Shit ABA therapists say
So much of this is appalling nonsense
“correct source of stimulus control” you mean he finally figured out what you wanted from him?
Water, water park are completely accurate a plausible responses to that photo! How’s 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 (it’s
wet, you go swimming in it, you need a bathing suit) he’s just finally
figured out what you want. This is a WASTE OF TIME!
challenging assumptions more like declaring random shit and claiming that anyone who disagrees is not using evidence
“core vocabulary” by the way, means words that aren’t nouns, basically. Words like stop and no, and, go/going, to, because, etc.
This
isn’t how the burden of evidence works! if you think autistic people
develop language in a way that doesn’t involve core language, present
your fucking evidence. Especially if you’re proposing teaching language
(via AAC, ususally) by denying a child acess to key elements of
language.
What the fuck.
You shouldn’t need evidence that it “increases language exponentially” 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 wasn’t ABA, because it’s somehow impossible for ABA to cause trauma? This is patronising as shit, and please remember that there’s now a study showing that children exposed to ABA are traumatised by it.
“more importantly” it’s 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 you’re not actually teaching them is not evidence ABA works
“If it caused trauma it wasn’t the thing, because the thing doesn’t cause trauma”
….
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 it’s definitely NOT forced compliance, idk some I guess don’t have these accreditations? IDK. But I think it’s 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 isn’t forced compliance? Children aren’t allowed to opt out of the programme, they aren’t allowed to eg. decide they don’t want a certain adult to touch them, and they’re given rewards for obeying adult instructions. And if they don’t do what the adult says they’re physically forced to. You can call it “hand over hand prompting” or whatever, but that’s what it is. It’s physically forcing a child to do something.
How is that not compliance training?
You guess they don’t have acredditations? Really? That’s not taking our complaints about ABA in general as implemented by qualified pracitioners seriously. It’s a reductionist approach that ignores autistic distress. It’s 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 don’t cause PTSD and prompt dependence.
Behavior charts reduce intrinsic motivation - they’re not actually a great idea, and there’s a large body of evidence showing this.
More bullshit. Honestly if you’re teaching kids the difference between animals you need a) a variety of stimuli and b) stimuli that aren’t shit.
I’m sorry, but that looks like a fucking bear. Yes, it’s got spots, but it looks like a bear. How is a kid supposed to know that spotted bears don’t exist?
Have they learnt how to tell a bear from a cheetah? Or have they learnt that you’ve decided this toy is a cheetah?
What skill does this teach? It’s so useless.
#verbal behavior means this is literally trying to teach the kid to talk. But they’re learning that instead of communicating their own ideas about the world (i.e. that looks like a bear) they’re 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 don’t see how the kid was wrong
Also:
-It’s incredibly normal for small children to mix up animals. For everything furry with four legs to be a “dog,” for example.
-And we address that by TEACHING them the difference between dogs and bears and cheetahs.
That’s…not a behavioral problem that requires dozens of hours per week of highly coercive therapy to address.
-That toy doesn’t look like any real animal. I mean it’s more bear-shaped than cheetah-shaped, but it doesn’t 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 doesn’t 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. That’s exactly what it is. And it sure looks like s bear to me.
