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I would recommend that you discontinue this therapy and look into other alternatives. That's a major red flag, and also, the autistic community fairly uniformly condemns ABA therapy, some going so far as to consider it abusive. Not being autistic myself, although I have other disabilities, from what I have researched of it I can certainly understand their concerns.
Good lucky to you and your child, regardless of your decision.
I would recommend that you discontinue this therapy and look into other alternatives. That's a major red flag, and also, the autistic community fairly uniformly condemns ABA therapy, some going so far as to consider it abusive. Not being autistic myself, although I have other disabilities, from what I have researched of it I can certainly understand their concerns.
Good lucky to you and your child, regardless of your decision.
It's both amazing and shocking to me that in this day and age anyone would think that innate wiring someone is born with could be changed or "cured."
Maybe someday nanotech micromachines ... but that is chilling and to be considered with extreme hesitation due to some unthinkable possibilities.
In any case, the notion of trying to change the essence of the being ... is just so wrong in so many ways.
Sure, there are some therapies to help facilitate work arounds. And perhaps during very early life, intervention may help shape some of the wiring still growing in.
ABA is a behavioral therapy. Its goal is not to "change how a person is wired," or to "cure autism." Its goal is to replace unsafe behavior with safe behavior. Applied behavior analysis can be applied to any situation where there is maladaptive behavior in evidence, and a behavioral change is desired; its applications are not limited to individuals with autism, in any way, shape, or form. To characterize ABA as a misguided attempt to "cure autism" or to "change who a person is," is manipulative and shows a lack of understanding of behavioral therapy.
I've used it when working with highly aggressive, highly self-injurious populations, before. If you are a person who feels that helping teach a person to manage sensory overload and frustration without beating his head into walls so often and violently that he sustains multiple concussions and TBI is something terrible people do to "try to change who a person is," well, I don't know what to tell you. Beating your head into walls in response to sensory issues is not a person's "essence of being." It's a dangerous, maladaptive behavior that is not uncommon among people with severe autism and other sensory processing and/or neurological issues. Learning how NOT to do it is not "destroying who you are." Limited understanding of what ABA is, and mischaracterizing what appropriate application of ABA is proven to help with is disingenuous.
ABA is a behavioral therapy. Its goal is not to "change how a person is wired," or to "cure autism." Its goal is to replace unsafe behavior with safe behavior. Applied behavior analysis can be applied to any situation where there is maladaptive behavior in evidence, and a behavioral change is desired; its applications are not limited to individuals with autism, in any way, shape, or form. To characterize ABA as a misguided attempt to "cure autism" or to "change who a person is," is manipulative and shows a lack of understanding of behavioral therapy.
I've used it when working with highly aggressive, highly self-injurious populations, before. If you are a person who feels that helping teach a person to manage sensory overload and frustration without beating his head into walls so often and violently that he sustains multiple concussions and TBI is something terrible people do to "try to change who a person is," well, I don't know what to tell you. Beating your head into walls in response to sensory issues is not a person's "essence of being." It's a dangerous, maladaptive behavior that is not uncommon among people with severe autism and other sensory processing and/or neurological issues. Learning how NOT to do it is not "destroying who you are." Limited understanding of what ABA is, and mischaracterizing what appropriate application of ABA is proven to help with is disingenuous.
I was referring to the abusive therapies some are describing here.
I love ABA, but.. I understand the autism community's disdain for certain types of ABA. I just finished reading NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman which goes into the history of autism and the beginnings of ABA with LoVaas who was certainly into aversives for quite a while. It is a complicated history and while ABA has changed (for the better, imo), it still has practitioners who use questionable practices.
Some ABA as it was used for autistic children did (and still does) try to make them appear as close to neurotypical as possible. Quiet hands (stopping kids from moving their hands in autistic ways) is unnecessary and can be quite painful to these children.
