Because of my experience hating the training to become an RBT, I ended up on an anti-ABA rabbit hole. Young adults who had bad experiences as children are often explained away by “That was the old ABA, there’s a new approach now.” However, I also learned that speech language pathologists and occupational therapists also have major beef with ABA. So, I went down that rabbit hole, because while I’m not one of these job titles myself, I could definitely relate to all of what they’re saying. I do not have the life experience to relate to young adults with bad childhood experiences, I can relate to the SLP’s and OT’s because their beefs come from a more professional/ working pov. I don’t care to link all of the discussions, but if you go to Reddit, search “SLP ABA” and all of these discussions come up.
One thing that I cannot find now in order to screenshot is that one person had issue with the fact that they use tickling as a reinforcement. This person said, “None of them should be tickling a child, ever.”
I was extremely uncomfortable with that, too. One of the kids had tickling as their reinforcement, and it gave me so much ick. So often over that week and a half or whatever it was, I would just not try and express my disdain at all. I have no idea why I was so passive with these people. Now that I look back at two-weeks-ago-me, I want to scream at her. Why didn’t you at least “ask” to clarify why they use that as a reinforcement??? I didn’t though, and I’m ashamed that I didn’t. I definitely could have asked in a respectful manner. I guess I just assumed this place was highly regulated and it was ok.
This person is talking about how only one OT coworker knows, and she thinks her SLP supervisor suspects that she’s against ABA. She also talks all throughout the thread about being a very passive person and not wanting to say ONE thing negative, because the minute she does, the floodgates will open up and she’ll rant. I totally get that.
It was extremely rigid, she’s right. I couldn’t put it into words at the time. The number of hours was wild to me. Think about the different types of therapy you’ve been through in your life- can you imagine being at it 40 hours a week? Even intensive programs are no more than 20. “Withholding” is a natural consequence of a lot of actions that most of us do when we parent or care for other kids, but the way it was done here was just off. It didn’t make sense.
These two comments bring up what was the majority of what threw me off. ABA uses terms like “tact”, “mand” and “echoic” and a whole slew of others which I’m not going to type out, because apparently they are in fact such fake words that not even my autocorrect knows them. The fact that I had to memorize these terms that meant super basic things at my old age made me think- am I somehow uneducated on very basic things? It felt like I had somehow traveled to a different time and space because they were constantly using their own terminology that no one ever uses anywhere else. I often wanted to ask “Que?” Because it felt like I was listening to someone speaking a foreign language and I didn’t know what certain words meant. And if that was the case, then what have I been doing for 30 years? I have a lot of experience, but all of a sudden I had none.
This. It was pretty obvious that they weren’t comprehending the information. They just knew the rote answer to the rote question. The fact that it’s not real learning can slide somewhat, but this lady says, “That’s not communication.”
I wouldn’t have compared it to expecting a deaf person to respond to a sound, but in a way it was. I don’t feel guilty making that comparison, because the women who trained me compared the kids twice to feral cats. My comparison is more humane, because it comes from an understanding that some of the demands (mands 🙄) placed on the kids were things they weren’t capable of. Another comment I found that I can’t find now to screenshot was, “If our kiddos could, then they would.”
I found it too difficult to talk about this experience with my therapist. I already knew that she was just going to say “It’s not a good fit for you, and that’s ok!” My husband also thinks “It just wasn’t a good fit, and that’s ok.” To me, it goes deeper than that. I personally have never been able to get away with just saying something wasn’t a good fit. I’m obligated to think that my whole entire existence is a failure if one thing doesn’t work out. I also already know that my therapist is going to view that as “black and white thinking” and just reiterate this whole positive mindset. But honestly, I have no way know truly knowing if she’s only telling me what I want to hear because I’m paying. If any of the people who raised me to believe I am obligated to see myself as a failure were somehow in charge of and paying for my therapist, then she’d be obligated to see things from the pov of those haters. (For instance, if I was a minor, under conservatorship like Britney was, or otherwise unable to support myself).
Someone suggested a book called “The Autism Industrial Complex.” And I just might give it a read. Unfortunately, it’s not on audible.
One more thing I gathered from the SLP’s was that it seems like ABA simply copies their goals for the kids and calls it “New ABA” in order to say it’s not “the old ABA” that young adults are speaking out against now. That would infuriate me too.
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