If you want to upset a self-described Autism Mom, all you have to do is tell her that ABA is abusive.
This argument breaks out on social media so many times every single day.
Autism is an unusual condition because the community is so sharply divided.
On one side you have the neurotypical parents and families of autistic children, and on the other you have the online community of adult autistic people, many of whom are parents to autistic children.
The two sides disagree on virtually everything, but arguably the most contentious subject is Applied Behaviour Analysis Therapy.
ABA Therapists and many families of autistic people hail it as the most effective, most scientifically proven way to help autistic children develop life skills such as speech, potty training, and going to the grocery store without going into full meltdown mode.
Autistic adults– many of whom have been through ABA as children– say that it is abuse.
You can imagine how that statement sounds to loving parents whose children adore their ABA therapist and who would never knowingly abuse their beloved child.
You can imagine how it feels to be told that the gold-standard treatment which is bleeding your finances dry so that you can help your child is actually abuse.
The difficulty is that when people hear the word “abuse,” they think of pain and violence.
ABA has a big history of those things, too. Its founder, O. Ivar Lovaas, used electric shocks to stop children from engaging in their obsessive, repetitive behaviours. He systematically trained them with equal combinations of love and pain to behave more like non-autistic children.
He thought he was saving them, turning a raw bundle of nerve endings into something resembling a human being.
One way to look at the job of helping autistic kids is you have to construct a person. You have the raw materials but you have to build the person.
-Lovaas
Whenever ABA comes up, so does Lovaas. Autists point out that he used these same techniques to pioneer gay conversion therapy, which, like ABA, has also been proven to be deeply harmful to the human psyche. They also point out that while fewer ABA therapists use things like electric shock, it is still used and considered important by several institutions.
“But ABA has changed,” people argue. “My ABA therapist never uses punishment. It’s all positive and reward-based.”
That is very true for many people. Most ABA therapists don’t set out to hurt children. And yet, despite making ABA therapy fun and positive, the underlying goals of ABA have not changed.
And it is these goals that, like gay conversion therapy, do long-term damage to the human psyche.
The reason parents and ABA therapists can’t see it as abusive is because they can’t see it from an autistic point of view.
Let’s take a moment to look at some ABA in progress.
So? Did you see any child abuse?
Probably not.
How about here?
Or here?
Sure, the child was unhappy in the first video but the teacher was patient and she recovered, right?
And in the second video, they’re trying to teach children not to be disruptive, but they aren’t punishing the child or anything.
In all of these videos the children are never yelled at, scolded, shamed, or injured. They are praised and rewarded when they get things right, and often the kids seem to be enjoying the games.
No electric shocks, no aversive, nothing to make the experience traumatic, right?
Wrong.
Allistic people can’t see it, because they don’t understand how it feels to be autistic.
Let’s go back to that first video.
While they do not address it in the voice-over, if you watched it again you would notice how often the therapists take the children’s hands and fold them into the children’s lap.
You would also notice how often the child’s feelings are ignored.
In the first video, several of the children begin rubbing their eyes and looking tired, but they do not address this.
In the video with the girl in the supermarket, an autistic person can spot that she was getting overstimulated, exhausted, and was increasingly desperate to escape this environment.
In the video with the crying child, an autistic person wonders why she is so unhappy. Is she exhausted? Overtired? Overwhelmed? And when she stops fussing and goes back to doing the work, we can see the resignation on her face.
She isn’t happier. She’s just accepted that her feelings don’t matter and the fastest way to escape the situation is by complying.
In the last, you can see that ABA therapists deliberately ignore attempts to communicate or produce behaviours that have not been demanded by the therapist.
The child wants his mother’s attention. Would I ignore my child while trying to listen to what his doctor was telling me? Probably. But I would “shhh” or pat his arm to let him know that he was heard, and I would be with him in a minute.
Notice that ABA doesn’t tell you to go back to the child after and find out what they needed or wanted.
And that is the problem with ABA.
Not the rewards, not the silly imitation games. The problem with ABA is that it addresses the child’s behaviours, not the child’s needs.
Think of those happy little children in that first video.
Now understand that sessions like this are not a couple of hours a week. ABA therapists recommend that small children between 2 and 5 go through 40 hours a week of this type of learning.
