The complete PDA teaching system for Australian classrooms.
Fifteen chapters, twenty-three printable tools and the exact language that lowers a PDA student’s threat response — so the student who cannot be told what to do can still learn in your room.
$19AUD · instant download · or licence it for the whole school
- Written for F–12 Australian schools
- Print for the students you teach
- Instant PDF
- 15Chapters
- 23Printable tools
- 150+Pages
- F–12Australian context
Why nothing you’ve tried is working
Everything that works for every other student makes this one worse.
That is not a failure of your teaching. A PDA student’s nervous system reads a normal instruction as a threat — so firmer boundaries, clearer consequences and repeated reminders all add load to a system that is already at capacity. The strategies are not too weak. They are pointed in the wrong direction.
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She’s bright — she just won’t apply herself.
Often above-average ability. The barrier is not capacity, it is how the demand registers. Chapter 1 gives you the can’t-versus-won’t distinction that changes the whole conversation.
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He’s fine in class, then falls apart at home.
Masking costs everything and the bill arrives after 3pm. Chapter 10 and Tool T03 show you what compliance is actually hiding — and why the parent’s account and yours can both be true.
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The more consequences we apply, the worse it gets.
Consequences are demands, and demands escalate PDA. Chapter 3 explains why standard behaviour systems backfire, and Chapter 8 gives you what to do instead, in the moment.
The Handbook is written to teachers as skilled professionals, not as training subjects. It assumes you can manage a classroom and explains the one thing that is genuinely different — then hands you the scripts, the audits and the templates to act on it by Monday.
Inside the Handbook
Built in four layers, so it works whether you have an hour or five minutes.
You don’t read this front to back. Every chapter closes with a Key Takeaway box you can photocopy, and the print-ready tools sit at the back, ready to laminate. Use the layer that matches the time you actually have.
The readable handbook
Fifteen chapters across five parts. Read it through, or go straight to the chapter that matches this week’s problem.
Quick-reference summaries
A Key Takeaway box ending every chapter. Photocopy it, put it on your desk, or paste it into a staff email.
Printable toolkit
Twenty-three print-ready tools — demand audits, language frameworks, planning sheets and support templates.
Staff-shareable resources
One-page summaries and single-slide overviews for staff meetings, parent evenings and professional learning.
Part one — Understanding PDA
- 01What Is PDA?Can’t versus won’t, key classroom features, and how it presents from Foundation to Year 12.
- 02The PDA Nervous SystemThreat detection, the demand battery, and why Monday was fine but Thursday isn’t.
- 03Why Standard Management BackfiresWhat reward charts and consequences actually do to a demand-avoidant system.
Part two — Foundational practice
- 04Language That WorksScripts and frameworks. Commands versus observations, wondering language, phrases to retire.
- 05A Low-Demand EnvironmentThe demand audit across five domains, regulation zones, and ten changes that cost nothing.
Part three — In the moment
- 06Task Design and AssessmentChunking, choice of starting point, assessment adjustments, and when to suspend homework.
- 07TransitionsWhy transitions are a demand cluster, and strategies for every transition in the day.
- 08Refusal, Shutdown, EscalationDe-escalation scripts, what not to do, the 20-minute rule, three real scenarios.
- 09School Refusal and ReturnPartial attendance as strategy, the five phases of return, what families wish schools knew.
Part four — Broader contexts
- 10PDA Girls and MaskingWhy it is missed, and ten things PDA girls want their teachers to know.
- 11Reasonable AdjustmentsThe DDA 1992 and DSE 2005 in practice, the full menu, and what to do when the school says no.
- 12Writing a Support PlanSix sections, eight common mistakes, and sample wording that actually holds up.
- 13Partnership with FamiliesConversation starters, meeting structure, and repairing a broken relationship.
Part five — Sustaining the work
- 14Relief and Casual StaffThe five things every relief teacher needs, and what to do with no briefing at all.
- 15Staff WellbeingThe emotional reality of this work, and building a PDA-informed school culture.
