Reframing Pathological Demand Avoidance: A Neurodiversity-Affirming Perspective

• By: Robert Naseef, PhD Clinical Psychologist, Author, and Parent of an Adult Autistic Son Stephen Shore, EdD Clinical Associate Professor of Special Education, Author, and Autistic Individual Adelphi University | Adelphi University
• July 9th, 2025
• demand avoidance, neurodivergent, neurodiversity, pathological demand avoidance, sensory processing, Summer 2025 Issue, support
• 1856    0

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is an unnecessary and dehumanizing label. It has become frequently mentioned in the autism community as a new diagnostic label often driven by anxiety and a need for control describing adamant refusal of everyday demands, often driven by anxiety and/or need for...

We Are All on the Same Side: Unite the Spectrum

• By: Robert Naseef, PhD Clinical Psychologist, Author, and Parent of an Adult Autistic Son Stephen M. Shore, EdD Clinical Associate Professor of Special Education, Author, and Autistic Individual Adelphi University
• April 12th, 2024
• acceptance, access to services, action, actually autistic, advocacy, appreciation, awareness, division, empowerment, human rights, labels, language, neurodiversity, personalized services, Spring 2024 Issue, unity
• 3635    3

We are writing to explain why we do not need more labels to describe autism. We, the authors, became acquainted with each other in 1996 through a common mentor, Stanley Klein, the editor of Exceptional Parent Magazine, when we each published our first books: Beyond the Wall: Personal Experiences...