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Life-changing content and community for PDAers and our family members. Join our mailing list to allow periodic emails from Rabbi Shoshana to come to you:
Rabbi Shoshana's Blog
Separation Anxiety: 6 steps parents can take to support PDA children
6 steps parents can take to support PDA children with separation anxiety
Jun 19, 20244 min read
How do I talk about mental health with my child or teen? P.S. this framing is helpful for adults, too...
How do I talk about mental health with my child or teen?
Jun 1, 20246 min read
How unlimited screen time works in our home & how I recommend parents approach screens with PDA kids & teens
How unlimited screentime works in our home and how I recommend PDA parents approach screen usage for their kids.
May 18, 20249 min read
9 Core Accommodations for Autistic PDA children & teens
By Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman Conventional parenting strategies do not work for PDAers. Without knowing about PDA, families like mine...
May 8, 20247 min read
20 simple ways PDA kids & teens can safely feel in charge of their adult
20 simple ways PDA kids & teens can safely feel in charge of their adult. Healthy equalizing helps PDA kids & teens feel safe.
May 3, 20246 min read
What is PDA? Well, PDA is NOT...
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman What is PDA? PDA stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance, or Pervasive Drive for Autonomy. In the UK...
Apr 14, 20245 min read
Can PDA Kids Love School? Yes - I did. But the conditions were particular.
My child and I are both Autistic and PDA. PDA stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance, or Pervasive Drive for Autonomy. Understanding of...
Apr 3, 20245 min read
6 Areas I Practice Low Demand Living
What is Low Demand? I came to the concept of Low Demand Living through Low Demand Parenting. Low Demand Parenting is the idea that we can...
Mar 24, 20249 min read
7 Powerful Mindset Shifts for Educators of PDA students
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman PDA stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance or Pervasive Drive for Autonomy, a little-known profile of...
Mar 14, 20246 min read
Why is conventional school hard or impossible for most PDA children?
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman To understand why school is difficult or impossible for so many PDA children & teens, we need to know...
Feb 28, 20244 min read
My Autism Self-Diagnosis Story
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman When my son was 3, we started bringing him to a private Occupational Therapist to help with sensory...
Feb 17, 20244 min read
Internalized v Externalized PDA
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman That's funny... you don't look PDA! My son & I are both Autistic with a PDA profile. PDA =Pervasive...
Feb 16, 20242 min read
How do internalized PDA'ers assert control or "equalize"?
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman I am what is known in the PDA community as an internalized PDAer. In this post, I explain what that...
Feb 16, 20245 min read
FAQs on PDA by a PDAer
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman What is PDA? PDA stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance, or Pervasive Drive for Autonomy. The latter...
Feb 15, 20249 min read
8 Ways to Support an Autistic Child Infatuated with an Adult Outside the Home
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman These suggestions stem from my own experience as an Autistic person who has been in and out of limerence...
Feb 13, 20243 min read
I think my child might be Autistic but the pediatrician says "not to worry." What should I do?
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman As parents we look to our pediatricians to be experts in child development. But actually, most general...
Feb 11, 20243 min read
Autistic Limerence: The risks of when a person is a special interest
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman What is Limerence? Limerence is one name for infatuation with another person. It is not a regular crush....
Feb 3, 20245 min read
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