Also included
- TThe Printable ToolkitTwenty-three standalone print-ready tools — thirty pages of them.
- GGlossary of Key TermsPlain language for staff meetings and family conversations.
- RFurther ReadingKey Australian and international resources, and the books worth your time.
A real excerpt — Tool T06
The two-second change that does more than anything else in the book.
Instead of telling a student what to do, describe what is happening or what you notice. The student keeps their autonomy — and autonomy is the thing that lowers the anxiety. It costs nothing, takes two seconds, and it is the shift teachers write back to us about most often.
The Handbook gives you the framework, ten worked swaps for every part of the school day, and the “wondering language” that follows it. This is one page of one hundred and fifty.
- “Sit down and start your work.”“The materials are on your desk. I wonder which part you’ll start with.”
- “Line up now.”“The line is forming over here.”
- “Tidy up your area.”“I notice there are some things still on the floor.”
- “Finish your work.”“There’s about five minutes left for this task.”
- “Switch to maths now.”“In two minutes, we’re moving to maths.”
- “Sit still.”“I notice you’re moving a lot. There’s a fidget tool on the shelf if that helps.”
The Classroom Toolkit
Real pages, not a sales pitch.
Seven of the twenty-three tools, exactly as they print. Every licence includes all of them.
All 23 included
Every tool, in every licence.
Get it for $19 ↗The classroom toolkit
Twenty-three tools you can print tonight and use tomorrow.
The PDA Classroom Toolkit is the companion volume — 37 pages, twenty-three print-ready tools, included with every licence.
Every tool prints as a standalone page. Keep the quick-reference cards on your desk, the planning forms in student files, and hand the briefing sheets to relief teachers before their day begins. Reproducing them for your students is written into the licence.
- T01PDA at a Glance — Age-by-Age Reference
- T02What PDA Is Not — Common Misreadings
- T03Recognising Masking in the Classroom
- T04Ten Things PDA Girls Want Teachers to Know
- T05Observation Prompts for PDA Girls
- T06Language Framework — Commands vs. Observations
- T07Wondering Language — Framework and Examples
- T08Phrases to Avoid and What to Say Instead
- T09De-escalation Protocol — Five Steps
- T10One-Liner Phrase Bank
- T11Language Across Year Levels
- T12Standard vs. PDA-Informed Approach
- T13Demand Audit Checklist
- T14Quick Wins — 10 Environmental Changes
- T15Task Modification Quick Reference
- T16PDA-Informed Support Plan
- T17Reasonable Adjustments Planning Tool
- T18Transition Support Plan
- T19Gradual Return to School Plan
- T20Relief Teacher Briefing Sheet
- T21Family Partnership Communication Log
- T22Family Meeting Preparation Guide
- T23Compassion Fatigue — Staff Self-Check
All twenty-three are in every licence. Teachers may reproduce the printable templates for classroom and school use — school-wide and staff-wide reproduction requires the School / Institutional Licence.
Get the Handbook — $19Free teacher downloads
Not ready to buy? Take these instead.
Free, printable PDA Australia resources for classroom teachers and school teams. No signup, no email wall, and they stay free. If they help, the Handbook is the reasoning underneath them.
PDA Schools Quick Reference
A concise starting point for school teams who need the core principles at a glance.
Free PDFDownload ↗PDA School Strategies Card
Keep practical low-demand language and classroom responses close at hand.
Free PDFDownload ↗Low-Demand Classroom Checklist
Review routines, language, choices, transitions and regulation supports in one place.
Free PDFDownload ↗Teacher Meeting Prep Pack
Organise observations, priorities and questions before a home–school meeting.
Free PDFDownload ↗Jekyll & Hyde: An Explainer for Schools
Understand why school presentation and after-school distress can both be true.
Free PDFDownload ↗School Refusal Guide for PDA Families
A practical guide for responding when attendance has become difficult or unsafe.
Free PDFDownload ↗Choose your licence
One classroom, or the whole staffroom?