40 hours a week.
No WONDER those kids are rubbing their eyes.
My allistic eight year old doesn’t do 40 hours a week of school. He goes to school from nine to three and gets a half hour recess and a half hour lunch. That’s 5 hours a day five days a week. 25 hours of active learning. And much of his class time is actually quiet reading, playing with learning materials, gym, or talking in a circle with his peers. So make it less than 20 hours a week of being actively taught.
Imagine asking double that for a preschooler.
Now consider that ABA is designed to ignore any protests the child might make.
ABA is not designed to consider the child’s feelings or emotional needs.
I’m not making a jump when I say that. You can go to any ABA website and read what they say and you’ll see that there will be no discussion of the child’s emotional welfare or happiness, only behaviours.
To ABA, behaviour is the only thing that matters. ABA considers autistic children as unbalanced kids who need to be balanced out, and if you balance their behaviour, they are fixed.
“…what you need to do is reduce those excesses like the self stimulatory behavior, repetitive behaviors, and increase the skills. And then what will happen is after the child really learns a set of foundational skills; then they will start relating more to other people.”
— Deborah Fein PhD
As you can see from the above video, “self-stimulation”, one of the “excesses” of autism behaviours, is considered a kind of boredom fidget– something useless that replaces real learning and interaction.
When they are erased and replaced with “life skills,” then this is celebrated as a success.
Any autistic person will tell you is that this is NOT what stimming is.
Stimming isn’t just like doodling when you’re bored, or throwing a basketball.
Stimming is a comforting self-soothing behaviour which helps us reduce stress, feel more comfortable in uncomfortable environments, and regulate our emotions.
Many of us feel that our stims are a form of communication – just as a smile or a frown communicates something about our internal states, so do our stims, if you would just pay attention. Moreso, in fact, since many autistic people smile when they are anxious or frown when they are perfectly content. Studies show that non-autistic people are terrible at interpreting our facial expressions.
If my husband sees me stimming more than usual in the middle of the day, he frowns and asks if my day is going okay. But many times he mistakes my emotions based on my facial expressions. My stims are better at translating my emotions than my face is, unless I’m actively animating my face in an allistic way for the benefit of my allistic audience.
Which is exhausting, by the way.
40 hours a week is too much for me so I can’t imagine how a small child manages it.
Grabbing my hands when I stim the way ABA recommends would NOT help my day go better.
It would be an excellent way to piss me off and make me feel frustrated and anxious, though.
It’s one thing to stop a child from hurting themselves by banging their head. It’s another to stop a harmless stim like hand flapping. You’re causing the child emotional discomfort just because the behaviour strikes you as weird.
Go back and watch some of those videos again, noting how often the autistic children are interrupted from hand-waving, making noise, crying, or otherwise trying to express and relieve their emotions.
Notice how often they get the child to make eye contact. Many autistic people find eye contact extremely uncomfortable. The way the children’s bodies are touched and manipulated so frequently, in corrective redirection, is upsetting the children. Their faces reflect confusion and sometimes distress.
But learning to tolerate discomfort is what ABA is all about.
Watch that child enter the grocery store. See how she looks all around? The noise and the lights are stressful and distracting. She wants to please her family and get the cookie pieces so she goes along with the act of putting food in the cart, but after a while she is worn out and can’t stand it anymore.
The mother comments that if they relented at this point and took the child out of the store, her daughter would be rewarded for behaving this way.
That is probably true. If you are in pain, and you scream “Ouch!” and someone comes running and relieves your pain, you’ll probably yell “Ouch” again the next time something hurts you.
Is that… bad?
The parents say the ABA really helped their daughter.
Did it really help the child, though? Or the parents?
The grocery store isn’t any less noisy or bright or overwhelming. And the child obviously still finds it difficult to go in. Instead, she has learned to keep her feelings to herself, to try and focus on pleasing her family, and bottle up her stress inside until she can’t take it any more.
That’s a healthy thing to teach a child, right?
With time she may become excellent at this. She may be able to go to the store, put items in the cart, and go home without a meltdown.
But the meltdown WILL come.
It will come over something minor, some silly thing that seems like nothing and pushes her over the edge where she was already teetering. And they will wonder where it came from. They’ll talk about how unpredictable her meltdowns can be.
