ABA... Good or Bad?

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My son just started receiving ABA services.
I don't have much knowledge about ABA, but tell me what you guys think about ABA.
First of all, do you like it?
Did it work for you or your child?
What are the advantages?
And any disadvantages?
Our agency told us a lot of good stuff about ABA.
Anything that I should know about ABA?
Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

Well... Honestly, I don't like it, as a method. It's too rigid; it doesn't really teach you they whys of things.

It can be used for things that can be done the same way each time--teaching things by rote memory--but beyond that there's really very little creativity, and there's the problem of becoming prompt-dependent (dependent on others to tell you what to do, or unable to change the way you do things because that is how you were taught to do them).

I've blogged about this a few times...

Teaching to the Test

Rewards & Learning; the Problem with ABA

Set Up for Failure

In Defense of Treatment

Ready to Learn

Its the main teaching method for Autistic children that seems to have empirical evidence to back up its effectiveness.
Honestly, I don't know about using it with Aspies, I don't see the point myself, if I had a child that was reasonably high functioning I would have to ask why bother, what is the objective? But in my case my son is quite Autistic and doesn't speak. For him its a case of the basics, learning communication and self care skills, the ability to follow instructions etc.
Certainly we have managed to teach him some useful skills through it. By breaking it down into very small simple steps, or as small as necessary it makes progress possible.

Its expensive though, and thats really due to the amount of time spent with the child. And I have this sneaking suspicion that it is something thats effectiveness is quite dependant on the skill of the teacher and the relationship and empathy with the child.
And for it to be effective the parents need to be involved in reinforcing and generalising the skills. You can't compartmentalise the childs learning into 'therapy' (god I loath that word) sessions and expect it to be much use in isolation.

There are people on here opposed to it. When I get into a discussion about ABA, mostly from them I see examples of very poor application of behaviour modification principles. I would agree thats worse than useless.

Aba is neither good or bad it is science.
There are however plenty of people who just plain dont understand the science (but think they do) and give it a bad name

Issues such as propt dependancy are the result of poor teaching not aba.
Do you answer the telephone at random and expect someone to be on the other end of the line, or only when u are prompted to do so by its ringing? When you then Answer the phone the behavoir is reinforced.
Or conversly by not answering and letting the bill collector got to the answering machine you are reinforced by virtue of avoiding the unpleasant experince. In neither case is the reinforcement a reward, rewards are a very small catagory of reinforcers (ie extrinsix)

Because you can scientifically show that ABA modifies behavior tells us nothing more than ABA can modify behavior. It does not inform us as to what behaviors should or should not be modified. Many of the behaviors held up as useful (e.g. attentiveness in a typical classroom setting) did not even exist until this society created them. Using ABA to instill conformity does nothing to address whether such conformity is actually useful beyond the specific settings that it is applied to and those settings are in and of themselves tightly bound to cultural norms.

Complete suppression of stimming behavior is a great example. The cultural norm is "don't rock - it makes you look like an idiot". But unless the rocking is actually disruptive, how does suppressing a behavior that relieves agitation improve quality of life? The ONLY reason to suppress non-disruptive rocking is because seeing it bothers people that don't rock.

ABA is effective at modifying behavior. But who gets to choose the behaviors? And why shouldn't it also be applied to the plethora of bullies that seem to be invading our schools?

My BCBA uses ABA methods with me and it's helping!

How much input are you allowed to give regarding the goals and course of treatment?

I will reiterate science has no inherant morality.
Morality is brought in by the practitioners.
Modern behavoir analyists tend to focus on teaching functional behavoir to replace disfunctional. For example implementint a picture communication system to address a self injerous behavoir ( bc the behavoir functioned to conmunicate that something is wrong i need your undivided attention. )

With regard to what can be changed
The current research has shown that the physical structure of the brains connections can be changed from the outside.
Ie operant reinforcement results in an increase in not only dopamine in the synaps but also an increase in the (beta 13?) protien which stimulates nerual plasticity.

