Strewing and PDA Guide

PDA Free ResourcesPDA Support Strategies
Written By Amanda Mc Guinness

A Neuroaffirmative Approach to Supporting Demand Avoidance

For PDAers with demand avoidant profile, everyday life can be experienced through a lens of heightened threat perception. Demands are not limited to instructions or expectations. They can be direct, subtle, relational, environmental, or even internally generated. This means that engagement, participation, and daily functioning are deeply influenced by how safe and autonomous the nervous system feels in any given moment.

PDA and Strewing

Within this context, strewing offers a practical, neuroaffirmative way of supporting engagement without increasing pressure.

Originally described by Sandra Dodd within unschooling, strewing has been meaningfully reconceptualised within PDA-informed practice as a way of reducing demand perception while still offering opportunities for connection, learning, and participation.

What Is Strewing in a PDA Context?

Within a demand avoidance framework, strewing can be defined as:

The intentional offering of sensory, environmental, or relational cues that a PDA individual can engage with or not, without expectation, instruction, or pressure.

The critical distinction is this:

The adult is not trying to get the child to do something.

The adult is creating conditions where engagement can happen safely.

PDA Strewing Examples

Strewings as a Neuroaffirmative PDA Approach

For individuals with a PDA profile, the nervous system may interpret many everyday interactions as threats to autonomy.

This includes:

  • Direct instructions

  • Questions

  • Praise

  • Suggestions

  • Planned activities

  • Transitions

  • Even perceived expectations

When this happens, the brain shifts into a protective state. Engagement is not accessible in the same way, regardless of interest or ability.

Strewing works because it:

  • Removes direct demand

  • Preserves autonomy

  • Reduces relational pressure

  • Allows the individual to remain in a regulated, thinking state

  • Creates space for curiosity to emerge

It aligns with the understanding that:

Engagement is not a skill deficit. It is a state-dependent capacity.

The Nervous System Perspective

Strewing is effective because it supports a shift away from survival responses and towards regulation.

When pressure is reduced:

  • The nervous system experiences greater safety

  • The thinking brain becomes more accessible

  • Flexibility increases

  • Curiosity can re-emerge

  • Engagement becomes possible

This reflects key principles from:

  • Polyvagal-informed understanding of safety and connection

  • Autonomy-based models of human motivation

  • Trauma-informed approaches to learning and support

Core Principles of PDA Strewing

The full PDA Book Recommendations Guide is available for download on this website. It has been designed for ease of navigation and practical use across family, educational, and professional contexts. Click here to download your free PDA Book Recommendation Guide.

References:

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) and the Nervous System:

1. Foundational Understanding of PDA:

  • Newson, E., Le Maréchal, K. and David, C. (2003) ‘Pathological demand avoidance syndrome: a necessary distinction within the pervasive developmental disorders’, Archives of Disease in Childhood, 88(7), pp. 595–600. Available at: https://adc.bmj.com/content/88/7/595 (Accessed: 1 February 2025).

  • Johnson, M. and Saunderson, H. (2023) ‘Examining the relationship between anxiety and pathological demand avoidance in adults: A mixed methods approach’, Frontiers in Education, 8, Article 1179015. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2023.1179015/full (Accessed: 2 February 2025).

  • O’Nions, E., Happé, F., Viding, E. and Noens, I. (2021) ‘Extreme demand avoidance in children with autism spectrum disorder: Refinement of a caregiver-report measure’, Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 5(3), pp. 1–13. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41252-021-00203-z (Accessed: 1 February 2025).

  • O’Nions, E., Christie, P., Gould, J., Viding, E. and Happé, F. (2014) ‘Development of the “Extreme Demand Avoidance Questionnaire” (EDA-Q): Preliminary observations on a trait measure for pathological demand avoidance’, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55(7), pp. 758–768. Available at: https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.12149 (Accessed: 2 February 2025).

2. Neurophysiological Perspectives:

  • Porges, S.W. (2011) The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

  • Porges, S.W. (2001) ‘The polyvagal theory: phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system’, International Journal of Psychophysiology, 42(2), pp. 123–146.

3. Insights for PDA Practitioners:

  • O’Nions, E., Happé, F., Viding, E. and Noens, I. (2021) ‘Extreme demand avoidance in children with autism spectrum disorder: Refinement of a caregiver-report measure’, Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 5(3), pp. 1–13. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41252-021-00203-z (Accessed: 1 February 2025)

  • Haire, L., Symonds, J., Senior, J. and D’Urso, G. (2024) ‘Methods of studying pathological demand avoidance in children and adolescents: A scoping review’, Frontiers in Education, 9, Article 1230011. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2024.1230011/full (Accessed: 1 February 2025).

4. Neuroscience and Trauma-Informed Perspectives:

  • Porges, S.W. (2009) ‘Reciprocal influences between body and brain in the perception and expression of affect: A polyvagal perspective’, The Healing Power of Emotion: Affective Neuroscience, Development & Clinical Practice, pp. 27–54.

5. Real-World Lived Experience and Clinical Application:

Amanda Mc Guinness https://www.littlepuddins.ie
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What is Strewing?