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ABA Essay

833 Words4 Pages

“In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” A powerful quote once spoken by Maya Angelou in the hope of educating others on the value of human diversity, so why does society work to modify the behavior of autistic individuals? Instead of accepting and accommodating the different behaviors of autistic children, parents choose to send their children to Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy or ABA Therapy, a choice many autistic adults have voiced their painful experiences with. ABA Therapy is harmful to autistic children because it focuses on elimination rather than consideration, diminishment of internal constructs in favor of adjustment, and ignores the autistic brain as a whole.

Autism causes people to act and behave differently than …show more content…

ABA therapy chooses to ignore this different development and needs, summed up in a commentary on the abuse of ABA therapy as “..ABA does not treat autism as a neurological disorder. ABA is far more concerned with outward manifestations of behavior and the treatment of those manifestations..” (qtd. Shkedy). Autistic children have their brains needs ignored and smothered through the use of ABA as their therapists - who aren’t even required to take any classes on autism, child development, or brain functions - make an unethical decision to force changes to behavior that they deem are ‘inappropriate’ without considering the long term damage the brain can take. ‘Masking’ is a term commonly used among autistic people when they ignore the needs of their brain by being in sensory overloading situations and refusal of accommodations to moderate emotions, through stimming or other means, in favor of ‘fitting in’ with their peers. This puts stressors on the brain as its fed to much sensory input without an outlet which leads to meltdowns, burnout, and increase of anxiety, depression, and even suicidal behaviors if one continues to ignore the needs of their brain. ABA pushes for an autistic child to mask their behaviors so that they are more palatable to neurotypical dominated situations such as school and stores with no intent of allowing the child to unmask, therefore ignoring the brain's needs and impacting long lasting effects in autistic

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