Essay On ABA Therapy For Autistic Children

Human Rights: Is ABA therapy abusive?

“Autistic children are taught that when they put their own feelings and desires aside to do what someone else wants of them, they are rewarded. When they stand up for their own feelings and desires, they get punished.” (Kaylene George, 2019). This is how many autistic children are treated for hours of their lives. Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy (ABA for short) is a form of therapy that many autistic children go through starting at a young age. It uses positive and negative reinforcements, or rewards and punishments, to help encourage learning, communication, and social skills. The first theories behind autism “treatment” and the earliest form of ABA therapy came from a man known as Dr. Ivar

Experiments like this have evolved throughout the years and have been proven to being effective in children’s learning. However, this research also shows negative side effects that can harshly impact an autistic person’s future relationships and adulthood. It causes a lot of stress as most children are required to have 20-40 hours of therapy weekly. The punishments, such as having their possessions withheld until they complete a task, have also been proven to be traumatic and affect how these people act in relationships later in life. Many of these side effects go over parents’ heads for several reasons, from ABA being cost-friendly to the fact that their child is finally doing as they are told. With all of the mixed results in research and controversy surrounding ABA therapy, is it overall abusive to the children receiving it? This essay will further detail the ideas that started ABA therapy, as well as the mental strain it has on their patients. It will cover the opinions of former ABA therapists, advocates, autistic activists, and doctors who have researched the effects ABA therapy has on its patients. It will also look at alternative ways to help autistic children develop

This is because it has years of research dedicated to it that’s shown to change the behaviors of autistic children. So how is ABA therapy abusive if it’s proven to be effective? ABA’s main goal and focus is to make autistic people “indistinguishable from peers.” The first ABA theories began based on the concept of radical behaviorism, the idea that human behavior can be completely understood by looking at a person’s environment rather than their thoughts and feelings. This idea began the study of behavior analysis, and later, experimentation. Also, it’s important to note that Dr. Lovaas was involved in the Feminine Boy Project during the 1970s, which was a project dedicated to eradicating feminine behaviorism in young males. He would encourage parents to use positive reinforcement for traditionally masculine behaviors and “extinguish” feminine behaviors, similar to how neurotypical behaviors are rewarded in ABA. This is considered one of the earliest forms of gay conversion therapy. These methods are used to encourage learning in autistic children and have shown to cause trauma in these patients, as well as affect how they behave in relationships. Long-term exposure to stress can cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. A survey was distributed to people who were patients of ABA early in life. This study was conducted by psychologist Henny Kupferstein in January, 2018. The