Same Handbook either way. The difference is how many people are allowed to read it — and what arrives with it when the answer is “everyone”.
Single user licence
The PDA Teacher Handbook
$19AUD · instant download
For one teacher, teaching their own students. If you are paying for this yourself and nobody is reimbursing you, this is the one.
- The complete 15-chapter Handbook (PDF)
- The PDA Classroom Toolkit — 23 print-ready tools, 37pp
- Key Takeaway summaries for every chapter
- Print the templates for the students you teach
- Yours to keep, including the 2026 revision
Instant download from PDA Australia.
School / institutional licence
The Handbook, for your whole school
$99$149AUD · introductory offer
Unlimited staff at one school or campus — plus three expansion packs and the staff briefing deck. Four documents, not one.
- Everything in the single licence, for every teacher on staff
- Host it on your staff drive, intranet or LMS
- New staff and relief teachers every year, no re-purchase
- Professional Learning Record — 12pp, APST-aligned, 48 fillable fields
- Whole-Staff Briefing Pack — 14pp facilitator kit, 20-minute meeting
- Relief Teacher Pack — 14pp, handover scripts and briefing sheets
- 14-slide staff briefing deck, ready to present
Introductory price.
Before you choose the single licence
Being straight with you about what one copy can’t do.
We would rather say this now than have you find out in a staff meeting. A single user licence is exactly that — one teacher, one copy, and every printable tool you need for the students in front of you. For one classroom it is genuinely enough.
What it does not stretch to is a staffroom. If that is where this is heading, the school licence exists so you never have to choose between doing the right thing and doing the useful thing.
- Forwarding the PDF to colleagues, your year level team or learning support
- Uploading it to a shared drive, staff intranet, LMS or Google Classroom
- Printing the full book for a staff meeting or professional learning session
- The professional learning record, briefing pack, relief pack or slide deck
Included with the school licence
Three expansion packs that turn a good book into a staff-wide change.
One teacher reading a handbook helps one class. These three are what make it stick across a school — the paperwork that makes the reading count, the run sheet for the staff meeting, and the sheet that reaches the casual who walks in at 8.50am knowing nothing.
Professional Learning Record
A signable professional learning record with an APST alignment statement — so the reading your staff already did counts for something.
- 19 focus areas in two tiers — 10 core, 9 extended
- Every row names the artefact behind the claim
- Descriptors quoted verbatim from the Proficient stage
- Two worked exemplars — Year 3 and Year 9
- Leaders’ page with a term-by-term process
- States plainly what it does not claim
Whole-Staff Briefing Pack
A facilitator kit for a twenty-minute staff meeting — with 10, 45 and 60-minute variants for when you get more time than you expected.
- Minute-by-minute run sheet, keyed to the deck
- Slide-by-slide deck map
- Three extension blocks, two cut-out scenarios
- Five common objections, plus four harder ones
- What to do when it lands personally for staff
- Handout, commitment sheet, six-week follow-up
Relief Teacher Pack
Not just a briefing sheet — the delivery system that gets it into a casual’s hands, whether you are primary, secondary or covering internally.
- Fillable student briefing sheet, and what work to leave
- Four handover scripts, from night-before to door
- PDA in ninety seconds, and the first ten minutes
- What to do if nobody told you anything
- Ten what-to-do-if situations, two phrase cards
- Feedback slip and a return-day page
Ready to present, and mapped slide-by-slide to the briefing pack’s run sheet. Open it, follow the sheet, and you have run a credible twenty-minute PDA briefing without preparing anything yourself.
The expansion packs are not sold separately. They exist to make the Handbook work at staff level, so they come with the school licence only.
Who this is for
Written for teachers as professionals, not as training subjects.
You already know how to manage a classroom, connect with students and balance competing demands. PDA needs a different approach — not because you are doing something wrong, but because these students’ nervous systems work differently.
One student doesn’t respond to anything that works for everyone else.
Start with the Quick-Start Guide — five changes you can make today — then Chapter 4 on language. Most teachers notice a difference inside the first week.