Aba is not about making u conform it is about giving you the tools to function in the world

Agreed.



While this is true, it is not the same as saying that ABA induces changes in an autistic brain that make it neurotypical. It only induces the behavioral changes by coercing the autistic neurology to mimic neurotypical neurology.



This is highly dependent on the practitioner. When the loop is closed and there is feedback between the family, the practitioner AND the person being treated, then this is about acquiring tools. But when it is uni-directional, from the practitioner to the family and finally to the autistic, then it is about conformance.

I will reiterate science has no inherant morality.
Morality is brought in by the practitioners.
Modern behavoir analyists tend to focus on teaching functional behavoir to replace disfunctional. For example implementint a picture communication system to address a self injerous behavoir ( bc the behavoir functioned to conmunicate that something is wrong i need your undivided attention. )

With regard to what can be changed
The current research has shown that the physical structure of the brains connections can be changed from the outside.
Ie operant reinforcement results in an increase in not only dopamine in the synaps but also stimulates b51 which stimulates nerual plasticity.
(baxter & byrne 2006)

Aba is not about making u conform it is about giving you the tools to function in the world

I've never had it done on me and I turned out fine. I have really cool parents who thought that it would be better to let me be a kid and do kid things with the other kids in the neighbourhood. I've learned a lot of things by being around those kids. I grew up to be happy and healthy, because I didn't have those pressures put on me. Of course that was also back in the 70s and the 80s. My mum didn't want to put me through the rigidness of ABA because it would have reminded me of school. She also didn't want me in Girl Guides due to my gender identity and social unworldliness, and because it would have reminded me of school. I was allowed to be free.

ABA?

American Bar Association?

American Bankers Association?

American Beverage Association?

American Bus Association?

Abakan International Airport (IATA: ABA)?

ABA games?

For once wikipedia hasn't found what I'm looking for.

Auspiciously Brilliant Aspergian's

Autistically Benign Aphorisms?

Aptly Broken Amphorae?

Applied Behavioral Analysis?

Arrogantly Bellicose Anglican's?

Ancient Bedroom Antics?

The roots of ABA are based in the research of Ivan Pavlov and his famous dogs. To teach a behavior, reward that behavior. Some schools believe in the the 'punish' incorrect behavior as well but that has largely fallen by the wayside these days. Unfortunately, it's not gone. I think much of social skills training in public education is ABA based. Some of the behaviors they are trying to correct; stimming, executive function deficits, inappropriate/ disruptive social behaviors,etc... some are done with direct guidance, higher functioning kids are expected to self regulate in order to get their reward.

In LFA, they use ABA heavily to draw kids out to speak and accomplish more basic tasks and behaviors. The classic example - swinging a kid on a swing and then stopping - trying to get them to ask for more. This is where much of the 'success' of the technique is attributed in autism. It is also widely used in treating OCD.

There are many pitfalls in this approach, especially with higher functioning kids. Place this system in the hands of a highly intelligent kid and you can see where its a recipe for a big old mess. My main concerns with it are how damaging this process can be to a kids self esteem. Asking a child to be self critical on a daily basis for behaviors such as stimming is just increasing the likeihood of anxiety and depression issues before they even hit high school. ABA tries to change behaviors to mimic NT behaviors without any knowledge of WHY ASD kids do these things. Stimming has a definite value to an autistic child - forcing a child to abandon one of their coping mechanisms just because 'it looks funny and makes people uncomfortable' is a pretty sh***y reason to damage a kids self esteem.

I say leave ABA to Pavlov's dogs.

My son was initially diagnosed as Autistic at 2.5 yrs. old (he is 10 now). He was given In Home ABA therapy for a couple of years (35-40 hrs. a week). He did so well that he was mainstreamed in school. After a few years...we decided to home school him...only because he was advancing far too quickly and to too high of a level for the school to teach him. ABA had made all the difference in the world. We were so fortunate to have had a tremendous group of people working our case. The quality of the staff had made all the difference in the world.

My son has been almost symptom free for years now. Other parents cannot tell him apart from an NT.