HOW DOES PDA RELATE TO THE AUTISM FUNCTIONING SPECTRUM? AND A COLLECTION OF MY RECENT TWITTER MUSINGS 15TH OF AUGUST 2021.

Introduction.

This is a short blog post with links to my recent thoughts on PDA. There is a diverse range of topics, including my current thinking on PDA to 10 studies which seem to contain non-autistic persons in their samples.

I also post links to my recent work that has been published, including a conference talk, and a magazine piece.

I have also created a new diagram for PDA, for how it relates to autism with regards to problematic low functioning to high functioning spectrum. My thoughts on the diagram and the rationale for the diagram can be found in the PDFs below.

I hope you find my recent reflections and musings informative.

Kildahl et al (2021) PDA systematic review.

There have been a few new PDA articles published which will be added to the updated list of literature. The most important one is a systematic review, which substantiates that much of the literature has significant problems. Important points from the article:

“Problems concerning definition and measurement in the reviewed studies currently limit any conclusions regarding the uniformity or stability of the behaviours described, or the characteristics of individuals displaying them.” (Kildahl et al, 2021p1).

“evidence that PDA is either a separate disorder or constitutes a stable subtype or trait in autistic individuals is currently lacking.” (Kildahl et al, 2021, p12).

Link to the open access systematic review:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/13623613211034382

PDFs of my latest thoughts on PDA.

I have since updated this blog post to attach a PDF of a short twitter thread dated to the 22nd of August 2021.

My latest research.

My most recent conference paper, which was presented at the 2021 Participatory Autism Research Collective (PARC) PDA event, was hosted by the Autism Research Team at University of Nottingham on the 20th of July 2021.

–        Demand Avoidance Phenomena (“Pathological”/ “Extreme” Demand Avoidance): is it a Disorder at a lower diagnostic threshold?

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353348556_Demand_Avoidance_Phenomena_Pathological_Extreme_Demand_Avoidance_is_it_a_Disorder_at_a_lower_diagnostic_threshold

I have had this short magazine piece published in SEN Magazine:

–        Is Pathological Demand Avoidance a “meaningful subgroup” of autism?

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353417488_Rights_of_non-autistic_children_and_young_persons_with_PDA