Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is linked to an extreme need to avoid everyday demands and opportunities. Some of the distinctive features of the profile are around high levels of anxiety, using social means to avoid, resisting the ordinary demands and excessive mood swings. The need for control in all areas is a prominent feature which can appear dominating. High levels of support are required along with specific strategies to engage.

This online session will benefit:

• Staff working with, or wanting to work with students in the SEND field
• Parents/carers wanting to learn more about Pathological Demand Avoidance

During the session, delegates will develop their basic understanding and knowledge of PDA, including the various barriers and challenges students may face in the classroom. They will leave with a secure understanding of how to support and aid learning.

By the end of the session, delegates will have:

• An understanding of PDA
• An awareness of the barriers to learning and the impact of these difficulties
• An awareness of strategies and activities to aid learning

Workshop leader Karen Ferguson is the Founder and Principal Trainer for Linrow Education.

Karen has considerable experience of working in SEND environments, she also has a Masters Degree in Education and Level 2 Dyslexia, ADHD, Autism and PDA qualifications.  Karen believes that a better understanding of SEND and complex needs can be achieved through information sharing and is committed to ensuring that quality education is available to all.

The strategies are not diagnostic tools, and you will not be able to gain a diagnosis from this session.

This session cost £40 and places are limited to enable discussion. The session will take place via the Zoom virtual platform, delegates will be sent access codes/ links prior to the virtual sessions.

“…teachers observe pupils carefully. They build up a picture of what each child finds motivating and engaging. This information is then used to create exciting and purposeful learning activities.” – Ofsted (June 2023)

In this session participants will be talked taken through the Sunningdale School’s unique use of the Engagement Model and how its use has been developed to effectively underpin Pre-formal, Semi-formal and Informal Curriculum Approaches including play-based-learning. At Sunningdale School we made the decision that we wanted pupils to be active agents as opposed to passive recipients in their learning and development. We want them to be active explorers and be able to apply their thinking.

The starting point for this is an understanding of what each child’s ability to engage with their environment looks like. Qualitative recordings of pupils’ engagement in the areas of Initiation, Persistence, Anticipation, Exploration and Realisation (The Engagement Model, 2020) are made regularly and used to build up a picture of how developed each of these are for all pupils in the school. This is an important baseline in establishing how developed each child’s ability to engage with their environment is.

Alongside this, we also record pupils’ motivators in terms of Activities, Resources, Environments, Levels of Support and Times of the Day. This information is used to create overall teaching environments and develop approaches that create the maximum potential for learning for individual pupils. We believe that without engagement, there is no deep learning, effective teaching, meaningful outcome, real attainment or quality progress (Hargreaves, 2006; Carpenter, 2010).

“…documents come to life in the classrooms, which are set out with engaging learning resources that hook pupils into learning.” – Ofsted (June 2023)

This is an online event. You will be sent details on how to access the session in the week leading up to the event date.

In this session James and Jonathan will outline the use of play to deliver Semi-Formal and Informal Learning for pupils with complex and severe learning difficulties, including those with autism.

They will look at the stages of play outlined in James’ chapter in ‘A Different View of Curriculum and Assessment for Severe, Complex and Profound Learning Disabilities’, sharing practical information about how play is used to develop learning within Sunningdale School across the school’s semiformal and informal curriculum pathways, as well as how the Engagement Model is used to support this.

This is an online event. You will be sent details on how to access the session in the week leading up to the event date.