associated with Counselling, Mentoring and Coaching and has used these to enable her to work more effectively with more able young people on the spectrum. She has many years experience of working with young people who present as having specific difficulties associated with the diagnosis of PDA and is often asked to train around these issues. The afternoon session will offer practical strategies to help and support PDA children in the classroom. There will be an opportunity for questions at the end of the day. Refreshments and a hot Buffet Lunch will be provided. Please let us know if you have any special requirements on the attached Booking Form, The Cost of this event is?? �100 for professionals �50 for parents *** sorry I've lost my other laptop with all my details on and the email I registered with no longer exists so I've had to re register. Mandy Minxygal *** Edited to remove contact details: please pm apple/minxgal for further information - thanks: K. Edited February 6, 2008 by Kathryn Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
westie Report post Posted April 18, 2008 I went and it was really useful - both talks were informative talking about PDA from a parent and professional perspective, and Fiona Spears was very experienced in dealing with children with ASD/AS/PDA as well as being an excellent presenter. The children she worked with at the school in Notts were 16-19 age group and with various diagnoses, including some with PDA and although my son is much younger I thought it was excellent as there are not many guidelines for this age group. And the parent who also presented has 3 children, one who is 18 and with autism/PDA diagnosis and a 15yr old with AS diagnosis. If they run the conference again I would recommend it to anyone whose child has been diagnosed with PDA or who has "avoidance" tendencies alongside ASD. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hev Report post Posted April 18, 2008 i wish they would do one in london Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stressedmumto2 Report post Posted April 18, 2008 Me too Hev, that traveling distance I could manage. Mind you I guess if enough of us requested for it then maybe they would so long as they were covering their own expenses. Because they would still be raising awareness, it's certainly something we could enquire about <'> Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
westie Report post Posted April 21, 2008 If you look on the PDA forum I am sure they were talking about doing a conference somewhere further south, not sure whether it was London but may be worth checking. There were a lot of parents on that forum saying similar thing. Will have a look and post again the actual location they were thinking of.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
westie Report post Posted April 21, 2008 stressedmum - I think you are right , I would suggest contacting apple (the OP of this thread) if you think this would be useful for others in London as well Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
westie Report post Posted April 21, 2008 Hi, I was thinking along right lines, someone had asked question: See link (hope its okay to post!) http://ccgi.pdacontact.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=514 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Minxygal Report post Posted May 2, 2008 Gosh sorry, it's taken me this long to work out a way to find my old email, ty Lufty. Ok there would be no problem bringing a conference down south but someone would have to organise the practical side of things, eg venue, travel etc. While I have every confidence that I could get speakers etc being all the way up here in the E Midlands means I have no idea of how things work down south and to be honest we are so busy up here at The Maze I'm not sure I'd have the time to chase up all the practical stuff. PDA is something that I feel passionately about (I was the parent speaker at the nottingham one) it's time for people to start recognising the added difficulties involved with living with and teaching a child with PDA and putting stratagies and structures into place to support them in schools but also to support them and their families at home. Mand Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hev Report post Posted May 4, 2008 is pda pathological defiance something?i thought odd and pda were same thing? and ive tried to get back on side by side for ages but i cant access it,im assuming its still going?hope you ok anyway mand <'> Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Minxygal Report post Posted May 5, 2008 Hi Hev hun, No they aren't the same PDA stands for pathpologocal demand avoidance. My son has PDA. He is a very anxious young man and builds a worst case scenario out of many of the situations that most would see as normal and these anxieties are what convince him he cannot, or should not participate in activities. PDA is a very complex condition and one which there is little awareness about. As for PSBS I'll send you the link Hev Mandy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites