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Honestly please can we just normalise nonverbal communication? It breaks my heart seeing autistic people being put through “therapies” such as ABA to try and force them into talking. There is nothing wrong with autistic people using communication devices, sign language and other means to communicate and they should not be forced into talking out of fear and abuse.
Doing research on ASD for a project and I’m honestly disappointed, one of the first things that popped up (for the major resource center for my state, being my university) was “ABA therapy providers” and I’m mad because the site (again, FROM MY UNIVERSITY) goes like
“Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the application of the science of behaviorism to teach skills so that individuals can participate in socially significant activities that improve their lives”
Like, haha, that’s a funny way of saying “electroshock therapy for autistic children who are too young to give their consent to an abusive process” but okay
"Why do you have such a hard time saying no?"
Probably because "no" gets you physically restrained and trapped in a room until you act Neurotypical.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
“Today’s not just about one person,” his father said. “What we do is for everybody’s freedom.”
Ezra knows this day isn’t about him. He can’t be selfish. It wasn’t easy, but he was determined to be the good son his parents want.
So this is an autistic!Ezra AU that’s been bouncing my head for a while. It’s basically my 'Whumptober' fic without actually using Whumptober prompts.
Heed the tags. Ezra goes through ABA Therapy in this first chapter, and it is NOT a pleasant experience. I have based the scenes off of people's firsthand experiences and the way my teachers would treat me when I was a child.
It’s in three parts, which I’ll be posting over the next few days
Many thanks to @astropixie who beta'd this fic and gave me inspiration for the later chapters^^
I went through ABA therapy after high school
They restricted my spending money if I had a meltdown and punished me if I had one. I was abused through aba from 2012-2017. Seriously messed me up. I keep thinking I’m getting in trouble if I have a meltdown. I rely on fast acting anti anxiety medicine to function. ABA IS CONVERSION THERAPY. my mom tells me to take a pill whenever I’m unhappy it’s really messed me up bc the ABA therapy really made me feel broken. I still feel that way. My first roommate controlled my spending money and didn’t allow me to leave the apartment. I was abused by her for two years. My next roommate literally had no sense of time. She’d cook at 11p. She also outed me as trans to her parents. That’s dangerous.
I lived alone till I stopped the ABA therapy.
I have an amazing roommate now who listens to me and we work things out now. Aba made me suppress being autistic. I would NEVR wish what I went through on ANYONE.
update post
things are hectic in my life at the moment, with a set of mock exams and some updates to the discord server to get through. i'll get back to posting a decent amount as soon as i can
in the meantime, one of the server members is running a small question-based study on discord as part of their degree course (theyre autistic too). they want to get autistic peoples views on a few parts of aba "therapy" - specifically coming at it from a legal angle. if anyone's interested, either DM me or reblog with a comment and you can be part of it
Major trigger warnings up the wazoo I had "speech therapy" and "occupational therapy" when I was younger which was really ABA in disguise. Here are the things I went through.
"Occupational therapy"
I was told to play with Play-dough, which I thought was stupid because I'm not 2. Later I was told to tie a string around my arm. When I was unable to do this, they grabbed my arm as hard as possible and forced me to wrap it over and over again, while never letting go of my arm until I managed to wrap it around my arm. If I did any sort of "fidgeting" I was told to sit in the chair, and was watched to make sure I didn't "fidget". If I did "fidget" then they would yell.
If I "fidgeted" in any shape or form they would take my backpack away from me and wouldn't give it back until I stopped "fidgeting". They would also hold hands down until I stopped "fidgeting". I was also not allowed to go to the bathroom until I stopped "fidgeting".
"Speech therapy"
If I said things in a monotone voice, they would force me to keep saying certain sentences until I got it. I wasn't allowed to take breaks until I didn't speak in a monotone voice.
If I had gone nonverbal, my backpack was taken away from me and wasn't given back to me until I spoke, and I spoke in a voice that wasn't monotone.
If I tried to leave the room so I could calm down from sensory overload, they immediately blocked the door, and trapped me inside until I did what they wanted.
TLDR; ABA "Therapy" is Gay Conversion Therapy for Autism and tortures Autistic people.
W O W THANKS TUMBLR CUZ I ALWAYS WANTED ABA THERAPY ADVERTIZED ON HERE DIRECTLY TO MY AUTISTIC ASS
THIS IS F U C K E D I’M EMAILING TUMBLR STAFF
