Challenges to the ABA Industry

I found a fantastic article on the dubious ethical approach of ABA. "The Misbehaviour of Behaviorists," by Michelle Dawson. Also found her blog!

In the Swing (or maybe the swim) of Things

Well, we've spent the last few weeks really getting into the day-to-day and week-to-week of homeschooling, and we're starting to put other plans in motion. Finally! There are still some hitches with the schooling schedule and timing, but I think we'll be able to work these out. We're also trying to meet new friends, start to work on identifying emotions, and have been talking together about some sensory issues.

Rose has had one playdate with a new friend who also has Asperger's. It was a blast. We went to the city zoo with him and his mother the other day and had a great time. The kids ran about holding hands and helped one another with fears (like noise and animals). Now they're agitating to go to a larger zoo together (one with a better crocodilian selection), but of course this takes more planning. Rosie's working on learning typing, since handwriting is so frustrating, and she's making fast progress, so she should be able to email her new friend soon.

We've talked about some sensory issues together too - Rose and I watched a video of Temple Grandin's together and the idea of the cattle squeezer just lit her on fire. She's extremely excited and wants to write to Dr. Grandin and talk to her about squeezing. I found plans for a squeeze machine on Dr. Grandin's website (well, one of them), but it's a bit more than I think we can manage to build right now. I was hoping for something simpler and perhaps slightly less intense that can be used at home and not necessarily 'under the direct supervision' of an OT. We might try a weighted blanket first.

I've ordered an exercise ball so that Rosie can sit on it and bounce a bit when doing schoolwork. We'll see if that helps her to sit for longer periods. Plus, Rosie's asked for chew toys - I looked up special sensory chewies at various websites and described them to her, but then she asked if she could just have a doggie chew toy with a lot of small nubbles and a squeak. I can't think why not - I mean other than my initial reaction ("dog toy!"). I imagine I can find one safely made to chew for a person - so we'll try that this weekend.

Things are advancing nicely!

Social Skills Training & ABA

I've started attending a social skills training workshop for parents; so far I'm not too crazy about it. Even before I started to sort out what the different therapies were, I didn't care for the techniques I was reading about, or the specific "social skills" that seem to be required.

I don't see the value, for instance, in forcing kids who find eye contact alarming to make eye contact. Or forcing them out of comfort-oriented behavior like stimming. Why the hell are these "target skills?" I really have a problem with that. For god's sake, teach your child to fake the eye contact if you want to improve how people perceive him or her. Likewise, the reward system is a bit appalling. I have a thinking person to raise, not a dog.

The way in which the social skill set for training is presented to parents is repulsive. It's essentially to try to train an autistic kid to blend in and be exactly like all the other kids. It's that old square peg, round hole business. Why would you want your unique little person pounded down to fit? I have news for them anyway: your unique little person is never going to be like all the other kids no matter what training torment you put her through. Leave her alone!

I can see behavior observation and therapy being effective if a kid has a truly problematic behavior, one that is dangerous to himself or others. I can see it being helpful, with an older child's awareness and consent, if there are moderately problematic behaviors, or ones that the child him/herself wants to work on. The worst thing about a parent or therapist deciding to train a child out of anything other than a dangerous behavior or without the child's permission is the damage to the person - the child's autonomy and dignity. Not to mention the long-term effects of stress - you're talking about kids who have a lot of stressors. If the actual stress response can't be controlled, but only the external behavior to make people around them more comfortable, what you're training a child into doing is bottling up stress.

I'll continue in the class for now, see how it goes, see if there's anything helpful. We'll take the opportunity to work on a skill the ABA way and see how it is - being able to identify the pauses and gaps in conversation, so that Rose can tell when not to interrupt, if she can. With her full consent, of course. I know it's hard for her to identify these things, and without a clear understanding of exactly why it's hard, it's a little difficult to know how to approach improving it. It seems to me that if you're going to try to improve a specific behavior, you ought to know the mechanism behind the behavior in order to approach it in a humane and respectful way. Autistic kids get even less respect for their personhood than the typical kid gets, which isn't much in most families as far as I can see.

I believe this topic makes me cranky.