It isn’t unpredictable to us.
We can see it coming. We can see that her autism hasn’t been treated to improve her life so much as to improve her family’s life. And while that is important too, wouldn’t it be better to find a solution that works for everyone?
Did they try ear defenders, and dark glasses?
Did they try encouraging her to stim if stressed?
Did they teach her a polite way to let them know when she has had enough and needs to leave the situation?
I don’t know. I don’t know them. I don’t know their child.
But I do know what autism feels like.
I know that ear defenders are not part of standard ABA protocols. Instead of teaching them to understand their sensory needs and self-advocate for having their needs met, they are taught to ignore them.
I know that ABA demands the child’s attention but refuses to give attention back when the child demands it.
I know that ABA aims to be positive and rewarding for the child, but doesn’t allow the child to tap out whenever they need to.
I know that ABA considers vital emotional regulation tools to be problems that must be extinguished.
I know that neurotypical pre-schoolers are not usually expected to learn for 40 hours a week.
I know that neurotypical children are encouraged to express their emotions, not smother them.
I know that ABA believes in removing a child’s language tool like the iPad when they are naughty. I notice that the ABA therapist working with the 8-year-old boy only handed him his communication tool in between “discrete trials.”
I know from activists like Cal Montgomery that even adult autistic people have their communication tools routinely taken away from them if they don’t “comply” to the demands of their therapists and caregivers.
I know that if I ask someone if they think it is abusive to remove a child’s only way of contacting their parents, or to ignore a child in distress, or to force a child into a situation that they find uncomfortable/painful, or refuse to help a child when they are suffering and overwhelmed, they will say yes.
As long as I don’t mention that the child is autistic, anyway.
Autistic kids are different, apparently.
Whenever autistic people protest ABA, we are told that we don’t understand, that we don’t know how hard autistic children are to live with. They talk about improving the child’s independence and argue that it isn’t cruel to teach a child to write or play with toys.
They don’t see how weird it is to try to systematically shape a child’s behaviour to teach them to play with a toy the “right” way.
They don’t see that 40 hours a week of brainwashing a child to put up with stress and discomfort without expressing their feelings might be a bad idea in the long run.
They don’t see how wrong it is to teach a child that their way of feeling comfortable and soothed is wrong and that ignoring your feelings and physical needs is good and gets you approval from your teachers and parents.
They don’t see that it is abusive to ignore a child’s attempts to communicate because they aren’t “complying” with a demand that makes them uncomfortable.
They don’t see how dangerous it is to teach a child to do whatever they are ordered to do, no questions asked, and to never object or say “no.”
They don’t think about the fact that 70% of people with ASD have experienced sexual abuse by the time they are college age.
They don’t think about how this person will learn to stand up for themselves or advocate for their needs when they were systematically trained in preschool never to disagree, speak up, or disobey.
Do what I say.
Put your hands in your lap.
Don’t cry. Don’t complain.
Listen to me.
I won’t listen to you.
This is not abuse.
…But, you know, the kid gets bubbles and tickles so it’s obviously safe and totally okay.
What do we know?
Our feelings don’t matter anyway.
If you enjoyed this article, consider buying her a diet pepsi: https://ko-fi.com/cllynch
457 Responses
Congratulations, you are the nth ABA supporter to come in and say this and choose to ignore what autistic people are telling you to defend a practice created by a man who did not even believe autistic people to be actual people because ABA “isn’t like that”. Guess what? If you do not have compliance principles and you pay attention to the individual and don’t stop stimming (calling it self-stim leads me to believe you actually might not do this as Autistic people don’t call what we do self-stims we just call them stims) and you also don’t cause boundary issues for the autistic person, your practice is no longer actually ABA, it’s just a practice that uses ABA as a label to allow people the ability to pay for it using insurance, because ABA is one of the only things covered by insurance that “helps” autistic people.
Listen to autistic people. Because clearly you do not realize that the videos you see are from ABA clinics promoting “good” examples of ABA to people. And clearly you still don’t believe in self-advocacy from us, as you are trying to say that this is misinformation simply because it doesn’t destroy your world view of your job.
