A Controversial Autism Treatment Is About to Become a Big Business

Re:A Controversial Autism Treatment Is About to Become a Big... by CalRobert on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @04:43PM (#28778171)

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.

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Re:A Controversial Autism Treatment Is About to Become a Big... by DoreenMichele on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @04:49PM (#28778245)

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.

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Re:A Controversial Autism Treatment Is About to Become a Big... by hkt on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @04:58PM (#28778327)

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.

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Re:A Controversial Autism Treatment Is About to Become a Big... by CalRobert on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @06:32PM (#28779305)

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.

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Re:A Controversial Autism Treatment Is About to Become a Big... by hkt on Thursday October 07, 2021 @03:05AM (#28783134)

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.

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Re:A Controversial Autism Treatment Is About to Become a Big... by shkkmo on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @05:34PM (#28778768)

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.

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Re:A Controversial Autism Treatment Is About to Become a Big... by eigengrau5150 on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @08:05PM (#28780067)

> 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...

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