Our PDA Journey
By Ashlea Rimmer | Published on December 10, 2020 | 5 Minute Read
From 2 years old Alfie showed a lot of frustration and social anxiety. His behaviour was becoming a daily issue. As a first time parent, I was unsure if this behaviour was a typical toddler tantrum or if there was more to it. I contacted my health visitor who did an assessment and said that Alfie scored more than double the standard points and explained he had sensory processing disorder. This is when our journey started and we were referred on the pathway.
Alfie is now 5 and a half years old and his behaviour has escalated worse every day. It became a battle & he became violent and uncontrollable. He resisted everyday demands, from asking him to do something to playing. He loved to dress up as superheroes and be someone other than himself. His impulsiveness became more frequent, but he masked this behaviour in his first year of school at reception. Once he started year 1, the school began to notice things and things became worse. Alfie was excluded at the age of 5 for attacking his teachers, he refused to go into school, his violence was so bad we ended up in A&E because he was harming himself. Finally after fighting with different professionals and waiting 18 months Alfie was diagnosed with pathological demand avoidance and high functioning autism.
"Alfie is the first child to ever attend his school with a PDA profile. His school is amazing and supports us as much as they possibly can. "
Alfie is in mainstream now and has an EHCP in place and attends school with 1-1 support. Alfie is the first child to ever attend his school with a PDA profile. His school is amazing and supports us as much as they possibly can. They have all done courses to learn how to deal with Alfie and his needs. We still struggle with the violence and demand issues, but we have educated ourselves about the diagnosis and how to cope with it better than before, which is a weight lifted off our shoulders and we are currently spreading awareness through the Instagram page we made @pdamummy.
PDA profiles are hard to be recognised in parts of the country and many are only ever diagnosed through private health care. Luckily our paediatrician is one of the top doctors and knows his stuff otherwise I wouldn’t know what today or his future would look like.
Thank you for reading our story and please feel free to give our Instagram page a follow to help spread awareness.
About the Author
I am a mum of 2 boys and run a social media account about our PDA, ASD, SPD journey and trying to spread more awareness.