I have an online friend whose parents thought they had cured her by sending her to ABA, but all it did was to make her *pretend* to be normal. She had not been told she was autistic and only discovered it when she had a breakdown in her early 20s from trying to suppress any *odd* autistic behavior. Once she got a diagnosis and began to understand herself, she was much happier. She suppresses much of her odd behavior in the workplace, but she stims at home and it helps her to relax.
I share this with her permission and hope people will understand and use ABA within its limited scope. I have several other posts of hers saved that talk about how being autistic affected them and how ABA was in some ways abusive.
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People who actually have autism don't recover. If people are being misdiagnosed and thus recovering and creating false hope that should be addresssed but I think more of the problem comes from people not understanding how much autism still impacts the lives of those of us they see as high functioning and so perhaps recovered.
I think it is mistaking people like me as recovered that causes more problems.
Gareeth
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Well said, Gareeth! I couldn't have said it better myself!
I too do all those things that autistics "aren't supposed to be able to do", but at a great cost. I have to work harder.
People don't see how I cannot speak for at least an hour or so after returning home from work. Or how I am so exhausted when I get home after spending 8 hours playing the normal act. They don't see my flap my hands when I'm stressed out or how I pace about under stress. They don't feel the constant frustration I have, nor can they appreciate how difficult it is for me to be in a crowd or deal with noises, smells and sensations.
Did I recover from autism? No. I just learned how to cope with it and even hide it to the point where most autistics who meet me in person can't tell I'm autistic. I was trained to be that way and I've had to be that way because I don't qualify for support services. I have to work. I have to pay my bills. I have to buy my own food and clean my own house (but when I do start making more money, I'm getting a cleaning lazy in once a week or so).
That's the way it is for me. I'm happy with my life, of course...but it's really hard work some days!
I think your concerns are very reasonable and what happened sounds really alarming to me, personally, too.
My son had had in-home ABA before when he was 2.5-3 in the state of California (Bay Area Peninsula). It was not the most effective treatment for him, but nothing like what you shared. There was no restraining. He was non-verbal but there was always a verbal explanation then the therapists would try to redirect him (verbally) — no ignoring. I was always present during ABA sessions and I was allowed to participate or let them work/play together.
I was referring to the abusive therapies some are describing here.
Which are being inappropriately identified and held up by some as ABA, inaccurately. Acting in an abusive, dangerous manner and calling what you are doing "ABA," doesn't make it ABA.There is actual training and there are systems of methodology and protocol involved, as with any behavioral therapy.
What is described by the OP (which is, FWIW, a several year-old post) is fraught with red flags that indicate a sketchy, highly inethical practice that is likely advertising a therapy its employees are not competent to provide, probably capitalizing on the fact that ABA is one of the few evidence-backed protocols shown empirically to reduce maladaptive behavior in autism. There are numerous indicators that the provider described is not, in fact, using ABA principles at all, but using inappropriate treatment protocols, calling it ABA, and cashing in on that. If there are licensed mental health professionals involved (which is not even necessarily the case), they'd be risking malpractice if the info in the OP is accurate.
I agree that what is described in the OP and in some posters' commentary is abusive. I don't agree with calling procedures that aren't ABA protocols ABA, though.
Which are being inappropriately identified and held up by some as ABA, inaccurately. Acting in an abusive, dangerous manner and calling what you are doing "ABA," doesn't make it ABA.There is actual training and there are systems of methodology and protocol involved, as with any behavioral therapy.
What is described by the OP (which is, FWIW, a several year-old post) is fraught with red flags that indicate a sketchy, highly inethical practice that is likely advertising a therapy its employees are not competent to provide, probably capitalizing on the fact that ABA is one of the few evidence-backed protocols shown empirically to reduce maladaptive behavior in autism. There are numerous indicators that the provider described is not, in fact, using ABA principles at all, but using inappropriate treatment protocols, calling it ABA, and cashing in on that. If there are licensed mental health professionals involved (which is not even necessarily the case), they'd be risking malpractice if the info in the OP is accurate.
