TW Controversial Topic and Opinion: ABA Therapy
One thing that i dislike seeing on social media from actually autistic community is the idea slash myth that ALL (Keyword ALL) ABA Therapy is bad, harmful, useless and aimed at making autistic people "neurotypical".
Especially if those who claim that ABA Therapy is bad are those who have never personally experienced it yet regurgitate the very real lived experiences of those who actually have gone to ABA Therapy. Because they personally cannot understand how it works if they have not actually experienced it. I'm not trying to gatekeep or be nasty to anyone by saying this, but i don't trust those people who regurgitate the negatives and or the positives of effects of ABA without actually going through the process of it.
Like if a family member or a friend of mine say that they agree with my opinion, this one that i will express in this post. I would not be feeling secure and confident with their support, since they haven't been through it themselves so i don't really understand how they can understand how ABA Therapy works. I mean, i am a client and not a therapist myself so i don't get the intricacies of it, but i can understand that it is helping me with known concerns such as poor regulation skills and lack of independence as an autistic adult, even if it is by a little bit still. But i do think that lived experience like this should be more trustworthy than people who copy what others have said regarding it without actually going through with that process themselves, if that makes sense.
While i understand and respect those with lived experiences sharing that their ABA Therapy was indeed all of that, bad harmful useless and negative for them as an autistic person, that isn't necessarily the same for me and for perhaps other ABA Therapy goers. Me personally, i have experienced only positive experiences and results after going such as an improvement in self regulation skills, life skills and so on. But the nuance is that my experience is not the end all be all experience and so called "consensus" within the large and wider autism online space, especially even on here since there is representation of people with higher support needs whose voices should be listened to. The same could be said for people who declare that ABA Therapy is harmful, etc for autistic people.
And even within my own experiences with various ABA Therapy centers, the story and the effects it has on me changes between the years and the centers that i have been going to as a child and as an adult autistic now. Which should also be considered. This also supports my point of ABA Therapy itself being nuanced and not just black and white, as each company or center that does ABA has many different views, perspectives, programs and ways going about things such as a client's challenging behaviours. Some may be less neuro affirming while others are neuro affirming, and that can be to a degree of how less or more a center is neuro affirming to clients and parents. This kind of nuance, for example, should be considered amongst other nuances and changes in how things are done.
With that said, my personal opinion on ABA Therapy is that, when done right or with no harm or both really, can be helpful. It was really helpful for me as a child even though they did use "planned ignoring" which, in my personal opinion again, really did more harm than help me with challenging behaviours. As most of what i behaved like as a child was mostly for communication purposes, not for attention seeking which was what the IBI center i was with at the time thought was the reason behind my behaviours. Because, i had learnt to read clocks, although i am not the best at that and still prefer digital over analog clocks, and learnt some signs around the community. I don't remember a lot from that time as i was a child, a very young one then, but i do remember that it was the thing that allowed me to returm to my home school district and eventually return to mainstream class, and that is what i consider is important when i talk about controversial topics.
The same could be said for when i went to ABA Therapy again as an teenager to an adult nowadays. However, there is nuance in that the first center that we tried was seemingly doing terribly when it comes to their financial situation. By that i meant that it did not seem as organized and as well funded by their clients and their children's paying for the therapy (The company advertised ABA Therapy for only people under 18 which means minors, children, teens. Same with the next center that i went to.). When i went, there was literally no way for me to practice cooking and other life skills because there was no equipment that could facilitate any of that, so instead of life skills programs, we did social skills, and reading comprehension (I think?) programs. And that was it, only one hour per week for stuff that i felt and still feel did not do much to help me improve on my self regulation skills at all.
However, the next center that i went to for ABA Therapy was better in that it had more equipment and was more equipped to take on someone with my kind of needs. That meant i could do my life skills, and learn how to cook small meals such as noodles and cookies if i was hungry enough to be interested. I went for about 2 hours two days a week, and it was more helpful than the last center was. More interesting too, in my personal opinion and from what i've observed walking around the center during the breaks in between tasks and my programs. This one i consider to be the best and should be a sort of a role model for other ABA centers slash companies, but obviously this is just my honest and personal opinion that i know lacks nuance so i do not expect anyone to take this endorsement, so to speak, as seriously as they learn from other takes from other creators talking about their lived experiences with ABA.
Anyway, my point here is that please believe and respect people with experiences that contradict your experiences and your opinions better. Don't dismiss them, or ignore them whatever other way. Both sides have important voices and things to add, and i'd hate to see them infighting instead of respecting each others' voices like they do for those who support their side. I feel as though doing this would be very constructive and help bridge any possible gap between the two sides of this particular debate.
