recent moral crisis

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I recently started a job as an ABA therapist because I want to work with kids who have autism (like me). I believe that representation is important, which is why I want to work with folks with autism. Although autism is, of course, different in all individuals who have it, we learn best from people who are like is and understand us. Growing up, I was always different and never fit in because of my sensory overloads and stimming. Until very recently, I have adopted the approach of changing myself to subscribe to allistic standards of "normal" behavior. I aimed to change myself and take it upon myself to help those who are "low functioning" (I am considered high functioning because I naturally follow many social constructs of "normal behavior" such as eye contact and verbal communication). However, I had an epiphany of how flawed this approach is. Is there anything good about ABA? Is it possible for it to be done in a certain way that is sensitive and helpful? That is not a rhetorical question. I want to learn perspectives from other people with autism. I'm also freaking out because I just started this job and I can't quit now because it's been so hard for me to get a job in the first place (probably because of the autism) and most other jobs that I've had I've needed to quit because they do not accommodate my "high functioning" autism. I'd love some feedback and advice. Thanks!

Couldn't you modify the ABA you administer to fit into your own philosophy?

The Lovaas-type of ABA, called "Discrete Trial Training," is ridiculous. But there are more "moderate" types of ABA.

I believe in autistic people adapting to non-autistic people, and vice versa----rather than a separation between autistic and non-autistic people. I believe we should meet them halfway, so to speak.

I believe autistic people should be taught to adapt to the world around them. But not with such aversive ABA techniques like "Discrete Trial Training."

Maybe you shouldn't look at things in terms of good and bad. Everyone on the spectrum is different, so logically, something that works well for some isn't going to work well for others.

What you can do is carefully adapt what you do to the individual. When I was in a rehab hospital I was lucky enough to have several therapists who would constantly try out new exercises for me to do. Most of the time I mastered the old ones so it was time to move onto new ones. If I wasn't challenged I wasn't learning. One therapist said he studied in the UK. He said the problem there was they didn't have enough therapists, so people would get stuck doing the same thing over and over again and not improving.

^^^Yeah---that, too.

Adapt your methodology to the individual person.

Thank you for your responses. I still feel a bit unsure but this definitely helps.

I suspect most of the literature on autism is more focused on high functioning autistics/aspies.

I came across one good book that focuses on low and medium functioning autistics. I would recommend that you read Eikona Bridge by Jason H.J. Lu.

It's rather a question of personal targets. Somebody who doesn't even cares about the morality of this would be a much worse choice then you are. Just try to you make it as much fun as possible for the kids. The goal of adaption and masking is always to change the behaviour and thinking of others and not just to hide. The target should be to become better accepted and learn about problems with other people and of course also about how to manipulate others in a way that fits the own personal goals. It's not as easy and there are differrent social rules for boys and girls and quite different things they have to care about.

This theme reminds me a bit of Mark Twain:
"There is a moral sense and there is an immoral sense. History shows that the moral sense enables us to see morality and how to avoid it, and that the immoral sense enables us to perceive immorality and how to enjoy it."

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