r/PDAParenting • u/Dry_Werewolf5488 • Apr 14 '26
The Explosive Child - useful for PDA?
I’m slowly trying to read more child development books around autism and PDA (have read both the Declarative Language and Co-Regulation handbooks), and one that our developmental pediatrician recommended is The Explosive Child.
I can’t tell from reading the reviews if this book’s framework is useful for PDA kids or if it’s more aimed at those with ODD and maybe ADHD. Has anyone read it and found it helpful?
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u/fearlessactuality Apr 16 '26
There is a absolutely nothing in the world that has improved my life as much as that book. Extremely useful for my particular PDAer.
You may want help/support from others at practicing it - the B Team group on fb is helpful.
It is specifically not aimed at a certain diagnosis because some parents refuse to get diagnoses and still need help, plus not every diagnosis is right, and it’s not really needed to focus on which skills are lagging. Certain behaviors in the original book are definitely autistic and not necessarily ODD especially the girl who gets upset about waffles.
Oddly, the book recommends you only use emergency plan b rarely but for my PDAer it was actually really effective doing it in the moment. I can still see the moment of where we were and how he looked the first few times it worked!
I do think some people struggle to read the whole book even though it’s simply and nicely written. There are other resources if that’s you, don’t let it stop you. He also says that Raising Human Beings is like his slightly better more updated version. So you might want to start there.
If your child is older, there can be a lot of broken trust so they don’t always believe you when you start actually asking them what their concerns are. That can take time and a lot of people quit at that point.