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The world obliges me to do something, so I create.
 Society wants me to belong, so I observe.
People force me to react, so I rebel.
They want me to stay still, so I paint.
Life requires me to live, but I am dying. . .

what's wrong with ABA?

12/11/2016

8 Comments

 

So what's wrong with ABA? Shortly: EVERYTHING.

And this post explains a tiny part of why it is unethical, harmful and damaging therapy.
In this post I will be talking about and/or mentioning ableism, dehumanisation of autistic folks, ABA therapy, behaviour therapies in general, institutionalised abuse, gaslighting.

Let’s make it clear from the very beginning: Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is an institutionalised abuse against autistics.
There is NO not always, there are different kind of ABAs, some people need it, it’s for a better. It is an abuse. Period.
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Firstly I want to say that if you are pro ABA you are part of the problem. If you get all defensive once autistic people call you out and if you say shit like “but now no one uses electroshock on autistic children”, “my ABA is different”, “it’s not all that bad”, “it’s for the better”, etc. you are part of the problem. If you defend people who use ABA because “they might not realise how damaging it is”, you are part of the problem. If you think that there are two sides of this, you are part of the problem. If you think that behaviourist voices are as equally important on the matter as autistics you are part of the problem. But let me say that so far actually autistic people are barely listened anyway, we have huge organisations such as autism speaks talking over us all the time.

Nowadays lots of people tend to believe that there are two ways of doing ABA, one is “bad” aka outdated (using electroshock, locking up children in tiny cupboards, using physical punishment, etc.) and the other is “good” aka progressive (not beating children up, uses positive reinforcement, etc.)
And here I can’t stop my sarcasm “oh wow, you are so kind. You don’t beat children up. You use more sensible ways to abuse them. Such a hero… “
Okay, I am more than aware that ABA therapists can be and most probably are nice people and don’t use many things used in the past (you know we fought for the basic human rights for disabled people too and giving electroshocks to children because they rock, clap their hands too often or don’t look right into your eyes is simply unacceptable. Still there are places where children on the spectrum are getting electroshocks in the name of the behaviour modification !!).

Anyway, the main problem still stays. ABA is an abuse. ABA breaks autistic children and reinforces the idea that they are broken, wrong and need to be fixed. That only by acting in one certain, someone’s else’s demanded way they will be accepted and loved. The only right way is obviously the neurotypical way….

To better understand ABA we can look back how it was created, for example this is the quote from its founder Lovaas who even didn’t believe that autistics are human beings: “You see, you start pretty much from scratch when you work with an autistic child. You have a person in the physical sense - they have hair, a nose and a mouth - but they are not people in the psychological sense. One way to look at the job of helping autistic kids is to see it as a matter of constructing a person. You have the raw materials, but you have to build the person.”
I believe that majority of ABA therapists or anyone in that matter who engages or promotes ABA have never even heard of this quote, but still this quote is a core of how ABA works.

So, what is the purpose of the ABA? Simply to “normalise” autistic child’s behaviour, in other words to make them appear as neurotypical as possible. Like any behaviour therapies ABA is not about teaching, understanding or supporting, it is about behaviour modification.
This kind of training is not only highly unethical, but also often becomes dangerous. Therapists are not trying to understand autistic people’s experiences, but to modify and change them. Not even for the welfare of an autistic person, for the comfort of the society! If one has any kind of behaviour that seem “obsessive”, “repetitive” or in any way not understood by the neurotypical people around them, then behaviourists try to change these things aka make the autistic child to look less autistic. They even call behaviours desired and unacceptable. Desired behaviour is the one they want to reinforce, such as looking into eyes, and unacceptable behaviour is the one they want to get rid of, such as repeating things over and over again.
These are just a few examples of what could be called unacceptable behaviour:
Stimming, rocking, getting too attached to things, flapping hands, talking about the same thing too many times over and over again, not eating certain foods, not being able to touch certain textures, using echolalia, repeating sounds, having an intense interest especially if it’s not seen as typical, not making eye contact, covering ears, walking on tip-toes, not playing with specific toys in a specific (someone else’s desired) manner, the list could go on and on….

​Basically anything that behaviourists would see as “inappropriate” and “not acceptable” would need to change or be stopped. One of the biggest problems is that these kinds of approaches completely ignores the fact that everyone has a reason for doing something. Just because someone else doesn’t understand why a child is flapping their hands or covering their ears or any number of other things, that does not mean the child has no valid reasons for doing so. And if sometimes certain actions might harm an autistic person, instead of looking into what has caused stressed and if there are other ways to get the sensory input, ABA stops the action, but not its cause. That way just further sending the message to an autistic folks that their feelings and emotions are not valid, that their needs are wrong and that they in general need to change in order to be loved.
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Okay, I am going to stop my rant about ABA here, even if I could go on and on, because it is just so horrible!  

