Hey everyone!
I am brand new here. So let me start with a little bit about myself. I'm Sky, a 21 year old male from the middle east living in the United States. I was diagnosed with ASD in 2020, after a tumultuous upbringing that had until that point been explained away by a mixture of several mental health disorders. I was evaluated for ASD after seeing a new psychiatrist for about six months. Essentially, I had been told until that point that I likely had Borderline Personality Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorder, Schizoaffective Disorder, PTSD, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. After being evaluated by a third professional, it turned out that I am on the spectrum.
Around the same time, I had begun work in healthcare (2020 was not quite the time to get into that profession) as an Emergency Room Technician. When the virus hit, everyone in my unit under the age of 25 was pulled to the COVID ICU. It was also around this time I began dating a person who would later diagnose themselves with autism (my personal feelings on self-diagnosis aren't one's I'll get into too much detail here, but it is generally not favorable). This person would go on to become a Registered Behavioral Technician later in the relationship, and to my knowledge is now studying for their masters degree to become a BCBA.
Having taken an interest in their line of work, and being a clinical professional of a different sort, I decided that maybe being an RBT would be an avenue I could explore for meaningful work while I worked on my bachelor's degree (which is not in a healthcare field). I already have an Associate's Degree in Nursing which ended up not being a field I saw myself in long term.
Here's the thing... I am week three of training, have completed the "classroom" portion of RBT education required by the BACB, and am doing research about ABA at large. Having been diagnosed late in life, and with a low level ASD diagnosis, I was never subjected to ABA. Working for the clinic I do, I didn't really see any harm in ABA. After all, we're not shocking or spanking kids, so we aren't hurting them, right? Then, I realized something: These kids changed, and drastically after just a few weeks with my clinic. Some of the kids I absolutely adored working with when they first arrived seemed much more muted and monotonous just a few weeks later. It was sort of unnerving, as they seem like shells of their former selves motivated only to do what either gets them to their next break, or some sort of reward.
ABA, even from the clinician's point of view (though as a diagnosed person my perspective is different), doesn't really help anyone. It just seems to train them to fit into a box that is palatable for the world. It relies on Pavlovian techniques akin to training animals to reduce or promote behaviors based on what society thinks is acceptable, or what is easier for the parent.
I want to work with kids who need the help I did as a child, at least until I start my longer term career. No other means of supporting myself in the short term feels meaningful enough to keep me engaged. I do know now that ABA isn't the way I want to go about that, because it's just promoting the erasure of the identity of persons with autism. I've been reading about things liike RDI and DIR/Floorplay, and both seem compelling as alternatives.
The reason for this post is to a) confirm that my perception of ABA is correct. Is it as bad as I think it is? I know it used to be much worse, but even its modern application seems far from ideal. b) What else is there that I can study and employ to help people? I think it is incredibly important that persons with autism old enough to help their younger counterparts do so, and I want to put my own action behind that sentiment. Are RDI/DIR viable alternatives? Should I be looking for something else?
Any and all thoughts are welcome.
02 Oct 2023, 9:03 am
