Commentary: Conceptualising demand avoidance in an ASD context – a response to Osman Malik & Gillian Baird (2018)

Abstract

Malik and Baird (this issue) have raised a number of important points drawing on our study of parent-reported dimensions of difficulty in children with features of extreme/’pathological’ demand avoidance. In particular, they highlight the pressing need to understand why some children exhibit problematic demand avoidance, and identify factors that promote and maintain these behaviours. As Green et al. () note, children with ASD often show a strong reactivity to the environment. As such, stimuli, activities or interactions that present no problems for typically developing children may unexpectedly provoke extremes of affect. Both Green and colleagues (2018) and Malik & Baird (this issue) highlight a number of possible contributory factors, including sensory sensitivities, difficulty in predicting outcomes, need for sameness, poor tolerance of uncertainty, and fluctuations in autonomic arousal.