Reasons to opt out of ABA include research studies, and concerns from autistic people and/or caregivers.
ABA Risks
Research Studies
A higher risk of PTSD was found in autistic people who had ABA (Kupferstein, 2018).
Lack of evidence that ABA was effective (Reichow, et al, 2018; Office of the Under Secretary of Defence, 2019; Strydom, et al, 2020).
A risk that those who experience ABA will have less ability to have personal agency (Desnoyer, 2023) including a risk for sexual abuse in adulthood (Heney, 2023).
Journals
Note: Most ABA research design is flawed, with small sample sizes, absence of randomized control trials, detection bias and typically no assessment of risks or adverse events (King, 2020). An example is a research paper that claimed a 47% figure for “normalization” from ABA that included administering electric shocks to children for negative reinforcement (Lovaas, 1987). To our knowledge, these results have never been duplicated without non-violent methods, or had the emotional impacts of ABA with aversives studied.
Also, 70% of ABA research studies have been done by persons with a financial stake in positive outcomes, creating a pervasive bias (Bottema‐Beutel, 2021). Only recently are studies of the negative impacts to ABA, being researched.
Less authentic relationships can be the result of ABA, as autistic people are often taught to mask who they innately are (Miller, et al, 2021) through goals to socialize in a neurotypical fashion.
Exposure to certain stimuli, under the guise of desensitization, brought sensory distress as physical pain.(Retta, 2021).
Concerns over how changing behavior is prioritized over meeting the needs that caused the behavior (Lynch, 2019).
Broken trust with caregivers if they allowed ABA (McGill, et al, 2021).
Many first person accounts by autistic advocates detail ABA causing depression and anxiety (McGill, et al, 2021; stopabasupportautistics, 2023).
ABA is considered abuse by many autistic adults including those who had ABA (Anderson, 2023; Bascom, 2012). In a 2018 survey of 3,431 autistic people, just 5.19% supported ABA (Bonnello, 2018).
Not protecting Black and Brown children, but “speaking for or over us.” (Thornton, 2021).
ABA is too similar to dog training (Millman, 2019).
Concerns from the Autistic Community
ABA is largely promoted for financial profit (Cernius, 2022).
They don’t like ABA including the use of aversives. Aversives are legal in MA for disabled individuals but not abled individuals or animals. Aversives include withholding food and the use of the bathroom, as well as pinching, hitting and electric shock are used to change behaviors.
Stims are reduced which can effect their child’s happiness and ability to self regulate (Perry, 2018).
Their child appears to be traumatized by ABA (Kupferstein, 2019).
They are allies of the autistic community so they believe the autistic community’s concerns around ABA (Des Roches Rosa, 2020).
The way skills are taught can be tedious, regimented and time consuming (20-40 hours a week) so it can take away time that could be spent simply enjoying childhood (ms. a., 2019; Birdmadgrrl, 2017).
“Planned ignoring” to change a child’s behavior, can get a child to abandon their basic human survival instincts (Ashburn, 2021).
Concerns from Caregivers
Concerns from Autistic Young People
Non speaking, autistic young people write about how ABA did not support their motor difficulties and communication differences (Melnyczuk, 2019).
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