Posted on 11/12/2022 12:56:01 PM PST by Morgana
When parents first heard about Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in the 1990s, it felt like a lifeline — for both them and their autistic kids.
ABA was an intensive therapy based around a system of rewards and punishments designed to change children’s behavior; through repetition and consistent reinforcement, good behaviors could be formed, while undesirable ones were eliminated.
The therapy was individualized and time-consuming — to the tune of 40 hours a week — and it needed to be delivered early in a child’s development.
Suddenly parents were seeing positive results. For some, it offered the promise of normalcy for their kids; for others, the humbler goal of making their family lives more manageable.
It was also expensive — so parents lobbied to have it covered by insurance or schools. By the 2010s, ABA became a standard treatment for kids with autism.
But over the past few years, that first generation of kids to receive intensive ABA has grown up — and they’re telling a different story.
Instead of being a key that unlocked their freedom — and that unlocked their brains from the “confines” of autism — many have criticized ABA as harmful and even abusive, calling it “conversion therapy for autistic people.”
ABA practitioners and experts have defended the therapy, saying that they’ve seen major changes for the better, and that the progress it offers outweighs its potential for damage. But self-advocates aren’t convinced — with some saying that, with other therapeutic options available, there’s no reason to keep ABA at all. Maybe, they say, it should be scrapped altogether. Maybe it’s simply rotten to the core.
(Excerpt) Read more at whyy.org ...
Read about it and felt like I would be training my son as if he were a dog.
The whole thing was insane....but his therapist....who did nothing for him kept raking in the dough!!
He's in high school and top of his class.
P.S. The parents finally wised up and told the therapist to stick it.
There weren’t many options.
“They said my friend’s son had a problem because he didn’t like noise. If it was noisy...he would leave the room.
The whole thing was insane....but his therapist....who did nothing for him kept raking in the dough!!”
See I don’t get that and need more info on this. A lot of people can’t stand some noises and their first reaction other than yelling “TURN OFF THAT _____!!!” Is to leave the room.
I found this out by running a chain saw for several days, people don’t like noises, more so loud, irritating ones.
Sounds like the boy is doing what is natural and what most people do.
therapies go in and out of style.
In the 90s and 00s sending out of control teens away to programs often escorted by two guards was not unusual. Back then parents were considered responsible for their children and in many places out of control sexual or substance abuse was considered to be risky behavior to end immediately. This is no longer the case and those people who now evaluate it, consider the treatment to be a negative.
In the 1800s and 1900s sending a pregnant girl away to a home for the duration of the pregnancy was considered a kind thing, since the previous option was to kick the girl out of the house, and have her and the child die or find work in the flesh trades. Now those homes are considered abominations.
Removing native children from their culture was considered a good thing in the 1900s for many reservations and towns run by natives were drunken, uneducated, ghettos. It was felt that the children would have a better chance brought up in a less toxic environment. It is no longer seen that way.
ECT was seen as a miracle for depression in midcentury. As it started to come into its own it was disparaged as drugs came into the market that addressed depression. Now both drugs and ECT are used to good effect with the profoundly depressed.
Spanking was considered a child management technique. In todays environment it is considered child abuse.
Water therapy was considered helpful treatment for the mentally ill. It actually has a good short term effect for some, however it is now considered abuse.
Czech King Wenceslaus I (13th century) had problem with bell sounds. It drove him nuts and he got epilepsy type seizures out of it.
So wherever he went, he was preceded by bunch of servants who informed everybody not to run bells when King was present!
Apparently it is some kind of mental condition or disease.
Unfortunately, only Kings can get that kind of treatment!
Excellent points!
I somehow suspect ABA is not bad and if used correctly and not overdone it would be very successful.
I suspect ABA was abused by the people in power, sometimes intentional and other times unintentional. The results either way cause long term damage.
Case in point this story about the Judge Rotenberg Center.
“School defends controversial shock therapy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ59j-0onsI
The people in that video are sadistic bastards who need to be horsewhipped.
“Apparently it is some kind of mental condition or disease.”
That is not a mental condition that is neurological.
I’ve heard of epileptic going into seizures after seeing certain colors of lights, mostly red ones or flashing strobe ones. This is the first time I’ve heard a noise doing it but anything is possible when it comes to epilepsy.
I’m in the spectrum and ABA therapy has allowed me to live a more or less normal life and, more importantly, a life without a constant flow of prescription drugs.
Which is the actual problem with ABA is that pharmaceutical companies don’t make any money when autistic kids don’t get drugged.
Exactly. I managed to make it into my teens without anyone getting me hooked on Adderal (which is a nice way to say METH) .
I guess these kids wish they had grown up like the Good Doctor and spoke and behaved like poorly programmed robots.
“I’m in the spectrum and ABA therapy has allowed me to live a more or less normal life and, more importantly, a life without a constant flow of prescription drugs.
Which is the actual problem with ABA is that pharmaceutical companies don’t make any money when autistic kids don’t get drugged.”
Point well taken. A lot of ABA therapy was so kids would not be on drugs, not just autistic ones.
How old were you when you started the ABA treatment?
There are 4 year old fraternal twins in our extended family, both diagnosed as autistic.
I live in the South. Spanking is still a form of discipline and is effective. My mom used a peach tree switch. It took once and only once to change my behavior. My mom could also pinch if a switch was unavailable or we were in church.
We really have to look at this article in light of the grand cabal of people who fervently believe that carrying a baby to term and going through childbirth is abuse.
Once you’ve succeeded in making people regard the most normal, routine, important human events as “abuse” you can construe anything as “abuse” no matter how good, right, or valid it is.
But the article was tedious to read because the writing was sub-par, repetitive, and disorganized—badly in need of a good editor. That's a shame, because the content provides many good ideas to build upon.
Two issues.
1. The spectrum has been expanded to include kids who are severely disabled, i.e., non-verbal, self-injurious, violent, truly mentally and emotionally deficient all the way to high functioning individuals who only tells are they are a little quirky and asocial.
2. In answer to the second post, yes, it is like training your puppy when you’re working with a severely disabled child. Often times you are dealing with a child who may be a teenage or older physically, but 2-3 years old mentally. I have a friend who has two Autistic children. One is a 20-year-old son who is totally non-verbal, not potty trained and prone to violent outbursts. Her daughter who is 19 has some limited verbal skills but is extremely self-injurious and also prone to violence against others. She is institutionalized for her own safety and has been through ABA. Trying to say these two need the same care as another young woman I know who is high functioning and is in college and gainfully employed, is absurd. They have nothing in common except the diagnosis. Would she find ABA to be cruel and counter-productive, probably. Would the other two benefit from that type of training if it helped to lessen their undesirable behavior, maybe. It helped my friend’s daughter to a point, but it wasn’t effective long term.
Well, they do not really know. He is dead for almost 800 years! No modern medicine then and The historian accounts are obviously not very detailed. He got some kind of seizures from sounds of ringing the bells and could not sleep when gold was present. Otherwise pretty healthy guy.
Modern historians think it might be epilepsy, but who knows.
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