Caroline Foran

And she's a PDA, you don't get over it, you don't get to an end point of autism where it's figured out, it's just you manage it.

So I'm learning a lot from her.

And what's hard is we tend to look for, well, what's the therapy?

What's the solution?

What's the thing that we can do to help?

And with PDA in particular, it's not really like six weeks of play therapy will massively make a difference.

It's not like that.

It's more the biggest difference comes from

the parents and the environment you create at home so this is the thing PDA it's a nervous system disability but it's also fluctuating so there are times when he's really regulated where he can handle demands and it seems like we think oh wow we've turned a corner and I start to get a little bit too upbeat about that and then another day his capacity won't be there and we think oh my god so

It's yeah, I guess at home is the most important part is the environment at home to reduce demands for him to feel completely safe and at ease.

And it's not about, oh, well, he is physically safe.

It's his sense, his perceived emotional safety trumps everything.

And then outside of that.

So probably the biggest element on my chest.

anxiety right now is the future for him.

And as we embark on the school situation, which I am not... Is he in school yet?

No.

We had decided to wait until he was... So he's just going to turn six and then start.

Because I was told time and time again, when we didn't know it was autism, when we thought it was just anxiety...

we were told go with the emotional readiness versus like the developmental readiness, because that will really stand to him.