My PDA Toolkit – A child-friendly toolkit to explore, understand and manage PDA

My PDA Toolkit - Explore PDA, understand pressure and discover what helps.

A practical, child-friendly resource for helping children and young people explore their individual experience of PDA and develop strategies that work for them.

About This Resource

PDA can affect much more than how a child responds to being asked to do something. Everyday expectations, questions, routines, decisions, plans and even things a child wants to do can sometimes create feelings of pressure and overwhelm.

My PDA Toolkit has been created to give children and young people the opportunity to explore and understand these experiences.

Across 18 printable pages, children are encouraged to investigate what creates pressure for them, how their brain and body respond, how PDA can affect worries and relationships, and what might help things feel easier.

Importantly, this isn't a one-size-fits-all collection of strategies. Our carefully thought out range of activities encourage children to discover their own patterns, preferences, regulation strategies and ways of communicating, building a personalised picture of their PDA along the way.

What Does the Toolkit Explore?

The resource takes children on a journey from understanding their PDA to discovering practical ways to support themselves.

Children will explore:

• PDA, demands and pressure – what PDA means, what can feel like a demand and the different things that can create pressure.
• The PDA brain and body – what can happen when pressure builds and the physical clues a child might notice.
• Their individual demands – becoming a Demand Detective to investigate which everyday demands feel difficult and why.
• Friendships and family life – exploring expectations, compromises, control, tricky moments and what helps within relationships.
• Thoughts and worries – understanding why demands can lead to worry and exploring their own Bubbling Brain.
• Choice and control – identifying small ways to create greater autonomy within things that still need to happen.
• Making demands feel easier – exploring how the way something is asked can change how demanding it feels.
• Regulation – investigating different strategies and identifying what actually helps the individual child.
• Safe spaces – exploring what a supportive space might look, feel and work like for them.
• Communication and self-advocacy – using Communication Cards and creating personal PDA Power Phrases to express needs when demands feel difficult.

Benefits

The My PDA Toolkit can help children and young people to:

• Build self-awareness: Recognise their own demands, triggers, pressure levels, body signals and responses.
• Understand themselves rather than blame themselves: Explore why certain everyday situations can feel disproportionately difficult and begin making sense of their responses.
• Develop emotional awareness: Notice how pressure can affect their thoughts, feelings and body.
• Communicate their needs: Find words, phrases and practical tools that can make it easier to tell others what they need.
• Explore greater choice and control: Identify realistic opportunities for autonomy that may help reduce feelings of pressure.
• Discover personalised regulation strategies: Experiment with different approaches rather than assuming the same strategies work for everybody.
• Support relationships: Explore what can feel difficult within friendships and family life and communicate what might help.
• Build self-advocacy: Give children greater confidence to explain their individual needs to the people supporting them.

Resource Features

• 18 printable pages of explanations, activities and practical tools.
• Child-friendly language that explains complex experiences without becoming overly clinical.
• Interactive activities including drawing, colouring, investigating, reflecting, experimenting and creating personal plans.
• Practical take-away tools including Communication Cards, a Choice & Control Map, Friendship Manual, Family PDA Plan and PDA Power Phrases.
• Personalised rather than prescriptive – children are encouraged to work out what helps them rather than being given a list of things they “should” do.
• Flexible use – work through the whole toolkit or select individual activities according to the child and the focus of your session.
• Black-and-white, printer-friendly design with plenty of opportunities for children to colour, doodle, draw and personalise their pages.

Who Is This Resource For?

Ideal for use with children and young people who experience, particularly when demands, expectations, choice or loss of control can create significant pressure.

It can be used by teachers, ELSAs, SENCOs, pastoral teams, counsellors, therapists and other professionals working with children and young people, as well as by parents and carers at home.

Use the pages individually to support a particular conversation, or work through the toolkit over a series of sessions to build a much fuller picture of the child's individual experience.

Perfect For

1:1 interventions • ELSA sessions • SEND support • pastoral work • therapeutic conversations • emotional literacy work • home support • building pupil voice • helping adults understand an individual child's needs

More Than Learning About PDA

By the end of the toolkit, the child isn't simply learning what PDA is. They're learning what PDA looks and feels like for them – and building a collection of personalised ideas, strategies and communication tools that can help both the child and the adults supporting them understand what they need.

Recommended Age: 8–16 years
Activities can be adapted to suit the individual child or young person’s age, understanding and support needs.