Michaela E. Gordon
Exploring Causes and Approaches to Help Children With Persistent Refusal and Avoidance examines why some children persistently resist, refuse, or avoid everyday expectations-and why the same outward behavior may require very different responses. Rather than assuming that refusal is always caused by dysregulation or is simply behavioral, the book offers a practical framework for considering sensory and emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, executive functioning, developmental skills, environmental factors, learned patterns, and the function of behavior.Exploring Causes and Approaches to Help Children With Persistent Refusal and Avoidance_REVISED_MASTER_CHANGES.pdfDrawing on research across autism, ADHD, anxiety, family accommodation, self-regulation, executive functioning, and behavior, the book helps parents and professionals distinguish between a child who has temporarily lost access to their skills and a child who is struggling to accept, shift to, or participate in a non-preferred expectation. Exploring Causes and Approaches to Help Children With Persistent Refusal and Avoidance_REVISED_MASTER_CHANGES.pdfThrough practical examples and strategies, readers are encouraged to consider when to accommodate, when to co-regulate, when to scaffold or teach a skill, and when a child may benefit from support in building greater flexibility and tolerance for necessary but non-preferred experiences. The goal is not compliance for its own sake, but helping children develop greater capacity, participation, flexibility, and independence while respecting genuine developmental and neurodevelopmental needs. Exploring Causes and Approaches to Help Children With Persistent Refusal and Avoidance_REVISED_MASTER_CHANGES.pdfWritten for parents, occupational therapists, educators, and other professionals, this book offers a thoughtful framework for looking beneath refusal and determining what kind of support may be most helpful for the individual child.
