What exactly is ABA and does it apply to 'high functioning'?

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I've heard so much "you have to do this" and so much "don't do the doggy training" that I don't know whether I'm coming or going on the ABA issue. Can anyone describe what exactly it is - what do they do in ABA? And is it meant for/useful for a 7 year old who is very 'high functioning' already? Or is it meant primarily to help a non-verbal child learn to communicate verbally?

Forcing behavior modification does nothing to change the way a person thinks. It's simply insisting that they follow a script and behave in ways that are unnatural and uncomfortable for them - a form of psychological torture. Autism is a physical difference in certain portions of the brain's structure, and making someone 'jump through hoops' so to speak, does nothing to alter the way they see, understand and experience the world.

IMHO, we learn through painful RL experience over time, how to modify our behavior in order to survive and fit in. At least when we learn it that way, we have more opportunity to understand why that behavior is expected, and under what circumstances. A GITMO training course is just a way of saying "you're a freak and we're gonna fix you or else!" Frankly, we get enough of that lesson from the rest of the world, getting it from family only adds to our lifelong sense of alienation.

If you want the full info, you can read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_behavior_analysis

To make a long story short...

It is based on the idea that autism is nothing more then a collection of behaviors, and if you can get the person to behave normally, then they will be normal. So the treatment identified areas where the child wasn't acting normal. For example, the child didn't make eye contact. They would then set up a system to train the child to make eye contact. For example if the kid made eye contact he would get candy. If the child didn't make eye contact he would lose a toy or something else.

Basically it is the same way you train your dog to sit. You teach it what to do, then give it a reward when it complies.

It really isn't that popular amongst autistic people because all it amounts to is focusing purely on superficial behaviors and treating the child like an animal, whereas any real problems that the person has like anxiety is simply ignored. There are also some objections to the idea of forcing the child to act, walk, talk, and pretend to be somebody they aren't just for the approval of others so that they can fit into society.

It is depressingly popular amongst parents because it has been shown through statistical studies to reduce the traits of autism (i.e. less rocking back and forth). But in reality all it does is make the child self conscious and more anxious about what he does around other people. Yes he may rock back and forth less or make more eye contact, but it is only an act to appease other people, it isn't any real change in their brain's wiring.

ABA therapy is the glorified abuse of autistic children, that is often sugar coated by their ill meaning parents.

Leave it to the WrongPlanet rebel to say such a thing.

I'd never put my child in a program that would use reward and punishment as behavior modification techniques.

That said - there are behaviors - like the rocking - that can be distracting and annoying to others. Especially in school - or on the bus or in the car... My daughter is the rocker from Hell... What we did was simply to make her aware that she was doing it. It was a behavior that was as natural to her as breathing or blinking her eyes. She did it without thinking about it. When she would rock at school the teacher would just put her hand on her stoulder gently as a signal to her that she was rocking. She'd stop. We did the same thing at home. Never yelled at her or punished her. We did tell her she was rocking incessantly at times and told her she could go to her room if she was uncomfortable or needed some space.

She doesn't rock in school or on the bus, doesn't do it much when she's in the car - I do notice she turn on the radio and rock (seat dancing) but she does control it when she's around other people. So you can teach self-awareness. She rocks when she's chilling out in her room or when she's watching TV - there's no way she can stop the behavior - but she can understand when and where it's appropriate or not.

She's not bitter. She doesn't feel or think that we are torturing her and she doesn't have built up resentments. I think it would be worse for her if she rocked like crazy at school - where kids can be far more cruel in taunting and teasing than our 'modifying' the behavior.

Just a thought - I probably fall more into the spectrum than I'd like to admit - but being seen as 'weird' by your peers (especially when you're a kid) is far worse than having your parents 'train' you to act more normal when you need to. Growing up being ridiculed and shunned because you don't know how or why you do certain things is torture. Having to learn to modify as an adult and still feeling self-conscious and 'weird' only makes the thought of having to be around or interact with others more stressful and depressing.

All people modify their behaviors for the sake of interaction with others. Everyone has habitual inappropriate behaviors that they have to curb around other people. To portray everything a spectrum personality does as 'okay' because they are in the spectrum is a cop out. Personally I cannot deal with nose pickers. Sure - most of them do it out of habit and probably don't even realize they have their finger jammed up their nose far enough to perform a DIY lobotomy. Being unaware of the behavior may be an excuse - but if they are made aware of it and choose NOT to curb it in front of others is selfish, immature and quite frankly - gross. And I will avoid being around a person like that. If they modify the behavior - I have no problem - won't shake their hand (don't like touching people anyway) - but it's easier to accept them knowing they don't assault my sensitivities because they have a 'right' to act the way they want to.

Operant conditioning can be bad if it is used coercively, if it is imposed without consent. It can indeed lead to increased stress and anxiety in a person being conditioned to change behavior that is natural to them, if it is used with no other help in dealing with the causes of the behaviors that "need" to be changed. Otherwise you lower the stress levels of people around the kid, but increase the stress to the kid, and that can lead to some bad consequences.

However, if it is used to build a new habit with the cooperation and consent of the kid, it can be a useful tool among other tools to encourage behavior changes that will make their life less stressful or complicated. If a kid is old enough to understand that "this behavior can lead to consequences you don't like" such as ridicule, bullying, hostility, failure in school, etc., they are old enough to consent to non-coercive training to modify those behaviors, so they have an alternate behavior pattern to draw on. In this way they can "assume" those modified behaviors when it is useful to be able to do so, in the same way a dance routine, once learned, can be performed at the appropriate time. But it should only be a part of the other help a kid gets as far as knowing why changing those behaviors can be useful to the kid, and they should also be helped in dealing with social interactions, stress, anxiety, and the learning of the meaningless social rituals that are the grease that keep society running smoothly.