I totally agree that the history is rooted in terrible intentions and practices. I also agree that everything listed on this blog are all practices that produce trauma and are unacceptable. I understand and acknowledge all of the trauma inducing ABA experiences that resulted from practices like that. I appreciate the input from autistic adults for telling practitioners and parents what types of procedures are harmful. Because of that and other reasons, ABA has evolved and does NOT look like these videos if the practitioner is a good one.
No one thinks these videos are examples of “good” ABA. They are outdated and are examples of terrible ABA. Unfortunately, only insurance companies and practitioners get to decide what counts as ABA. Just because you say that teaching coping skills, co-regulation and self-advocating skills is “not” ABA, does not make it true. I say this blog is spreading misinformation because what is being described is only red flags of terrible ABA. It says these things are encouraged by all present day ABA, and that is a lie. You and the author of this blog can’t say for certain what actual good ABA looks like today, because you have not experienced or observed it. You are speculating. Old YouTube videos and firsthand accounts that are 10 years old is not evidence of what goes on today. I encourage you to see it for yourself firsthand before you make claims solely based on history or old videos.
I’m not about to subject myself to the “it’s just a few bad apples” type of fallacy. The reason practicing ABA people can get away with abuse is bc for all the talk about making things better. You are not checking each other. You are defending each other with the defense of “not all ABA is like this!!
If ABA was a good thing, NONE of ABA would be like that. Zero. Zilch. Because you’d catch the people using abusive methods and actually punish them and prevent them from practicing. But you don’t. You hold up all these statements of “well the place I work at doesn’t do that, so obviously ABA is actually good and perfectly helpful and fine” instead of actually ADDRESSING the issue in a more permanent final manner.
As an autistic adult, when you defend ABA, the practice I went through that sent me spiraling into years of bottling up my emotions and stress and repressing it in order to not be a “burden” on my family, you are patently saying “I acknowledge this happened to you, but I do not particularly care about it anymore, it’s not like that anymore. Suck it up and let us use this practice that hurt you because we don’t hurt other kids (as far as I know, as someone likely allistic, and unable to actually properly read our facial expressions and cues to understand when an autistic person is distressed) so you shouldn’t be angry anymore. You shouldn’t be telling everyone this is abuse anymore.” Listen, I get it, you want to help autistic people to thrive and live healthy happy lives equipped with the skills they need to do that. But I am also well aware that every ABA practioner who defends this practice. Are not doing it because of that. They’re doing it because if they don’t do it. People won’t use the service anymore, and they’ll be out of a job.
And don’t deny it. At the end of the day, ABA for you is a job, with tasks to complete, progress milestones to hit in order to have things look good for future families who come in looking to also start it. If it were truly just about helping us, you would be standing WITH the people calling this practice abuse. You would be WITH us and helping show parents better resources for therapies that can help much better than ABA.
Not calling this article saying this practice is abuse misinformation because how dare we speak up and make our feelings HEARD and self-advocate, right? We absolutely have to acknowledge every time we speak up that oh, it’s not ALL facilities that do this. It doesn’t matter that this therapy that’s developed came from a man who thought us not human. That the entire practice is unnecessary and not needed because the core life skills you want to teach can be taught using other therapies in a far more person led way that let’s them stop if that’s enough for the day. Occupational therapy, speech therapy, CBT (for specific instances), music therapy, equine therapy, and many other forms of treatment exist that work better without the abusive practices and past associated with it.
And really, I want to make this incredible clear as an adult. We SPEAK UP, because this practice is ACTIVELY SUPPORTED by Autism Speaks. Who has a long standing history of dismissal and ableism and STILL has it.
If your practice is supported by an organization like that, then maybe you should reevaluate your priorities and position and step back and realize what that means. Not just plug your ears, shut your eyes, and trudge through like nothing is wrong.
It’s not speculation. It’s elementary logic. I was also a child with autism in special education, exposed to these techniques on daily basis for years. You’re right, we never saw this mythical “real ABA.” What we saw was the consequence of decades of philosophy, teaching and practice, with oversight that did nothing to correct it, spanning several different facilities and dozens of practitioners.
