Even I'm Shocked - and I've Grown Very Hard to Shock...

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This center should have been shut down years ago! The current name is an homage to the judge that kept it from being closed after one of thier "treatments" killed a middle aged man with trisomy 21, in an effort "to prevent him from injuring himself".
Anyone who has read the work of B.F. Skinner should have picked up on how he argues that punishment is not an effective method to manage maladaptive behavior. (if you are familiar with E. Carr's work in PBS that is where it all comes from). (the short version of Skinner's thinking was to work collectively as a society to create the environments where the behaviors we desire are more likely to happen on thier own, coercion inherently creates resistance.
When people are put in the position to use punishment (particularly inflicting pain/ discomfort) on others the behavior of inflicting pain is reinforced, by virtue of stopping the occurrence of the others problem behavior, now on a future occasion inflicting that much pain doesn't cause the problem behavior to stop, what happens next is a predictable extinction curve where the person who is doing the punishing will intensify and add new things to thier actions (ie become more physically abusive).

Well before i knew that I had AS I began working with adults with MR and ASD, I worked 1:1 with a gentlmen who has a dx of pdd nos (non verbal, stims a lot, and had blinded himself through a "problem behavior")
The rottenburge approach would be ignore the person and address only the behavior, never considering why the person would be doing it. Just inflict pain until you can claim to produce results. I went the other route and intervened by working on helping him communicate. Oddly enough the behavior of pokeing himself in the eye went from as many as 50x in a 7 hour day to 1x in the last 2 years. (he was trying to get the attention of staff to help him with something, be that to let them know he has a headach and would like some advil or that lunch sent in by his group home looks like warmed over (explicative deleted).

to try and conclude my tangents I have often found myself in the position of defending ABA (applied behavior analysis) on the board, however more often than not what people are talking about are misapplications that are compleatly in conflict with the actual science of behavior and demonstraight the ignorence of the practitioners who practice in such a mannor.

A. There is a natural desensitization to the -ve stimulus in the patient?

B.Combined with the inclanation to intensification of the level of the stimulus by the satff.

B1. Staff hold firm to the belief that what they are doing is benefcial and push the limit, because the theory sound good and they get some results?

When these two factors combine there's a limit to what can be administered that has an beneficial effect, and that will be exceeded because of B?

So how is a safe limit measured.

What happens if the patients behaviour doesn't respond to this safe limit, given this is a last ditch solution?

Then you stop shocking them and just do your best to prevent harm while searching for another solution you haven't thought of. If the shocks aren't working, then you're causing pain with no benefit, which is wrong.

I am very unmotivated tonight to do much of anything---even research on the internet. So I'm just going to ask you about this Lanterman Act in regards to the shock therapy. You said it is illegal to use the shock therapy in California. Is the Lanterman Act strictly a California act---or is it nationwide? I have been very stumped as to how this Massachusetts school gets by with this---even with parental consent. Do you know how many states allow this type of treatment to autistic individuals in academic settings like this?

It's just California. California is a leader in human rights and inclusion.

It sounds like something needs to be done about the Massachusetts school. That sounds so barbaric. I know that shock therapy used to be common practice in many of the mental institutions of years ago (and probably still practiced in some today). Here in Ohio we have good laws for the integration and education for people with disabilities. At least some of our states try to treat people with disabilities with respect and dignity.

Then Ohio will learn of the Autism Candles brand as well.

Hmmm...candles---bring them on . So many flavors to choose from. A few years ago the school where I teach had a candle sell. The top seller was Sex on the Beach . Can you imagine little children selling candles door to door and someone asks, "What is your top seller?" And the child replies, "Sex on the Beach."

Anyway. I like candles. What is your top seller?

We have sex on the beach, lick me all over, sexy as sin, scandalous, misbehaving, aphrodisiac , I'm Too Sexy, love spell, Love You, honeymoon, Kiss Me and more in the romance \ flirt line. The most popular is a luxury very food like and realistic cream brulee which I am now working with fragrance manufactures to reverse engineer and buy where master suppliers buy it from and prepare for the national brandology. In fact we are about to get our simi-robotics equipment for safer candle making and so people with motor and coordination difficulties can pour which will also help with the production capacity needed for national distribution.

These are the official fragrances but many others are in test marketing.

http://www.compassionateintegrations.or ... ances.html

(No direct Retail Sales)