Hosting Harry and Jodie..... wow!
Hosting Harry and Jodie….. wow!
Saturday 13th July — Winchester Guildhall, 6:00–9:30pm — Harry Thompson and Jodie Isitt
Oh, and me. Yay. Here is the description:
An evening of insight into the Pathological Demand Avoidance neurotype featuring Harry Thompson, Jodie Isitt and Emily Fackrell.
Emily Wilding Fackrell of CalmFamily hosts an evening with Harry Thompson and Jodie Isitt at Winchester Guildhall. It is a rare chance to hear talks and join in conversations about Pathological Demand Avoidance, a behaviour profile within the autism spectrum. Expect an honest and enlightening account of what life with PDA is actually like.
Harry Thompson, an eloquent author and speaker who lives with PDA himself, will give a talk offering a first-person, descriptive insight into the profile. A Q&A follows, where you can ask Harry whatever you like. Harry is a PDA expert and consultant, a public speaker, and the author of The PDA Paradox: The Highs and Lows of My Life on a Little-Known Part of the Autism Spectrum.
Jodie Isitt will offer a brilliant insight into parenting a PDA child. In her own words: “a mother of three amazingly determined Autistic children and I am also a carer for my daughter Lola aged 9. Lola is Autistic with a demand avoidant profile and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. She had an extremely difficult time whilst attending a mainstream primary because of her ability to mask her difficulties. She also had some trouble regulating her sensory differences which were perceived as bad behaviour. When Lola transferred into a specialist primary school I found that I was having trouble accepting I would always be a carer, and I wanted to use my creativity to help others realise that you can build something around being a parent/carer and whilst doing that helping to change peoples perceptions of disabilities including autism.”
About the host. Emily Wilding Fackrell is a neurodivergent (ADHD/PDA) activist, entrepreneur, self-directed scholar, educator and mum of four. Her children are a wonderful cocktail of neurodivergences, and she home educates her PDA son. Emily runs a not-for-profit education community with a mission to change how we raise children in this society, for a better future.
Important details. Doors open at 18:00 for an 18:15 start. The programme finishes around 20:30, with refreshments and a chance to meet and talk to the speakers afterwards. There will be time to network once the event ends. We very much hope you can take up this opportunity to spend an evening with some of the people best placed to explain how life works — and doesn't — with Pathological Demand Avoidance.
Joy and excitement…
Since I started researching PDA I have followed a few people's work closely, and nobody's more closely than Harry's. His YouTube channel became a place I kept going back to, watching every video, some of them more than once. His was the first book I bought on PDA, and the first of many. Our experiences are very different, but it is in the strange and wonderful similarities that I have found somewhere to belong. His insight, his dry humour and his clarity are a relief, and his words often read as though he has borrowed my thoughts. I never expected to meet him, let alone host an event for him.
Then he asked Jodie to join us, and the excitement went up again. I have read her blog and found enormous support in it, loved her website for a long time, and am coveting her book. Excited is an understatement for how I feel about this evening.
I hope it will be the first of many times I work with these remarkable people.
Come along
13th July, 6:00–9:30pm
Winchester Guildhall, Hampshire
£25
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