Creating Low Demand Environments for Children with High Anxiety

Loading player...
Lauren Edmunds dives deep into the challenge of balancing regulation and progress for children with anxiety and conditions like PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance). She discusses how creating a low-demand environment can help manage dysregulation without sacrificing progress, emphasizing the importance of regulation for learning. By exploring the dynamics of demand and regulation, Lauren explains how to create a more manageable, balanced experience for children, where they can thrive academically and emotionally. She also highlights how creating a calm and grounding environment enables children to feel safe, leading to significant cognitive growth and behavioral improvement.
7 Apr 2025 English South Africa Education · Self-Improvement

Other recent episodes

Change One Thing: Parenting, Choice and Consequence

In this episode, Lauren Edmunds explores the powerful link between choice and consequence in parenting. She reflects on how lasting change in children often begins with a shift in our own behaviour, encouraging parents to model positive habits, embrace change, and focus on small, consistent actions that make a meaningful…
23 Apr 4 min

Chipping Away at the Stone

Lauren Edmunds draws on the story of Michelangelo's David to reframe what it really means to support children with learning difficulties and neurodiversity. Rather than trying to mould children into something they are not, she argues that the real work is in removing the barriers that are getting in the…
8 Apr 6 min

Addiction & the Battle for Our Children's Minds

Lauren Edmunds, founder of a school specialising in learning delays, delivers a candid warning about the real cost of unchecked screen time. Drawing from her classroom experience, she makes the case that screen addiction is reshaping how children think, learn, and engage with the world and that the first step…
1 Apr 4 min

The Evening Prescription

In this episode, Lauren Edmunds explains how reclaiming two simple evening habits can reverse the decline in a child's academic and social abilities. By dedicating just 15 minutes to a family dinner and 20 minutes to reading aloud, parents create a "safe space" that fosters the vocabulary, empathy and critical…
25 Mar 3 min