Our PDA USA Book Study is designed to give families a place to plug in and start reading our "PDA essentials" books, as well as any books we think will be a help to PDA families.
Our "essentials" list is: The Declarative Language Handbook by Linda Murphy, The Explosive Child by Ross Greene, The Insider Guide to PDA by SallyCat and Brook Madera, Navigating PDA in America by Diane Gould and Ruth Fiddler, and Low Demand Parenting by Amanda Diekman.
The idea is to connect with other families as you digest the book materials, and studies offer a chance to ask questions of the author during the final session!
We rotate through our five PDA essential books on a regular basis so that PDA families new and seasoned can jump on anytime and learn more about applying PDA-supportive principles.
The Parent's Handbook for Kids in Burnout
Mondays, Oct. 26th - Nov. 16th
7 pm ET
- Do daily responsibilities feel impossible because your child or teen won't leave the house?
- Is your kid struggling with daily tasks they once completed easily?
- Is your child suddenly aggressive with their siblings, or flipping the table when they lose at Uno?
- Have school challenges escalated to daily battles and full refusal?
- Does the day-to-day slog feel unbearable?
- In your low moments, do you feel like the world's worst parent?
Childhood burnout is a real, growing phenomenon where chronic (often invisible) stress becomes too much to handle, pushing kids into an extended season of emotional, physical, and social exhaustion.
The Parent's Handbook for Kids in Burnout is a practical, research-driven resource to help you identify sources of stress and respond with compassion, while continuing to support your child's growth and thriving.
With chapters to meet you wherever you're at, this comprehensive handbook comes with a burnout assessment quiz, downloadable tools and charts, and dozens of practical stories and examples. Get the answers you need right away with chapters on showering, sleep, screens, school, meds, therapies, meltdowns, and mental health emergencies.
About the author: Amanda Diekman is author of best-seller “Low-Demand Parenting,” and also the exhausted mom of three kids who have all experienced burnout. With relentlessly hopeful determination, Amanda turns her struggles into signposts, guiding the way into true healing for burned out kids—and their parents too.
$25 (book not included)
A limited number of tickets are PWYC (Pay What You Can)
PDA Partner
100,00 kr SEK per month (plus tax)
- FREE Podcast Tickets
- FREE PDA Workshop Tickets
- 50% off Book Study Coupons
- Discounts on Merch
- PDA video library
The Insider Guide to PDA
Mondays, Jan. 18th - Feb. 8th
7 pm ET
"Don't tell me what to do" - everyone's said it (or thought it!), but for the PDA brain it's a tenet that makes everyday tasks a constant challenge. Whether it's a request from a friend or a social expectation to do something, pathological demand avoidance can throw a bucket of ice water on your motivation, or create anxiety that builds up and boils over as a meltdown.
In this essential primer, PDAers Sally Cat and Brook Madera explain what PDA is, how it manifests, and what you can do to minimise its impact. They explore its interaction with other forms of neurodivergence, potential misdiagnosis as a multitude of other conditions and disorders, and how it actually feels in reality. They also highlight the positives of PDA life, as shared by other PDAers and their loved ones.
Whether you're a PDAer yourself, or know one and want to support them, this Insider Guide will help you understand what PDA is and how to live with it.
About the authors:
Brook Madera is a PDA adult who shares her lived experience on social media as No Pressure PDA, and established a U.S.-based nonprofit that hosts an online facebook PDA Community serving 23,000+ members. She previously held the title of lived-experience consultant for PDA North America, and gave presentations at the 2024 and 2025 PDA North American conferences.
Her particular areas of expertise are in helping children and adults through autistic/PDA burnout, parenting PDA with siblings, helping differentiate PDA from other kinds of demand avoidance, and troubleshooting when other support may be needed for common co-occuring conditions that come with PDA.
Sally Cat is an adult PDA artist, author, advocate and animator, as well as the mom of a PDA kid of her own. She has published many popular PDA books including PDA by PDAers, and Pathological Demand Avoidance Explained.
She lives in south-west England, and is a qualified person centered counselor and has a graduate diploma in animation and interactive media, for which she received a high distinction.
$25 (book not included)
A limited number of tickets are PWYC (Pay What You Can)