I agree that what is described in the OP and in some posters' commentary is abusive. I don't agree with calling procedures that aren't ABA protocols ABA, though.
Some actual ABA is abusive even in 2015. That is why it is important to research the particular company providing the ABA.
The history is explored in NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman
For example, Richard Foxx recently authored a book chapter about the "myth" of non-aversive treatment for "severe" behaviour (aggression, self-injury; Foxx, 2005). Dr Foxx is one of the best known and most respected behaviour analysts in the world. He was also recently an expert witness in support of ABA parents in a British Columbia legal case. James Mulick, another highly respected behaviour analyst known for his work in autism, recently was an author of a published study using electric shock to treat self-injury. Dr Mulick was an expert witness for the ABA parents in Auton. While those in charge of the JRC may be pariahs in the behaviour analytic and autism advocacy communities, Drs Foxx and Mulick are definitely not.
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We shouldn't forget how utterly wrong all those important behaviour analysts--Lovaas, Carr, Risley, Baer, Schreibman, Koegel, etc.--were when they were claiming that without aversives, autistics were doomed. We should all remember that Lichstein and Schreibman (1976), in a review of multiple behaviour analytic interventions using electric shock on autistic children, stated that the main side effect of using electric shock was "positive emotional behavior". They were saying that electric shock made autistics happy, a claim it is hard to imagine being made about typical children.
I am currently doing a masters in Aba and hope to become a Board certified Behevaior analyst working with kids with autism. I have been doing Aba therapy for over two years now and have never told a parent they are not allowed to watch what I do or how I do it. You are not allowed to restrain a child without the knowledge and signed consult from a parent or guardian. What they seem to be doing is whatever they see fit which is punishable by law. When looking for therapy companies, always go with you gut. You should know what is being done with your child, what goals they are working on, etc. what they are doing isn't right.
Hello,
I am new to this thread, so bear with me if this is a little long. My five year old son has recently been diagnosed as PDD/NOS after several years of "fighting" to get him a diagnosis. He is very verbal, but he has serious sensory issues and often goes into "trances" where he sings the same songs over and over. Long story short, he started therapy at a local clinic in our town two weeks ago. Not really understanding the specifics, only that it is "the only treatment" for ASD, we dove right in. Little clues along the way have made us nervous such as the clinic's reluctancy of letting parents enter the facility to drop of our son or pick him up - we must wait in the car for his therapist to come out and get him, not disclosing full details about the specifics regarding the therapy, not answering questions about the facility, etc.
Anyway, I haven't seen much change in our son as of yet, but I am concerned as some of the techniques I am learning about. First of all, they consistently tell us to ignore his side of the story and not to entertain it at all. The first day, he was restrained and put on "extinction" due to a melt-down he had over his shoes. Today, he had a sub and had a 40 minute meltdown again about his shoes. He was put on "extinction" and restrained again. I have NEVER had to restrain my son for any reason, so this seems very barbaric and disturbing to me. Today, he had visible marks on his arms and neck, with broken skin from the therapists nails on his arm.
I guess I want to know your experiences with this type of therapy. I am starting to feel like we made a big mistake with this. He tells us that he begs them to talk to him when he is on "extinction" and but they continue to ignore him until he calms down, then they continue it for another 5 minutes.
Any advice or experience is much appreciated!
No, no, no, no, NO! I'd run FAR from that place. VERY FAR.
My son has special needs, and is in an ungodly amount of therapy. While he doesn't have the same diagnosis as your child, we have been to multiple clinics throughout the metro area for various delays and reasons. NONE of them would EVER do ANY of the things you are describing above.
Not only would I pull my child out, I'd see what I could do to get an investigation going. These are HUGE red flags that you are being kept in the dark, not allowed in, and told to ignore what your child says?!!!!
RUN!
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Get him out!