What we saw was things we couldn’t help about ourselves being treated like misbehaviors, to be corrected like a dog staining the carpet. What we saw was a long process of resignation where we were taught that anybody was allowed to put their hands on our bodies any way they wanted and we weren’t allowed to say no, where other people’s feelings and safety were an emergency while ours didn’t matter at all, and that we should never struggle or have any wants or needs not approved by those above us. We were subjected to the daily threat of violent seclusion and restraint. What we didn’t see were any form of treatment intended to help us regulate ourselves- the assumption was we already knew how and were choosing to act autistic instead. What we didn’t see were loads of normal childhood experiences and opportunities- social, academic, creative and otherwise, because we were shut up in rooms set aside for the defective children. What we CERTAINLY didn’t see was any guidance on how to LIVE with autism!
A system that you claim “used to” broadly think this was acceptable only 10 years ago(20 in my case) and has never gone through a hard reset based on ethical principles, sound research and advocacy from autistic communities cannot rationally claim to be different now. It was the whole field then, and the biggest change I’ve been able to see is that the isolation rooms have electronic locks instead of cartoon deadbolts now. Who on earth would believe any meaningful change has occurred? And if a practice from the 70s took 50 years to come into its own and “finally” become something not akin to torture, what trust should be placed in the system that held it in such high regard? Even if you were RIGHT, and I don’t believe you are, it would still be an absolute condemnation of the autism industry.
Misinformation? Really? Really now? Even after all that proof? It’s horrendously fucking sad to see how pathetic people can be and how they refuse to see the truth because of things like this. I know people don’t want to think that they spent their whole lives believing a lie and supporting in and giving in to something that is harmful and abusive to innocent people, but sometimes you need to GROW UP and admit you were wrong. Don’t act like a child. It’s very common for abusers to think that they’re in the right and helping the victim after all. There’s a lot of adults and teenagers on the internet who will tell you otherwise about their experiences with ABA. Whole communities even who will tell you how they had to go to actual, effective therapy to deal with their PTSD for it. Some have been taken advantage of while doing ABA because of that compliance. Tell me, do you encourage a child to do a happy flap stim? Or to sway themselves side to side? Do you actively and frequently tell them that their feelings matter and that they don’t have to do something that causes them pain or makes them feel uncomfortable? Clearly some ABA therapists are still causing pain. You’re just turning a blind eye to it because “not all are like that!” That’s the same excuse to saying that not all doctors are horrible people who just want money, but there are those in history who were known as serial killers that will tell you otherwise. People will always find some kind of way to take advantage of their position of power, and there’s quite a few people who use that power over children. Teachers, Principals, Parents. All have a chance to be abusive to a child, depending on the person of course. But that doesn’t matter! Of course not! The vast majority doesn’t do that anyway, so it’s fine to act like that group that does cause harm doesn’t exist. Right?
As a behavior technician, and someone with an autistic brother, this article was really mind-opening for me. I’m so sorry that you and so many other autistic people have had to go through this. It is absolutely awful. You’ve helped me to realize that there are a lot of things that I and ABA clinicians as a whole should do differently. I was wondering if you think that it is possible for ABA, if a greater focus was placed on listening to individuals’ needs, would be able to actually help autistic individuals, and be a positive experience for them, or do you think that another form of therapy needs to be developed to replace it?
I’m sorry this was your experience. So what’s the solution? What would have worked? What’s the alternative therapy or help? I read a lot of negatives but as an autistic adult where’s what would have helped? What can parents do to avoid this but help their kid? If ABA isn’t the answer, what is? An adult with autism in my opinion is an expert, so how would you have approached or approach therapy different to help?
There are multiple therapy types that can help, based on each individual autistic person, as each autistic person is an individual with different needs both for themselves and in terms of support.
But to name a few: Occupational therapy, speech therapy, CBT or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(for specific instances such as helping to reprocess possible and likely trauma from living in an ableist society), music therapy, and equine therapy. There is no singular therapy that should ever be heralded as specifically FOR Autistic people. But there are many therapies that can help us all the same that may be shown in advertising to help more with other things that may come with comorbidity with Autism and Autistic traits. Either from being autistic in of itself, or as a result of outside environmental response to being autistic.
I’m going to be INCREDIBLY honest with you. In a good majority of situations with autistic people, the autistic person is not taken to therapy in order to help Them Specifically. They are taken to it in order to make it easier on the parent, guardian, or caretaker(s) to “deal with” the Autistic child. Irregardless of if it actually helps the child in the long term. As in a good majority of cases, the most an autistic person needs is more time. Aka, patience, and during the period, accommodation.
