Understanding the “Why” Behind Avoidance and Distress

Date: April 2, 2026, at 2pmET

Description: This 90-minute webinar offers a nuanced, neuro-affirming exploration of Performance Demand Avoidance (PDA) and its impact on children, adolescents, and the adults who support them. Participants will deepen their understanding of PDA as a nervous-system-driven response to perceived demands, rather than intentional oppositional behavior. The session will explore how anxiety, sensory processing differences, autonomy needs, and relational safety intersect in PDA profiles. We will examine how everyday expectations—both overt and subtle—can trigger threat responses, leading to avoidance, emotional dysregulation, or shutdown. Attendees will gain insight into how PDA may present across home, school, and therapeutic contexts, including common misinterpretations and the risks of traditional compliance-based approaches. Content will also introduce relationship-based, low-demand, and collaborative ways of supporting regulation, engagement, and trust, while preserving dignity and autonomy.

This webinar is ideal for therapists, educators, and caregivers seeking to better understand PDA-informed thinking and to reflect on how environments, language, and expectations can either escalate or reduce distress.

Outline / Agenda:

• Understanding Performance Demand Avoidance (PDA):
• Exploring PDA as a nervous-system and anxiety-driven profile, including how autonomy, threat perception, and stress responses shape avoidance behaviors.
• How PDA Presents Across Contexts:
• Examining common presentations at home, school, and in therapy, including masking, shutdown, explosive responses, and frequent misinterpretations of behavior.
• Why Traditional Approaches Often Escalate Distress:
• Reflecting on compliance-based, reward–consequence, and high-demand strategies, and how they can unintentionally increase anxiety and resistance in PDA profiles.
• PDA-Informed, Relationship-Based Support:
• Introducing low-demand, collaborative, and regulation-focused ways of supporting safety, engagement, and participation while preserving dignity and autonomy.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to describe Performance Demand Avoidance (PDA) as a nervous-system-driven profile, including the roles of anxiety, sensory processing, and perceived threat, and differentiate it from willful noncompliance or oppositional behavior within pediatric therapy practice.
2. Participants will be able to identify common PDA presentations across home, school, and therapeutic contexts and analyze how environmental demands, language, and expectations influence regulation and occupational participation.
3. Participants will be able to apply PDA-informed, relationship-based, and low-demand strategies to support regulation, autonomy, and engagement in daily occupations while maintaining ethical, neuro-affirming pediatric practice.

Assessment: Completion of 10-point questionnaire and feedback form

CEU Certificate provided for OT’s. Pending approval. Certificate of attendance for other attendees

Provider Name: The Maude Le Roux Academy

Presenter: Maude Le Roux, OTR/L, SIPT, ADHD-RSP, DIR Champion and Expert Training Leader

Bio: Maude Le Roux is a global trainer in multiple methodologies and a mentor to therapists from multidisciplinary teams. She opened her practice, A Total Approach in Glen Mills, PA, USA in 2001. Maude started her training career in 2007 and opened her online academy in 2019. She has designed the Developmental Pathways Model (DPM), which she applies to her own unique assessment and intervention protocol for major diagnosis such as Dyspraxia, ADHD and Executive Functions, Autism, Reading and Writing Disorders, and Trauma and Attachment. Maude served 9 years on the Board of Directors for ATTACh and currently serves on their Advisory Board. She also serves on the Advisory Board for LSWorks (Neuralign program). She is a co-author of two books and more recently wrote a chapter on Trauma and the Body in “Healing Connections” which launched in September 2024. Maude received an award for “Continued child advocacy” through the ATTACh organization in September 2024. She also received the Champion Award through ICDL in November 2024. Maude has a “whole child” approach to care and intervention and equipping the child, while empowering the parent is at the core of who she is as a clinician and trainer.

Special Needs Accommodation: We invite anyone who may need a specific accommodation to contact [email protected] and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

Cancellation Policy:

Payment is due in full upon registration. Contact [email protected] for any questions in this regard.

• Cancellations up to 30 days prior: $25 administration fee
• Cancellations up to 2 weeks prior: 25% fee
• Cancellations within 2 weeks of event: 50% fee
  For questions, please email [email protected]

Target Audience: Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, Physical Therapists, Social Workers, Psychologists, Educators, Parents

Educational Level: Intermediary

Instructional Methods: PowerPoint, Group Discussion, Video

Contact Hours: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Fee: $45

 Maude and Charl Le Roux own the Maude Le Roux Academy and thus the proceeds of this course will cover operational expenses as well as provide income for Maude and Charl Le Roux.