Shit ABA therapists say
So much of this is appalling nonsense
ācorrect source of stimulus controlā you mean he finally figured out what you wanted from him? Water, water park are completely accurate a plausible responses to that photo! Howās he supposed to know what you want? Has this child developed their knowledge about swimming pools through this? No, he clearly knows what one is and is able to talk about it (itās wet, you go swimming in it, you need a bathing suit) heās just finally figured out what you want. This is a WASTE OF TIME!Ā
challenging assumptions more like declaring random shit and claiming that anyone who disagrees is not using evidence
ācore vocabularyā by the way, means words that arenāt nouns, basically. Words like stop and no, and, go/going, to, because, etc. This isnāt how the burden of evidence works! if you think autistic people develop language in a way that doesnāt involve core language, present your fucking evidence. Especially if youāre proposing teaching language (via AAC, ususally) by denying a child acess to key elements of language. What the fuck.
You shouldnāt need evidence that it āincreases language exponentiallyā to realise that learning the most common words in the english language is important!
Not just arguing that trauma from ABA is rare, arguing that if it caused trauma, it wasnāt ABA, because itās somehow impossible for ABA to cause trauma? This is patronising as shit, and please remember that thereās now a study showing that children exposed to ABA are traumatised by it.
āmore importantlyā itās what parents want? No, the evidence base is much more important that what parents want. Not as important as considering the best interests of the child, but jesus
Kids learning things youāre not actually teaching them is not evidence ABA works
āIf it caused trauma it wasnāt the thing, because the thing doesnāt cause traumaā
ā¦.
MURDER MODE ON
Classic No True Scotsman Fallacy
I used to work for aba bcba bt/bi company for autism and autism related stuff and yes some can cause trauma but your case manager who is like a behavioral clinician should be giving you the appropriate material to cut confusion about is it water or pool or blue or what. But itās definitely NOT forced compliance, idk some I guess donāt have these accreditations? IDK. But I think itās still better than nothing for children to learn appropriate behaviors and how to use their way of communicating without things like PECTs anyways. Most are in a behavior chart earning good things they want, not always a sit down lecture forced thing but I get it. I do. Any complaint or greivance should be taken seriously
Why do you think it isnāt forced compliance? Children arenāt allowed to opt out of the programme, they arenāt allowed to eg. decide they donāt want a certain adult to touch them, and theyāre given rewards for obeying adult instructions. And if they donāt do what the adult says theyāre physically forced to. You can call it āhand over hand promptingā or whatever, but thatās what it is. Itās physically forcing a child to do something.
How is that not compliance training?
You guess they donāt have acredditations? Really? Thatās not taking our complaints about ABA in general as implemented by qualified pracitioners seriously. Itās a reductionist approach that ignores autistic distress. Itās a fundamental problem with the method, not the method being done wrong.
PTSD and prompt dependance are serious side effects. Autistic people have been shouting about this for years, and the ABA establishment has not:
taken us seriously
issued guidlines and advice on avoiding causing trauma
included anything about the best interests of the child in their ethical guidlines
changed their methods
stopped giving children electric shocks as punishment (google the judge rotenburg center) and inviting the people who do that to present and conferences
Children can learn appropriate behaviors other ways, ways that donāt cause PTSD and prompt dependence.
Behavior charts reduce intrinsic motivation - theyāre not actually a great idea, and thereās a large body of evidence showing this.
More bullshit. Honestly if youāre teaching kids the difference between animals you need a) a variety of stimuli and b) stimuli that arenāt shit.
Iām sorry, but that looks like a fucking bear. Yes, itās got spots, but it looks like a bear. How is a kid supposed to know that spotted bears donāt exist?
Have they learnt how to tell a bear from a cheetah? Or have they learnt that youāve decided this toy is a cheetah?
What skill does this teach? Itās so useless.
#verbal behavior means this is literally trying to teach the kid to talk. But theyāre learning that instead of communicating their own ideas about the world (i.e. that looks like a bear) theyāre learning that language is something they produce like a performing dog to get a reward.
yeah that totally looks like a bear with leopard spots i donāt see how the kid was wrong
Also:
-Itās incredibly normal for small children to mix up animals. For everything furry with four legs to be a ādog,ā for example.
-And we address that by TEACHING them the difference between dogs and bears and cheetahs.
Thatāsā¦not a behavioral problem that requires dozens of hours per week of highly coercive therapy to address.
-That toy doesnāt look like any real animal. I mean itās more bear-shaped than cheetah-shaped, but it doesnāt really look like a real animal that I know of. It kind of looks like a puppy?
This is just teaching kids never to trust their own perceptions or use their own judgment, that whatever completely arbitrary perception an authority figure insists on is correct. Because there is no real-world correct answer to what that animal actually is; it doesnāt exist in nature.
Somebody needs to read a whole lot of linguistics texts on generating language. Autistic kids generate beautiful language.
It is water. To swim in. It is a park for swimming in water. Thatās exactly what it is. And it sure looks like s bear to me.
