The Troubled History of ABA Therapy: Talking With Author Anne Borden King
If you separate ABA therapy from reward and punishment and token economies, you don’t have any ABA left because the entire structure of ABA is based on that.
If you separate ABA therapy from reward and punishment and token economies, you don’t have any ABA left because the entire structure of ABA is based on that.
You may know that ABA is a questionable therapy for autistic kids, one many autism advocates think should be abandoned. But since not every parent can avoid ABA, what can those parents do to protect their kids?
Why it is so disappointing to see ProPublica’s recent feature promoting hefty insurance mandates for Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), given the opposition by autism and autistic-led organizations to the practice.
No, ABA therapy cannot affirm neurodiversity, not without becoming something that is not ABA therapy.
Autistic children only get one childhood, and they deserve properly qualified and properly experienced professional teams. Teams that consider autistic ways of communication, ethics, human rights, and potential harms very carefully indeed.
Why parents of autistic kids need to be cautious and thoughtful about the therapies they consider for their children.
Even though the Son-Rise therapists take credit for Kyle’s successes, maybe he’s done well because of his family’s kindness…in spite of the therapy, not because of it.
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) taught me that social skills were context-free rules I had to follow: forcing my hands to be quiet, staring back at eyeballs that bored into mine, contorting myself to make myself look less autistic at the expense of my happiness and overall well-being.
If early intervention professionals truly want to serve autistic children, then they need to transition to better ways to guide our autistic kids, ways that don’t crush those children’s spirits and hearts.
Once you start looking, it’s hard not to notice that a very large portion of early autism intervention research is conducted by the same people who designed the interventions, or who provide the intervention.