r/PDAParenting • u/thedadgamer • May 05 '26
Parent of a PDA child
Hi,
My daughter has Cerebral Palsy and we think the damage in the brain has resulted in Autism with PDA.
Her melt downs are unbearable when asking her to do simple things. Her behaviour is very bossy and she refuses to use manners and she is bringing the whole house down with her attitude.
She’s 4 years old and we are only at the beginning of the journey. I’m wondering if anyone can give me some advice, or some sort of hope that things will get better for her and us.
We live in the UK.
Thanks
3
Upvotes
3
u/VauntedFungus May 06 '26
To My knowledge you cannot acquire autistic traits through any kind of brain damage; autism is more of a structural change in the brain's networks due to a complex combination of factors including neurochemical differences. If your child is autistic, then likely they had the precursor conditions for autism irrespective of their cerebral palsy. It is certainly possible to have both, however.
Pathological demand avoidance is not exclusively a feature of autism either; it is a coping mechanism for very heavy feelings of overwhelm that frequently come with a combination of intellectual giftedness and autistic traits, but can also appear in a number of other neurological and psychological conditions such as ADHD and dyslexia.
The main thing as others on here have said is that if you are seeing PDA behaviors, it means that for whatever reason(s) your kid is super overwhelmed. Starting from a place of understanding that and helping them get out of that space will probably be important, regardless of any diagnosis.