Want to know why I don’t like ABA and believe it is harmful?

 Want to know more about why I don’t like ABA and believe it is harmful?  

This is a good explanation by the Autistic Science Person.

Always ask yourself, is this type of program supporting my child in a way that celebrates their differences, appreciates their experiences and understands they deserve respect, autonomy and to build their capacity to gain a sense of self without being ridiculed, shutdown and harmed?

If you don’t think this is happening in these behavioral programs, I would definitely ask a lot of questions of the staff that work with your kids  and notice how your child responds when they are told it’s time to go to the therapy center.  

Our kids are always communicating how they are feeling, even when we don’t want to see what their message is telling us.    Our kids are not to be profited off of by these corporations, and this is exactly what is happening now more than ever.  

Our US govt actually has moved away from these behavioral therapies because their research on outcomes was not favorable to continuing to pay for these services.   

There are so many better alternatives that prioritize what is well known about child and brain development, relationship based supports that don’t harm our kids.  

Behaviors are just the symptom, like a fever.  What needs support is everything that is the root cause of the “fever “.  Behavioral therapies just try to make th fever go away without understanding everything that contributed to the fever in the first place.  A fever won’t go away if their is an underlying infection.   You have to treat the underlying infection for the fever to improve.

Original post from Autistic Science Person-

I'm tired of hearing the same arguments that ABA therapists use over and over again, so I wrote a new post that breaks them down here:

"These situations are why ABA is a breeding ground for meltdowns. The only way ABA knows how to “train” a child, to “motivate” them (as if they were lacking in motivation before this), is to negate their needs or take away their joy.

It’s as if there’s an assumption being made that autistic people don’t want to communicate in any way or form to other people, ever. And this assumption is dehumanizing, further traumatizes autistic people, and reinforces the “they’re stuck in their own world” trope that tells allistic people we’re not really human. This is why treating abled neurotypical children this way is not normalized and why so many ABA therapists who are more critical in other areas of their lives somehow have blinders on when it comes to autistic children specifically." https://autisticscienceperson.com/2023/03/31/autism-acceptance-week-and-applied-behavior-analysis/