I’ve lost count of the number of times over the last decade that parents have told me their tales of woe about ignorant and insensitive professionals, when it comes to ASD/PDA.
One such parent is Dr Barbara Mitra, a senior academic at the University of Worcester, and mum to AJ. I assessed AJ in 2014 and diagnosed his PDA beyond the pre-existing ASD diagnosis. Following this, the LA funded a place for AJ at a local independent specialist school, where, after several years of positive engagement in his education, he has successfully completed GCSE studies. Barbara has now written and published her account of how she was treated by professionals involved in the care and education of AJ in those early dark days.
I urge you to read Barbara’s damning, accurate and heartfelt account, written with honesty and lucidity, as it presents a sad indictment of professional involvement. It’s also one of the few accounts which is underpinned by a clear research methodology – autoethnography.
You can access Barbara’s article here
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/ought/vol3/iss2/6/
and it is available to download.
I am always appalled at the irresponsible professionals who dish out advice on parenting strategies that clearly do not work with PDA youngsters. What Barbara and her family were told to do with AJ wasn’t just plainly misguided or misinformed, or plain wrong. No, it was utterly abusive to AJ, and was antithetical to his PDA presentation. It also damaged relationships founded on love and trust, with his parents and sibling.
For the record, Barbara wishes to make it clear that her criticism of professionals does not include me. She kindly wrote:
‘Please note that this article does not refer to Dr Hilary Dyer (an independent Specialist Consultant Educational Psychologist and PDA specialist) who was insightful, helpful and reassuring in our understanding of PDA and the strategies that we needed to employ. The term ‘professionals’ used in the article refers mainly to the local authorities, schools and services that we engaged with.
Dr Dyer’s understanding and support helped us enormously and when compared to the other professionals we engaged with, she was a bright ray of hope amidst the stress and anxieties we were dealing with.’
Dr Barbara Mitra
If you are reading this blogpost as a professional in the world of ASD and PDA I urge you to take on board Barbara’s article. Indeed it should be compulsory reading for all professionals in the field of ASD and PDA.
Are you a parent who is, or has been, in a similar situation to the one Barbara describes? If so, she -and I- would welcome hearing from you. Barbara’s email address at the University of Worcester is included in her article.
16th August 2022