I just wanted to add another autistic voice to so many others who speak against it, not that it is going to make a big difference, because we are not heard and everyone else thinks they know better what we need and how we should live.

If you are not sure where you stand on ABA, if you engage in it in any way, if you support it, if you think it can be helpful, if you believe that there are good ways of doing it, you are making it harder for us to live in this world and to advocate for ourselves.
It doesn't mean that you hate autistic people, probably you even believe that you are doing good, and it makes you feel good too to patronise and “rescue” these poor disabled children. But no matter how good your intentions are, it still means that you believe, contribute or maybe even promote the idea that dehumanisation of autistic folks is acceptable. You not only normalise daily abuse, but twist it and call it “help”. You make my and many other actually autistic people’s lives a living hell. I rather you listen to autistic people and survivors of ABA speaking up and stop suggesting that #NotAllAba … or that we should hear both sides. So far only one side is widely heard - and it is not my side.. It is also really cruel to ask that a survivor/victim would empathise with their oppressor and hear the other side. Just STOP!

Thank you for reading. Also thanks to everyone who wrote supportive comments and messages on my previous post, I really appreciate that. Thank you.

Now two links:
If you want to support my work, you can do it here, it will help me to concentrate on creating art and writing: https://www.patreon.com/AIWS

This is an article from Life Magazine (year 1965), a massive trigger warning for this especially if you are an autistic person. It is talking about “the newest most effective treatment for autism” (aka ABA therapy) and includes abuse, torture and dehumanisation of autistic children:
http://neurodiversity.com/library_screams_1965.html
They have much more readings on the history of research and behaviourism of autism. It’s really terrifying, I don’t know why I keep reading it.

Copyright © Lex Kartanė
All rights reserved.
​
All works are copyrighted and not to be used without the permission of the author.
8 Comments
Erica
12/11/2016 05:39:32 pm

I have worked with so many kinds and they would scream all day and engage in self harming behavior. You know what helped get rid of these behaviors? ABA! I don’t know your background but where I worked we only use physical restraint when we think someone is a threat to themselves or others. If a child is throwing a tantrum or scratching and kicking, only then we restrain them.
Stopping behaviors is really important cause it distracts them from doing what they are suppose to be learning. It gets in the way. And yes, everyone has to learn to the best of their ability. How can we teach a student to write when her hands are flapping? Stop the flapping first, then teach her to hold the pen, then to write. Where is the abuse? Eye contact is also very important. Doesn’t have to make it with everyone non stop, but at least parents, siblings, teachers, therapists...Some of them use humming as stimming, how can they hear what I am saying while humming noises constantly? they block her ears too. How can they hear me to learn if she is blocking her ears constantly? of course we want our clients to enjoy life, but if we don't interrupt their stims no one would want to be around them. If we didn’t stop their stims they wouldn’t even know the things she learned to enjoy.

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Allison
12/11/2016 05:41:28 pm

I think ABA is a good theory. These kids need to grow up and fit into the world in order to survive. Someday parents and caregivers they have now will not be around. How do we really know that the supports there now are going to stay there.
That said, I can't say I agree with the strategies.

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AJ
12/11/2016 05:50:45 pm

I am appalled at your article. You are entitled to your own thoughts, but you are not entitled to falsely accuse someone of abuse, and that’s exactly what you are doing here!
You are accusing me of “abusing” my son because I enrolled him in ABA, you are accusing all the wonderful Therapists that work at our ABA Center of Abuse. . For a moment I thought to myself, are we actually talking about the same ABA? The world in which we live should be the one that is on your chopping block, not ABA. My grandson exhibits intense tantrums which grow in intensity. He does not do well in public places, spits on strangers to relieve his aggression and anxiety and hits his head into the wall. The children at the daycare shun him, won’t include him in their playing, don’t socialize with him and want nothing to do with him.. What kind of childhood is that for my son, tell me? He deserves the chance to learn social skills and daily living skills. Despite all my hard work and efforts, he needs more then just me to try to teach him these things….Our jobs as parents are to teach our children RIGHT from WRONG and prepare them for the world and life ahead of them as adults. I want my son to have the happy and memorable childhood that he deserves. Do you really think that a child that has multiple meltdowns/tantrums a day due to his lack of communication skills, has no friends at daycare due to lack of social skills is living a happy and memorable childhood? Let me answer that for you, NO. ABA is providing my son with the skills he needs to better communicate his needs…..I can’t distinguish his needs thru meltdowns, but I can distinguish his needs thru the communication skills he is learning at ABA. I can’t make friends for him, but he can starting to make friends on his own using the social skills he is learning from ABA. No one at ABA is trying to change him or conform him to “their ways”, they are simply teaching him things that typical kids already know thru a natural cycle, That certainly is in no way shape or form abuse. I can take my son to the park or local indoor playground and he has fun now, because he can interact with other kids and have a good time while being included. My son is finally a better version of HIMSELF thanks to ABA.