Yes, there are nonverbal Autistic people. However, there are plenty of accommodations that can be found in order to communicate with that person either while they go through speech therapy in order to help give them the tools to eventually reach the ability to use their voice or as a means to make sure you still communicate effectively with them. Including but not limited to sign language, text-to-speech apps and programs, and AAD devices.
In the end, as a parent, unless your child is actively putting themselves in danger (I.e: stimming in a way that harms themselves) or endangering others (stims that cause harm to others), the greatest asset to a parent is patience. And if you really need as a parent to look into things for autistic people with resources. The resources page on ASAN (Autism Self Advocacy Network) can be a good place to start.
In ancient times it would have been perfectly acceptable, even encouraged to dump low-functioning children in the woods and let them die of exposure. They are a useless burden. In modern times we are forced by the law to keep these things alive. If autists hate ABA so much, maybe they should take their chances in the woods. Who knows, maybe if you flap your hands and screech enough you will turn into an eagle and fly away. Their parents would be relieved.
Well, L.C. you’re certainly the cherry on top of the ableist cake! You’d fit right in with all the people already trying to make Autistic people simply Not Exist.
You are quite frankly as a result L.C, an embarrassment to actual modern society. What with your complete and utter lack of understanding of what autism is and what autistic people do and how they function. Maybe go back to ancient times yourself and see how you fare. I’m sure what with your marvelous understanding of what was “acceptable” back then you’d do marvelously. And if you didn’t or know you couldn’t. Well. You said it yourself, back I. Ancient Times it would have been acceptable and normalized to simply let you expire due to exposure.
“They are a useless burden.”
I know you are, you just said you are, but what am I?
L.C. Why do you hate us so much? What did we ever do to you? You need to become a Christian and learn that all people are made in God’s image and have worth.
L.c you’re a cruel human. My son is autistic. He flaps bc he is happy. His whole body shows how happy he is. After speaking with autistic adults 2 days ago I pulled my 2.5 yo out of ABA so fast. It was sold as being the new aba..it was sold to me a play therapy..I pride myself on learning all I can and I’m saddened that I al.ist fell into the trap millions of parents do bc we don’t know any better or we think we are doing all we can. Older autistics also taught me the phrase “presume competence” I am forever grateful to their insight and knowledge. Maybe you should go to the wood to die LC…
I myself am autistic but also work as an RBT, the 1:1 aid in ABA. This article is completely opinion based. I see no evidence of any claims nor an example of personal experience.
From the outside looking in I completely understand your view point but after years of study, personal experience, and years of training … I can see the full picture. Many people who make claims do not know the changes made in the ABA industry/ the reasons for certain responses to a child’s behavior/ do not understand the terms/ have never heard of a BIP or BA/ pairing process/ antecedent manipulation…. Honestly I could go on and on. Although I maybe high functioning I have stims, delayed information processing, sensory triggers, and more. I’d also like to inform you that those videos are just example videos of how to implement RBT skills that are only used if specified by the clients BIP for the specific behavior. These are assigned after assessing the clients function for that behavior.
Your “evidence-based” bullsh*t can f*ck right off. You’ve clearly been brainwashed by the best and you’ve bought right into it. Disgusting – read all of the other comments here and tell me you can still “see the full picture” you horrid, abusive troll.
“I myself am autistic…”
Really? So either you’re mistaken about being autistic (we can’t deliberately inflict harm on others), or what you are engaged in is called ABA only to access insurance funding and isn’t really ABA at all.
Omg I am so shocked at these videos – I’m 47 and was diagnosed with autism last year. I had no clue this sort of thing existed. I’m also a counsellor and find this disturbing. I think for me what stood out was all touching and tickling, how awful and seriously these people are so unaware of the child and the child’s hidden world of sensory information. Seriously I’m speechless that these so called professionals think that’s a reward – looks like torture to me. Where are the professionals boundaries and respect for personal space. Seriously from a safeguard point of view this could lead to grooming.
