ABA , can it cause toxic stress or trauma? I agree with Dr. Delahooke, YES it can!

 This is an excellent post from Dr. Delahooke.   The research is widely available and too many are still following very outdated research that was not even based on actual kids.   

The explosion of the business money making model of ABA needs to change.  It is not serving our kids or helping them and as stated below, (and as many can attest to) it is causing further issues for our kids.   I know this part first hand.    

There are alternatives to support our kids.   You are never alone in helping your child.   But the research has now shown ABA to not be the gold standard and yet it is still what our schools utilize first line and what parents are told to seek as soon as they receive an Autism diagnosis for their child.  Or if a parent is seeking support for other “behavioral “ issues.  We need to shift this paradigm to one that is actually based on brain science that explains why kids can be challenging and how to support them.  Control and manipulation does not work!!! It only creates more behaviors.   

Compassion over control

Connection over compliance 

Kids do well if they can, if they can’t, WHY not?  The why is what we need to figure out.  What is the WHY that lies beneath the behaviors?  I highly recommend her book “Beyond Behaviors”.  Wish I had it 10 years ago.

From Dr. Mona Delahooke, PhD.:

Does ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) have the potential to cause toxic stress or trauma? 

Unfortunately, I believe the answer is yes. 

Behaviors are simply a signal of how the child’s body is moving in response to the sensations they are experiencing. The more intense the movement, (yelling, kicking, running away) the more the body is interpreting the need to move by coding the sensation as threatening. Sensations can be as simple (and invisible) as a sound, a smell, or the look on someone else’s face. They aren’t always in the child’s awareness, they are most often subconscious.

When we ignore, or worse, punish the signal, we are in essence, telling the child that they need to override their sensations, and that we don’t think those sensations (behaviors)  are worthy of our (the adult’s) care and attention.  When a person’s distress is consistently ignored over a long period of time, this can cause toxic stress.

If your child has ABA therapy and behavioral manipulation is the sole focus of therapy, I urge caution.

Please understand that this is a brand- new paradigm I’m talking about that’s not popular in education or psychology—yet. Don’t stress out, your child knows you love them and that is what carries the day. But if you want to learn more, I write about the alternatives to ABA in my book, Beyond Behaviors. #neurodiversity  #compassion  #autism #autismacceptance #Beyondbehaviors #specialeducation #AutismTreatment #relationshipsfirst