That's interesting, can you elaborate on your qualms with ABA? After my sister's belated diagnosis around 1990 (it was still quite rare compared to the present) my mom became an ABA practitioner (eventually getting a PhD). Sister went from completely non-verbal to speaking well, which was remarkable considering that there were professionals saying she'd always need to live in an institution. As best I can tell ABA made a huge difference for her.

ABA is sometimes used to force autistic children to behave more normally in a way that's detrimental to them. For some kids, the end result is they become an easy mark for abusive behavior.

My son's speech therapist described ABA as horse breaking, and the (way more humane) approach she uses as horse whispering. The approach she uses is JASPER: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34348479/

Edit: a part of the criticism I've heard for ABA is that it doesn't generalise, so kids know how to function only in a very limited set of circumstances and are often frozen with anxiety outside of them. It is also an all consuming lifestyle for the whole family.

That's definitely true re: all consuming. It literally became my mom's entire purpose, and from the moment she woke up to the moment she went to bed she was working to get her daughter to talk.

I'm in a similar mindset but won't do ABA - my son is minimally verbal but has come along at a gentle pace since we started. I'm quietly confident that just engaging him and building his joint attention will do the right thing.

ABA was significantly better than what came before it for treating many low functioning individuals with ASD. That doesn't mean that there aren't now better alternatives or that it was ever well suited for the entire spectrum.

> That's interesting, can you elaborate on your qualms with ABA?

You mean aside from thinking that I shouldn't have to change my behavior for the convenience of others as long as I'm not breaking the law or making a public nuisance of myself?

I'm not interested in pretending to be "normal" for the sake of neurotypicals who don't give a fuck about me. I do more than enough of that at my day job just to be seen as "employable".

Never mind masking because of COVID; I've been masking because of autism my entire life[1] and I'm getting sick of it.

Autistic people don't need a cure or treatment that only makes life easier for neurotypicals. Neurotypicals can go fuck themselves.

[1]: https://www.tiimoapp.com/blog/masters-of-masking-autistic-me...

Like with ADHD, the benefit of a diagnosis is usually more 1-on-1 time with a teacher, which leads to better scholastic outcomes regardless of if the underlying issue is truly present.

> Like with ADHD, the benefit of a diagnosis is usually more 1-on-1 time with a teacher

Funny, they wanted to put me on Ritalin, not give me more 1-on-1 time.

I wish I had a doctor who wanted to get me on ritalin when I was younger. Everyone I know who had been prescribed has sung praises even still today well out of schooling.

The thing is, I didn't have ADHD, I was just kind of rambunctious (and said the word "butt" one too many times, apparently). It was being used as a "I'm too lazy to teach" remedy, which was of course my fault, not the teacher's.

Luckily my parents laughed at the idea and thus the poor teacher had to actually do her job: teach kindergartners, not child-shaped vegetables.

I wish I had been on ritalin at school. As an adult I have found my ability to retain, recall, and communicate information is so much stronger when I am on ritalin than when I am not. But, alas, I was not and here I am, decades later, trying to decide whether the expense of gaining a degree would be repaid with my remaining years in the workforce.

Same experience in the UK. And much worse.

> Like with ADHD, the benefit of a diagnosis is usually more 1-on-1 time with a teacher, which leads to better scholastic outcomes regardless of if the underlying issue is truly present.

My observation has been that usually diagnosis results in dependence on amphetamines.

That's what my parents tried to avoid for the first 15 years of my life. Finally, in my junior year of HS, they relented. My live improved 1000% overnight.

There's a reason why they're used. Because they're effective for the vast majority of people.

Apparently my spelling and ability to proofread did not improve, however :)

I mean, no more dependent than a neurotypical person is on their naturally-produced neurotransmitters.

Although purely annecdotal, I've seen a close personal friend with ADHD develop severe abuse issues with their prescribed medication. I don't have data on how high the risk is, but it does exist.

> I don't have data on how high the risk is, but it does exist.

While addiction can occur in anybody, the data seems to support the opposite conclusion^1 in regards to ADHD people and addictions to prescribed stimulants. Though a simple search on the topic can yield you many other sources citing the same observations.

In fact, people with ADHD are far more prone to developing addictions if ADHD is not treated properly. In an elementary way of thinking, the ADHD brain craves dopamine. So, in a sad way, the options for many ADHD people are:

1. to acquire their dopamine through the care and monitoring of licensed and trained medical professionals => improving their life.

2. to acquire their dopamine through whatever means works for them, typically the ways of boosting dopamine are quite dangerous, unproductive, inefficient, etc.

The average person is either ignorant or refuses to admit that ADHD psychostimulant medications are by far one of the most well researched and well understood medications ever utilized in medicine. This might sound a bit alarming for those unaware, but it's actually hard to find a medication that has this large of an benefical effect with so few side-effects in the large majority of individuals who use them properly.

Speaking of dangers, almost no one ever mentions the dangers of a person with ADHD going untreated. If you want to learn more, I would recommend you read points 78 - 136^2.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25158998/

[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014976342...

Dependence on medicine to treat a chronic condition? If you "depend" upon something to seriously improve your quality of life, then that's hardly so bad.

> After his mother's death in 1971 he started taking antidepressants and amphetamines, despite the concern of his friends, one of whom (Ron Graham) bet him $500 that he could not stop taking them for a month. Erdős won the bet, but complained that it impacted his performance: "You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You've set mathematics back a month." After he won the bet, he promptly resumed his use of Ritalin and Benzedrine.