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Zale
12/11/2016 05:53:53 pm

this is really good. may I share this with my friends?

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Gabi's mum
13/11/2016 12:36:08 am

ABA is a natural science. There are some people out there those are giving ABA a bad name, that's true. Much the same as a doctor or a nurse or a teacher that are misusing their position and not acting by rules. The science is not to blame just the same as if a teacher did something wrong you wouldn’t say that education is bad.
My so has a ABA home program too and if I thought for one minute that his therapist or BCBA was behaving unethically I would have them booted out and reported immediately. My son has learned so much and he enjoys his therapy. ABA has saved my son’s life because he used to try and outsmart me to get out. He used to wear only one kid of trousers, now he can wear them all!
No more head banging or any other non functional communication. His teacher is lovely but they have no access to this science so they can’t know that he’s capable of more. He isn’t screaming and crying when he’s learning. Each trial lasts for 10 responses (ten tokens) and this is done in 3 minutes and the very most and he really enjoys getting the thing that he has worked for. When we give him praise he smiles. That is the meaning of errorless learning. My son is learning to be independent and isn’t going to end up in an institution where patients do get beaten. If they were trained in ABA then the patients wouldn’t be locked up and they would be given plenty of stimulation. You tell me what’s more ethical.

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Anna
13/11/2016 02:50:52 pm

People on the spectrum are human and we should accept that their brain is different from neurotypicals. The world we live in accommodates neurotypicals but rarely people on the spectrum. This can be extremely challenging and overwhelming resulting in behaviour which is not considered socially acceptable. However for that person there's a reason behind acting the way they do.

I agree with Lex, that we should take into account the reasons behind the actions and try to accommodate people on the spectrum. You wouldn't ask a person sitting in a wheelchair to just stand up and climb stairs. Why demand eye contact from people on the spectrum? If something like stimming is natural behaviour for autistics and doesn't harm anybody why the urge to stop it? It doesn't hurt us to accept people - autistic or not - the way they are.

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Destiny
13/11/2016 03:12:55 pm

Excellent article! Thank you so much for sharing this. I spoke with so many autistic people after my sons diagnosis, swiftly took him off the ABA and IBI waiting lists, and never regretted for a second that I did. He is thriving and happy and most importantly his pace and lifestyle are respected. He develops his own coping mechanisms naturally, just as I did. Please know that just because a child seems to enjoy a therapy, that does not make it a good therapy. Remember the underlying message of ABA - that they need to change their behaviors to be more like that of a non autistic child. People can be brainwashed, manipulated and even abused through play. It is just as dangerous and the message is the same at the end of the day. Our children will grow up much better through accommodations, respect and acceptance than with conversion and being talked over or down to. An article like this will outrage parents who think they are doing right by their children. Naturally people can't accept that they may have played such a dangerous role in the future of their children and more often then not they will lash out at you here. When they have professionals telling them this is what needs to happen, many people tend not to question it. Please keep writing anyway. Be strong anyway. Maybe some of these parents will join autistic groups (not parent run groups) and listen to the thousands of autistic people who are using their forms of communication to tell us what we all need to hear. Please know that there are parents out there who do hear you, and who do appreciate your bravery in speaking your mind and informing parents through the autistic perspective.

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Jane Anderson
13/11/2016 09:49:25 pm

In my experience no one who understands autism or who is an independent autism expert likes ABA as an autism specific intervention. At the end of the day it's the same methodology used to modify behaviour of animals. It is disrespectful for any human being. I am not referring to specific behaviour interventions to change harmful behaviours for anyone whether NT or autistic. But ABA being thought to be the most appropriate method to teach someone because they happen to be autistic!
There are much more human and empathetic ways to support someone with a neurological difference that accepts and validates the person for who they are and respects their different developmental trajectory
http://smallbutkindamighty.com/2015/06/16/aba-and-autism-the-thorny-problem-of-control-and-consent/

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    AIWS

    AIWS is a strange invention in this planet - a machine with a brush, pen and camera in its hands. It just observes and pictures the sad and cruel reality of everyday life. If You do not get it, do not worry too much, it just means that You are average. But of course You are more than welcome to read, think about and even share Your very important thoughts. Just remember: the majority of humanity does not interest AIWS at all, so please, do not feel offended. It's not You, just Your mediocrity.

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