Last updated on November 26, 2023
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Applied behavior analysis (ABA) has evolved since it emerged in the 1970s, but I have still observed what I consider coercive techniques within the last year. ABA therapists focus on making autistics appear normal, because that’s what parents and caregivers want.
Autistics must change, because we’re defective. Poor eye contact. Involuntary movements. Meltdowns under sensory overload. We simply do not behave “properly” in the eyes of many parents. We must be cured. We must comply.
From Psychology Today, an indirect admission that ABA is conditioning, not therapeutic help. There is a significant difference between treating a symptom and treating a cause:
Lovaas‘ claim of 47% normal outcome following intensive ABA (Lovaas, O.I., Behavioral treatment and normal educational and intellectual functioning in young autistic children. Journal of Consulting Clinical Psychology, 1987. 55(1): p. 3-9) has never been replicated; the paper in which he made the claim suffers from severe methodological flaws (more on that in a later post). And Behaviorism has no way of dealing with concepts such as “empathy,” “understanding,” or “Theory of Mind“ (one of the key deficits in ASD). Nonetheless, ABA has been used successfully with tens of thousands of children with ASD – as well as children and adults with other developmental and/or behavioral problems – to eliminate unwanted behaviors (self-injury, for example), and to promote desired behaviors, including communication, adaptive skills, and at least the outward forms of social behavior. ( http://www.lovaas.com/ )
Punishments (also referred to as “aversive stimuli,” or “aversives”): Therapists punish to decrease the likelihood that a behavior will recur. As noted above, punishments used to include physically aversive stimuli such as yelling, hitting, and electric shock, but are now limited to verbal reprimands, removal of desired objects, and overcorrection. For example, if a child throws his or her cup to the floor during a tantrum, the child might be required not just to wipe up what was spilled, but to mop the entire floor. Punishments work in the short term, but they don’t accomplish as much as rewards, since they only teach the child what not to do, without providing a positive alternative.
If you want to trigger bad memories and anger, try to convince me that Lovaas-based ABA is a good idea for autistics. Many autistic adults have posted on their experiences with ABA and few are positive.
Ivar Lovaas did not “devote his career to improving the lives of children with autism.” He began trying to cure “effeminate boys” of their potential gayness. Ponder that. Please. He began with aversion therapy and other forms of torture hidden behind euphemisms. I don’t care that his methods evolved. That’s like excusing the experiments on hypothermia that began in concentration camps. You don’t get to excuse a reformed Torquemada.
You might consider this hyperbole unless you have experienced the excruciating pain of trying to be something you are not. Being told not to react to lights, sounds, and other sensations because you’re supposed to tolerate the violence.
Many parents send me messages telling me how great ABA is. Therapists tell me that the origins do not matter, because nobody uses the original Lovaas models. And if a child is uncomfortable (which most therapists seem to doubt), it is only because the child is resisting being normalized.
I’m not going to be persuaded that the therapies I’ve tried were a good idea. Resentment isn’t a positive state of mind.