Challenging Behaviour programme- BBC4 5/11/13
I still do not know where I stand really on this. The one bit that affected me the most was Jack, the little boy with autism, who would only eat liquid food. He looked absolutely petrified of the solid food, I guess as he associated it with vomiting or perhaps there were sensory issues there that weren't obvious. They appeared to be using aversion therapy which is commonly used for phobias, but when aversion therapy is used in "neurotypical" individuals, they have made the choice to go and try get rid of the phobia and if the process gets too stressful they can say no and leave the process. Unfortunately with Jack he didn't have the ability to choose whether he wanted to be weened off liquid foods or to say no to the procedures. I also feel that ABA program has divided emotional punishment and physical punishment; ABA got rid of physical punishment decades ago but still keeps the emotional punishment if the benefit outweighs the negatives. To me, punishment is punishment, whether emotional or physical. Gunnar said that it didn't matter that the children cry because it helps them reach goals, but it is a form of emotional punishment and I am not sure why this is deemed as more acceptable compared to physical punishment, now banned in the practice. If the programme showed the practitioners slapping the children every time they cried there would be an uproar, so why are we sat back saying nothing about children being force fed food they are frightened of, of children who are confused, or perhaps overwhelmed by instruction/sensory info. The effects of emotional punishment seem to be underestimated. The end product for Jack was amazing, but I dread to think of what he went through in the 2 weeks it took to get him off the liquid food (they didn't actually show us this!) The debate continues...