I want to start by saying that teachers are amazing! They have huge demands placed on them and so many little nervous systems to consider. It is a hard reality that many parts of the education system completely clash with PDA neurobiology. The PDA society found that 70% of PDAers are not able to cope with school. This post is for the 30% of kids that have the capacity to get there. I’ll do another one for home-based self-directed learning.
For teachers working with our beautiful PDAers it’s always essential to start from Dr Ross Greene’s mindset: Our kids do well if and when they can. Everyone wants to do well. Our kids aren’t going out of their way to be intentionally defiant or naughty or aggressive. Behaviour is communication. Behaviours tell us that the PDA child’s nervous system is not coping with the demands and expectations being placed on them.
It’s also important for teachers to understand the cumulative impact of demands across the day, week, term, year. If you imagine a bucket. Every stressor your child encounters fills up that bucket a little more until it starts to overflow, that is the point where the PDA child’s nervous system can’t cope anymore. Our job as adults is to support them by reducing the demands and increasing opportunities for regulation in order to increase their window of tolerance, their ability to cope.
I recently posted about the variables that we can consider when accommodating our PDA kids. These apply to school just as much as home. There are three main variables that we can consider:
- The child
- The environment
- The expectations/demands being placed on them.
There has to be the right fit between all of these factors to allow for success and it is going to take lots of collaboration with your child’s school to figure out the unique balance for your child. These are some suggested starting points…
The child:
- Noticing the child’s individual signs of escalation.
- Collaboratively problem solving if there are factors preventing the child from engaging.
- Factoring in opportunities for regulation:
- Building a trusting relationship with a staff member who can co-regulate with them, never pushing, always honouring their ‘no’, their need for choice, their need for autonomy.
- Consider how can novelty and special interests be incorporated into learning.
- Incorporating sufficient down-time into the day. This might include access to calming sensory input, time away from the busy classroom or access to screens if needed.
The expectations:
- Differentiating the curriculum based on the PDA child’s fluctuating needs. As long as the child is not hurting themselves or others, teachers will need to be willing to let things go and pick their battles.
- Ensuring that intrinsic motivation is maintained. It might be necessary to explain why something is important, to scaffold the task so there is a ‘just right’ challenge and to align learning experiences with interest areas.
- Allowing lots of time. Rushing is a sure way of heaping on additional demands.
- Ultimately the child needs to have the option to opt in or out at any time. This might extend to if they attend school at all on a particular day and also the option to have their requests honoured if they need to leave early.
The environment:
- Educating teachers about PDA, polyvagal theory, sensory processing, and communication techniques like Declarative Language and Collaborative & Proactive Problem Solving.
- Providing access to safe people who can foster co-regulation (these people must have a strong relationship with the PDA child, based on trust and connection)
- Lowering the sensory demands of the environment and allowing opportunities for retreat.
- Fostering positive peer relationships.
- Sometimes we also need to consider the amount of time spent in the school environment. Not all PDA kids are able to sustainably manage full time school and reduced hours may need to be explored.
2 book recommendations that can be an excellent resource for teachers:
- The Teacher’s Introduction to Pathological Demand Avoidance by Clare Truman
- The Educator’s Experience of Pathological Demand Avoidance by Laura Kerbey