“ABA Therapists and many families of autistic people hail it as the most effective, most scientifically proven way to help autistic children develop life skills…”
I’ve heard that as well. You know what else I heard, though? The ABA practitioners who make that claim only ever cite one study, Lovaas’ 1987 study in which he relied heavily on aversives to get his “40% of autistic children with ‘normal’ intellectual […] functioning.”* Basically, just 40% of children will no longer ‘look autistic’ only if you attempt to beat the autism out of them. Good odds, eh? Thank you so much for leaving your abusive job.
*Dawson, M. (2004) The Misbehaviour of Behaviourists.
I am surprised the author wrote that they would [tap the arm or] “Shh” the child if they were keening for attention when something else was happening. To be ‘shhh’ed was a frequent occurence in my upbringing. It silenced me, in a really shunting way, it didn’t communicate understanding, it just told me I was not important, or wanted.
I aknowledge they said they would coem back to them in a minute. But the present is all there is. It is the adult who will udnerstand that you have to respond to your childs need in that moment – Even if it is just to TELL them that they will ahve to wait.
Man this was a tough read… because it was stupid. I wouldn’t even bother to go past your point about “40 hours of active learning” because it was terrible.
At many companies the time is divided. 8 hours at the center total. In my particular case we have 60 minutes of gym time spread between morning and afternoon, 30 minutes for lunch, 60 minutes for songs/dancing in group settings, 60 minutes for pairing/playing… huh, look at that. Less time than your child spends “actively learning” and that’s just on paper. Don’t even get started with how much of the remaining time is just playing while data is being recorded.
We’ll continue to exist because we’re doing more good than you are by writing this ignorant nonsense.
Oh, how shocking. Another person deciding to not listen to autistic people while,claiming to help us. Please just admit the reason you didn’t read it and will continue this harmful practice is just bc otherwise you would be out,of a job and,you want your paycheck. It will save us all the,trouble of ever thinking you were at all willing to listen to us at all or learn and stop a thing that does harm. It only helps short term. It does not help long term. And many of you are compliant with the abuse practice in your supposed good, helpful practice by saying “not all prac
Oh, how shocking. Another person deciding to not listen to autistic people while,claiming to help us. Please just admit the reason you didn’t read it and will continue this harmful practice is just bc otherwise you would be out,of a job and,you want your paycheck. It will save us all the,trouble of ever thinking you were at all willing to listen to us at all or learn and stop a thing that does harm. It only helps short term. It does not help long term. And many of you are compliant with the abuse practice in your supposed good, helpful practice by saying “not all practicioners do this! Not all facilities are like this!” If you truly desired to help us. You’d listen to us. But,you don’t. Every ABA article. You all come out of the woodworks to defend the practice or bash on the article unless it,sings nothing but,your practice’s praises. Like if someone isn’t a zealous sycophant for ABA, their opinion isn’t worth anything. Almost like,you see autistic people’s opinions as not worth it…almost like that’s what you’re expected to teach so that we look more normal. Almost like that’s the basis of ABA, to teach us that our feelings, our thoughts, our opinions don’t matter and we,should just always mask and comply.
Open your eyes. Your practice is,supported by a known hate group, Autism Speaks, with a long and strong history of speaking over us and being incredibly ableist. If that doesn’t clue you in that your practice is harmful and not in fact in any fashion helpful. I do not honestly know what will.
Sincerely,
An Autistic Adult who went through ABA and its principles and is STILL undoing all the lessons I was taught by it that were unhealthy and don’t do anything but harm me.
I disagree with this article completely. As a mother of an autistic child who began ABA 3-4 years ago, I have seen my child improve whereas in school he was sidelined and staff struggled to meet his needs. He loves his ABA sessions and tutors and looks forward to them. They are the highlight of his day. I just wish I was able to give him more ABA hours and also I wish I had started it when he was a toddler. I really regret that. I am not a professional. I can only comment on it as a parent and I see my child enjoying it and benefitting from it.
Then congrats, you’ve officially entered being the label of Autism Mom. And have hearby started speaking over autistic people who are telling you this is harmful. An autistic person wrote this article you have decided to “disagree” with. I’m sure some of the behavior you say is enjoyment is stress. Because like all Autism moms, you assume you know best how your child must be feeling. Even when it’s clear it’s the opposite to every other autistic person out there.
Good job “disagreeing” and speaking over autistic people seeking to advocate for ourselves and warn against a harmful practice for us.