It is not necessary to eradicate the "problem" behavior (which isn't really a problem except to other people!), but oncebitten's daughter is a good example of being able to modify the behavior when socially appropriate. Having a way to switch into "non-weird mode" at will is useful, and I do think operant conditioning can be part of that. I don't know if anyone is using it in the way I have described, but if they don't, they should.

There is certainly nothing wrong with modifying your behavior to be considerate of others. I do so whenever I have to interview or make a public appearance. So, I have no objections to that. What I object to is the idea that young children who are 2 years old should be trained to make eye contact or else face unwanted consequences.

There is a difference between consciously choosing to act in a way which is considerate of other people, and being coerced into doing so against your will. Its not that act of modifying your behavior that I object to, it is the coercement tactics that are used. It is like working. I have no objection to the common system of going to work, and getting a pay check. But I do oppose slavery. Now both cases result in the person working, but one is done willingly while the other is done by coercement.

Interesting statement. I was under the impression that most (if not all) parents use reward and punishment of some sort to mold their kids behavior.

I really did a lot of thinking about this topic... Figured the best person to ask is my daughter. I asked her if our method of letting her know when she is stimming has bothered her in any way or if NOT doing it because she's in the company of others (at school, restaurants, basically 'in public') causes her to feel stressed or anxious.

She told me she didn't feel bad about it at all - she said she's proud of herself for being able to 'control' it when she needs to.

I totally agree with both of you - you can't impose something without explaination or understanding on either the parent's or child's part. Steph has ALWAYS known she is an Aspie - we never ever kept it from her and we always answered her questions or explained it to her in terms that she could understand for her age. I do think that has made all of the difference in the world - combined with the fact that we NEVER EVER EVER explained it to her in a way that made it seem like it is a 'bad thing' to be. She's just different, and that difference gives her her own unique perspective about everything. In some (well a lot) of ways - she's actually proud of being the person she is and in being the way she is. And we have supported her in that.

I think maybe the problem is - when a parent doesn't understand what and why their child is different and sees thier being different as a bad thing or something to be changed. Even if the parent never says it out loud or to the kid - the kid can sense that Mom and/or Dad sees them as 'wrong'. Like the child isn't as good as the kids they are being compared to. This is going to do more damage than anything else. And that kind of damage will never go away.

My Mom used to call Steph an 'Indigo Child' - maybe that helped me see her as 'special' in a good way rather than 'special' in a bad way...

Last edited by oncebitten on 04 Apr 2010, 7:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There is a huge difference between using reward and punishment when the behavior you are trying to modify is a CHOICE or a learned habit. When they know right from wrong and choose to do wrong you have to have consequenses. Some behaviors are neither habit nor a choice with spectrum kids.

ABA is a tool and the use of the tool is the deciding factor. Early ABA therapy relied on punishment and some old school practitioners still rely on it, but MOST newer ABA professionals focus on reward. True aba is looking at the function of the behavior and teaching a person to replace problematic behaviors with more acceptable and useful ones to get the same function or need met. For example, some who are nonverbal may learn inadvertently that people came running to find out what they wanted when they happened to be banging their head in frustration. So, new approaches such as Verbal Behavior therapy teach more appropriate and useful (and less harmful) ways to communicate. People have to learn imitation skills to learn most things from others, so ABA therapy can help with that. An ABA therapist takes data on what's going on to determine why a person may be doing a behavior, such as self-injury- is it self-stim, or frustration. If frustration, what is most likely frustrating the person. Maybe it's sensory sensitivity to something that the NT's aren't noticing? ABA in the right hands is immensely beneficial. The goal is to help the person be independent and functional, not necessarily to make them "normal," as if there were such a thing. It all depends on the person doing the therapy.

I'm glad that I was born in the Mid-70s. I didn't have to go through all that. I was allowed to live a free and happy childhood, along side my typical peers.

Back then and before that - the label you would have been given would have been 'free thinker', 'eccentric', 'marches to the beat of a different drummer'...

I honestly think that more angst is caused by the label of the diagnosis now than was caused by being a 'unique' individual before.

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful and honest replies. We subscribe more to the belief that our son's differences have much to offer the world, and we don't intend to set about changing him just to make the people around him more comfortable. On the other hand, we want him to have the fullest, most satisfying (by his own standards) life he can, so we do want to equip him with the ability to read other people, as best he can. That way, he can make his own decisions about how and when and to what extent he wants to modify his own behaviour.

It doesn't sound like ABA is the right fit for him.

Read up on it before you decide. I am an Occupational Therapist and I do alot of ABA with my son. His dignosis is aspergers. I did and still do a token economy with my son to help him learn what it takes to maintain himself in a classroom and many other situations. The only punishment is taking longer to earn the reward. If he does not choose to do it he chooses not to get the reward. This allows him to know the behavior that is disruptive and allows him to recognize it and adapt it. We get to discover why it happens. when it happens and what helps it. We also use this alot to get over things that cause him anxiety. This is by his choice. If he does the thing that causes him anxiety or goes near it etc. he gets a reward. when he gets better at what he is doing he move the reward out so he has to do it more or less to get the same reward and when it gets easy he stops asking for the reward. He hates being out of control and likes to control himself so he is all for it. Certian things we do not try to change like him taking his shoes off. In fact we just got him shoes that are easier to take off and put back on. Or his putting things in his mouth except we find more appropriate things to put in his mouth and be sure it is allowed.
Pick small necessary battles. I liked the book "autism in the classroom" for a good base of knowledge to get started.
Cynthia