ABA stands for Applied Behavioral Analysis. Currently, it is the go-to method for "treating"
Autism, and is strongly encouraged from a very young age to teach Autistic children
socially acceptable behaviors, and to help parents to stop or prevent behaviors that
they don't particularly enjoy. The idea behind Behavioral Analysis is to, um, take your subject,
and first you analyze what is prompting the behavior, the behavior that you don't like.
So say for an Autistic child, that would be hand-flapping. And then the second step is
to develop consequential strategies to prevent that behavior from occurring. So the idea
is observe, and then come up with analytical and scientific strategies to make sure that
behavior doesn't happen anymore. How you make sure that that behavior doesn't happen any
more, say hand-flapping in an Autistic child, is dependent upon the concept of operant conditioning.
The operant being the Autistic child, and conditioning being the use of reinforcement
and punishment.
I am strongly against the use of ABA therapy to "treat" Autistic children. The idea behind
ABA, the very core concept, is using the analysis of behavior, and you apply that analysis systematically
to improve socially significant behavior. Some ABA therapists will, will say 'Well you
know, everybody has consequences to their actions. There are positive outcomes and negative
outcomes. You can study hard for that test, and pass, or you can not study, and fail,
and those are behaviors and choices that you have to make.' Now, the real problem that
occurs when you try to treat Autistic children with ABA therapy is, you know, what is socially
significant behavior? And who gets to say what is socially acceptable or not? The idea
that Autism needs treating at all is, is um, I think, inaccurate. The use of operant conditioning
on children, especially on Autistic children, is, to me, sickening; because Autistic children
don't need to be conditioned. There are somethings that Autistic children do need help with.
There are many co-morbid conditions that occur alongside Autism, such as dyspraxia, sensory
processing disorder, social anxiety, insomnia, speech impairments. All of these things do
need help and treatment, but what doesn't need treatment is Autistic behaviors. And
that's entirely what ABA is about. It's right in the name, Applied Behavioral Analysis.
ABA is all about making Autistic children look as neurotypical as possible. And for
what? ABA therapy is really shallow. The whole focus is on socially significant behaviors,
not the well being of the Autistic child, not helping them to learn life skills that
will actually help them later on, not teaching them how to grow and thrive as an Autistic
person in a neurotypical world, but to make them look normal. So much ABA therapy focuses
on things like table-readiness, you know, sitting perfectly still, on not stimming,
on behaviors that are just misunderstood. And never at any point in the history of ABA
did anybody think to ask an Autistic person why they stim, what is going on with them,
what they would like to be learning. See ABA is all about the parents. It's all about making
the child look as neurotypical as possible. And, you know, now we're moving in a direction
where were understanding Autism better through asking Autistic people about it, what our
experiences are and what it is like to be Autistic. Behaviorism really just relies on
the observations of neurotypical researchers and doctors. Unless you are asking them, or
asking another Autistic person, you can't know for sure why they are doing the behavior
that they are doing. What may seem simply bothersome or strange-looking to you, like
hand-flapping, is necessary and an important self-regulation tool to Autistic children.
Anecdotally, its quite sad, but the use of consequences and punishment and rewards for
"doing it right" in ABA therapy can lead to some severe mental and emotional issues for
children, who later become mentally and emotionally damaged Autistic adults; because what you're
teaching children through ABA therapy is that who they are is wrong and bad, the way they
move is shameful and needs to be changed. See ABA therapy doesn't focus on helping the
Autistic child, working with their Autism. In ABA when you're learning skills like 'point
to the blue card' or 'don't stim', those aren't skills that are going to help and Autistic
child later on in life.
An Autistic child needs to be learning about their sensory sensitivities, what sets them
off, what they can do about it. They need to be learning about neurotypical people,
their point of views, and they need to be hearing social stories to understand why neurotypical
people act the way that they act. They need to be mentored and engaged by adult Autistic
people. Adult Autistic people are the only people who can definitively say to an Autistic
child 'I know what you're going through, and you're going to be alright because I went
through it'. An Autistic child needs so much. They need to be told that they have the right
to say no; because when you take an Autistic child, who already has trouble understanding
the world and people's intentions, and you tell them through hours and hours of therapy
and through use of adversives that they can't say no, that they have to obey the adults
in their life? All you're doing is breaking down their spirit and taking away their ability
to say no, their ability to self-advocate. It is so, so important that disabled children
and Autistic children and Autistic adults need to be able to say no. They need to be
able to have their own boundaries and express what their limits are. I'm going to link to
some examples where ABA therapy has actually caused trauma, and Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome
in Autistic children. And this can continue far into adulthood, and it affects your ability
to trust, it affects everything about your life. ABA therapy at its best is useless to
the Autistic child, and caters only to the neurotypical parents' desire to have their
child look more normal. And at its worst, it breaks an Autistic child's spirit, it takes
away their self-direction and their sense of autonomy and self-worth, and it causes
trauma and PTSD. And if something is causing trauma and PTSD in children, in disabled children,
the most vulnerable people in our society, we need to take a step back and ask: why are
we doing this? Why is socially acceptable behavior so important? What are Autistic people
saying about this? There is a large, large number of people in the Autistic community,
Autistic adults and self-advocates, who are saying no to ABA, who are saying 'I did ABA
and it was terrible'.
As an Autistic person, I am strongly against using ABA therapy on anyone, especially on
Autistic children. Autistic children are so vulnerable, and they need guidance and acceptance
and protection and love. They need to be taught how to advocate for themselves, how to say
no. They need to be accepted for exactly who they are, and not told that how they communicate
and move and grow and learn is wrong. They need acceptance, not Applied Behavioral Analysis.
I'm going to be linking to you some resources, um, most of them were written by Autistic
people who underwent ABA, or occupational therapy, or compliance training, you know,
or other forms of therapies, and some of them were written by parents of Autistic children.
So I really encourage anyone who's confused about ABA, or on the fence, or who just wants
to hear the other side of the story, you know, the Autistic side, please check out some of
these links. This has been my video on ABA therapy. It was just a quick overview of what
ABA is and my thoughts and feelings on it. It is quite a controversial subject, but I
was glad to be able to address it, and to tell, you know, the other side of the story,
from the voices of actual Autistic people. If you have a question that you would like
answered via video, feel free to post it in the comments section, or message it to me.
And, if you like my channel, you can subscribe for more! This has been Ask An Autistic.