Ep. 144 - Helping Your PDA Child or Teen Get to A Doctor's Appointment
Fri Feb 06 2026
In this episode, I spoke to a grandmother raising her 8-year-old PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance / Pervasive Drive for Autonomy) Autistic grandson who she had been homeschooling for a year-and-a-half after school trauma in first grade.
We discussed:
- Helping her grandson attend an in-person appointment with the pediatrician, so he could get a refill of his medication.
- The different approaches she could take to decide her actions in this tough situation.
- The fear of losing trust and the progress they have made by forcing him to the doctor's office.
- Experimenting with ideas for how to prepare her grandson for the doctor's visit with an indirect mode of communications, and how to leverage his special interest of elevators to support him accessing medical care.
We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. It's from our live show "Parenting PDA Your Way" that I host on our social media at 1pm ET on Fridays.
Warmly,
Casey
PS - The grandma in this episode mentions our Paradigm Shift Program. Want to join the waitlist for the next cohort? Here's the link.
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In this episode, I spoke to a grandmother raising her 8-year-old PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance / Pervasive Drive for Autonomy) Autistic grandson who she had been homeschooling for a year-and-a-half after school trauma in first grade. We discussed: - Helping her grandson attend an in-person appointment with the pediatrician, so he could get a refill of his medication. - The different approaches she could take to decide her actions in this tough situation. - The fear of losing trust and the progress they have made by forcing him to the doctor's office. - Experimenting with ideas for how to prepare her grandson for the doctor's visit with an indirect mode of communications, and how to leverage his special interest of elevators to support him accessing medical care. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. It's from our live show "Parenting PDA Your Way" that I host on our social media at 1pm ET on Fridays. Warmly, Casey PS - The grandma in this episode mentions our Paradigm Shift Program. Want to join the waitlist for the next cohort? Here's the link.