ABA - bad for us, good for millionaires

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We are being treated like silver ore now: https://www.thenation.com/article/socie ... utism-aba/

Unsurprising.

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There's probably been many posts about ABA on the forum but I'll add my input as an ABA therapist (mostly working with my own daughter).

ABA uses operant conditioning to moderate/mitigate behaviour. One of the problems with operant conditioning is once the incentive for change ceases is that over time the child may revert to old habits. This process is called extinction.

So in other words the behaviour change can be possibly maintained during the conditioning but there's no guarantee the child will continue to maintain the change after the stimulus is removed. Where it is maintained the child learns through fear of future ABA (I don't really think any child enjoys ABA) so adheres to parental instruction against their natural inclinations/compulsions.

There is also misattribution where success achieved is credited to the ABA but doesn't take into account cognitive maturity. At least in my daughter's case as she got older she was able to make the cognitive leap between appropriate and innapropriate behaviour. I will never know whether the ABA helped reinforce her decisions or whether she came to the decision on her own.

Finally there is externalising behaviour. If the child suppresses the urge to act in a socially undesirable manner then does this lead to externalising behaviours that manifest in other forms including self-harm? addiction? this is another unknown.

I am not suggesting ABA doesn't have a place, I think it will continue to be used. But in my view its value is over rated and there may be unknown risks depending on the constitution of the individual child.