“Pandas? …Bears?”
This is a memorable line from a recent case study featured in the British Psychological Society’s report, Impact Stories from the Frontline of Educational Psychology. Educational Psychologist Jennifer Heseltine recounts a conversation about PANDAS during efforts to understand a child’s sudden change in presentation. For many families affected by PANS and PANDAS, the moment is familiar: the point at which they realise they are about to explain their child or young person to someone new, yet again.
The challenge of making sense of the medical conditions of PANS and PANDAS is not only experienced by caregivers or professionals; many young people are trying to understand it too. Perhaps that is why Glitch the panda has become the symbol of this year’s PANS PANDAS Awareness Day campaign: ‘Wear Green for Glitch’. Glitch was inspired by members of the PANS PANDAS UK Youth Advisory Board, who described living with PANS or PANDAS in powerful terms:
‘It’s like there is something wrong with my brain… like there’s a glitch in the way I think.’
These young people know that some PANS and PANDAS experiences are difficult to explain, particularly when they involve sudden changes in thinking, behaviour, emotions or functioning. Rather than simply raising awareness, the group worked with Taming Olivia to create a character that could help young people communicate their own experiences to others.
The importance of empathising with families
Each year, PANS PANDAS Awareness Day (which falls on 9th October) encourages conversations about recognition, awareness, and support.
Over the past two Awareness Day edpsy blogs, ‘Understanding PANS and PANDAS,’ and ‘PANS and PANDAS: Emerging Understandings’ we have focused on building understanding of the conditions and reflecting on the progress being made in awareness, education, and healthcare. This year, it feels worth stepping back and asking a different question: how many times should a family have to explain their child?
For families affected by PANS and PANDAS, repeatedly explaining what has happened to their child can become a significant part of everyday life, often at a time when their energy is already depleted. They may find themselves retelling the same story to schools, health professionals, local authorities, friends, relatives, and each new professional involved.
This is not simply a consequence of limited awareness. PANS and PANDAS can challenge familiar professional assumptions because families are often describing a child or young person who has changed suddenly, rather than following a more gradual or expected developmental pattern.
As Jennifer Heseltine writes:
“It started with an individual referral for statutory assessment but became a systemic piece of work by the end. The child referred was a ‘mystery’, having followed a typical developmental journey until age nine, achieving at age-appropriate levels and presenting as happy, active, and sociable. By all accounts, their presentation had changed suddenly, seemingly overnight, following a common childhood infection.”
In her recent article for The Psychologist, ‘This is not my child… something isn’t right’, Clinical Psychologist Dr Vicky Queralt also reflects on the importance of revisiting formulation when a child or young person’s presentation no longer fits our original understanding. She suggests that professionals need to remain open to the possibility that familiar explanations may no longer be sufficient, particularly when they have been shaped by established pathways, professional habits, or an evidence base that is still evolving.
This feels particularly relevant to PANS and PANDAS. When families describe a child or young person whose functioning has changed, the challenge is not always a lack of information. Sometimes it is a challenge to the frameworks we use to interpret that information. This raises an important question for PANS PANDAS Awareness Day 2026. As awareness grows, how much of the responsibility for building understanding still sits with families?
Improving professional awareness
In June 2026, PANS and PANDAS were debated in the House of Commons. Beyond Westminster, researchers at Isca Evidence, University of Exeter, completed the first phase of the NIHR-funded PANS PANDAS Unveiled project. The resulting Evidence and Gap Map highlights important gaps across both health and education research, despite the important role schools play in supporting affected children and young people.
In many ways, this helps explain why professional understanding remains variable. Educational Psychologists are increasingly encountering children and young people with PANS and PANDAS, yet there remains very little education-focused research to guide support and systems-level practice. Isca’s findings have already been shared with the Southwest Educational Psychology Conference 2026, reflecting growing interest in how the profession can contribute to this developing area.
“Hearing directly from educational psychologists was particularly valuable to us since the perspectives of educational professionals are largely absent from the published evidence, despite the important role they play in supporting children and families.”
Isca Evidence
The inclusion of a PANDAS case study within the British Psychological Society’s report also feels significant; not because it provides definitive answers, but because it highlights the contribution that Educational Psychologists can make when children’s needs do not fit neatly into familiar categories. The case study did not describe instant expertise. Instead, when faced with an unfamiliar presentation, the Educational Psychologist researched, consulted colleagues, explored different perspectives, and worked together with the family and school.
Perhaps that is what makes another reflection from the same case study so powerful:
“Parents need empathy, validation, and to ‘be believed’.”
It is difficult to think of many families navigating PANS or PANDAS who would disagree.
Building joint professional understanding
Undoubtedly, professional conversations are becoming broader and more accessible. An article and podcast for Educational Psychologists, published by Psychology Direct, reflect growing professional interest in understanding the conditions, alongside the development of a dedicated ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) module through a partnership between PANS PANDAS UK and Skylakes Psychology. Further developments are also underway including Local Authority practice principles and a Royal College of Paediatric and Child Health endorsed clinical PANS set of guidelines.
A global conference in October, ‘Perspectives on PANS’, further illustrates this shift. One session bringing together a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, and educational psychologist reflects a key reality for many families: supporting children and young people with PANS and PANDAS often requires health, education, and therapeutic perspectives to work together.
Taken together, these developments help build understanding within the systems that support children and young people. As knowledge grows across research, training and practice, families are less likely to become the primary source of information whenever a new professional becomes involved. Awareness is not an end in itself. It should mean families spend less time explaining and more time focusing on support and next steps.
However, none of this will transform experiences overnight. Research gaps remain. Access to diagnosis and treatment continues to be extremely challenging. Educational experiences still differ considerably according to geography, professional knowledge, and local capacity.
PANS and PANDAS continue to challenge some of the ways we think about children’s or young people’s needs. They invite us to consider sudden change, fluctuating presentation, uncertainty, and the relationship between health and education. They remind us that understanding a child or a young person sometimes requires us to revisit assumptions about which we may previously have felt confident.
That is why the question at the heart of this article remains so relevant: families should not have to start from scratch each time they meet a new professional. When understanding is shared across health, education and wider support systems, families can spend less time proving that something has changed and more time focusing on what happens next. For many, that really would be progress worth measuring.
Further Resources
Educational psychology and teacher training
A guide to EBSA and PANS or PANDAS
The Flare : A child-friendly story to help children make sense of PANS or PANDAS
Useful Research
Cuming, S., Kangas, M. (2026) ‘The Lived Experience and Psychosocial Impact of Caring for a Child with Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS), A Mixed Methods Systematic Review, Child Psychiatry and Human Development, advance online publication. Available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-026-02042-2 .
Miglioretti, M. et al. (2024) ‘An Exploratory Study of Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior and School Problems Associated with Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS). Journal of Applied School Psychology, 40(2), pp.132-147. Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/15377903.2023.2263391.
Newby, M.J. et al. (2025) ‘Occupational performance patterns in children with paediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS): A cross-sectional study’, Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, (72)(1) Available at https://doi.org/10.1111/1440-1630.12995.
Ringer, N. and Zakirova-Engstrand, R. (2025) ’Experiences of Siblings of Children with Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS)’, Journal of Child and Family Studies. Available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-025-03030-1.