You need the whole staff pointing the same direction.
Read Chapter 3 on why standard management backfires, then run the twenty-minute briefing. The school licence hands you the run sheet, the deck and the PL record.
You write the plan, cover the class, or are tired of explaining.
Chapters 11 and 12 cover adjustments and support plans with sample wording. Chapter 14 briefs relief staff. The opening chapters give families and schools a shared starting point.
Before you buy
The questions schools actually ask us.
If yours isn’t here, just ask us ↗
What exactly do I get, and how?
A PDF, delivered instantly after checkout. No app, no login, no expiry. Read it on a laptop, a phone or on paper — and print any of the twenty-three tools as often as you like for your own students.
How many teachers does the school licence cover?
All of them, at one school or campus — teaching staff, learning support, leadership, and the relief teachers who come and go. No seat count to track, no annual renewal.
Can I upgrade from single to school licence?
Yes. Email us your original receipt and we will credit what you paid against the school licence. You should not be out of pocket for backing your own staff.
Does the Professional Learning Record count as accredited PD?
No — and the document says so itself. It is not accredited professional development and it is not endorsed by AITSL. What it is: an honest record mapping your reading and practice change against the Standards, with the evidence named for every claim, ready for your own PL process.
Is this actually Australian?
Thoroughly. Australian English, F–12 terminology, ACARA references, and the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and Disability Standards for Education 2005 throughout. The principles travel; the framing is built for here.
We already have the free downloads. Is this different?
Yes. The free resources are one-page summaries and they stay free. The Handbook is the reasoning underneath them — scripts, decision trees, worked scenarios, and the tools in full.
Can we see more of it before we commit?
Yes. The seven Toolkit pages above are real pages at full size, the free downloads are the same thinking in summary form, and the chapter map lists every chapter. If a coordinator needs something specific before signing off, contact us and ask.
The PDA Teacher Handbook · 2026 revised edition
One student is a hard week. A whole staff who understand is a different school.
Start with one copy if that is where you are. If more than five people on your staff need this, the school licence costs less and brings the three packs that make it land.
- 15 chapters
- 23 printable tools
- Australian context
- Instant download
General educational information only. The PDA Teacher Handbook, The PDA Classroom Toolkit and everything on this page are practical educational resources. They offer general guidance for school settings and are not a substitute for individual advice, formal assessment, or support from appropriately qualified professionals.
Not clinical, diagnostic or legal advice. Nothing here is medical, psychological, therapeutic, diagnostic or legal advice, and no professional relationship is created by buying or reading these resources. References to PDA are provided for educational purposes and are not intended to diagnose any child or determine an individual support pathway. Where a student’s needs are complex, significant or safety-related, seek guidance from appropriately qualified professionals and work with the school team and the student’s family.
Every context is different. Readers remain responsible for exercising their own professional judgement and for considering the individual needs of the student, relevant school policies, professional obligations and any applicable legal requirements before applying anything described here. Legal and regulatory requirements vary between states and territories and can change; verify current requirements for your own setting. No particular outcome is promised or guaranteed.
Professional learning. The Professional Learning Record is not accredited professional development and is not endorsed by AITSL or by any teacher regulatory authority. It is a self-completed record for use within your own school’s professional learning processes. Australian Professional Standards for Teachers descriptors are quoted for reference only.
Licensing. A single user licence covers one educator, who may print and reproduce the templates for the students they teach. Sharing, uploading, redistributing or reproducing these resources for other staff, or for anyone outside your own teaching, requires the School / Institutional Licence. Digital products are delivered instantly and are not transferable.
Third-party links. Links to external organisations and government resources are provided for convenience. PDA Australia does not control and is not responsible for their content or availability.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, PDA Australia excludes liability for any loss or damage arising from reliance on these materials. Nothing in this notice excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy you may have under the Australian Consumer Law or other applicable law that cannot lawfully be excluded.
© 2026 PDA Australia. Prices in AUD and current at the time of publication.