Behaviour-based therapy /strategies
including Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), Positive Behaviour Support (PBS), and social skills…
Are Damaging to the #Autistic child/young person/adult
Why would I say this?
Behaviour therapy is at its core neo-normative with Neurotypical (NT) based goals and outcomes. At no point do behaviour based therapies take into account the Autistic Experience. It is not even considered.
They do not honour the Autistic child/ young person /adult.
They do not respect the autistic experience, culture, let alone actual autistic people.
They perpetuate the medical model over the social model.
What Behaviour-based therapies/strategies do is-
-Teach the autistic child that somehow they are defective, deficient and need to be “fixed”.
-Tell the autistic child that they are less than and “other” them further…
-Teach the Autistic child to mask …
-Tells their NT peers that autistic children DO need to be “fixed” because to assume they don’t is not seeing the obvious. It further perpetuates the othering.
There must be a change.
I’ve been working with Autistic children for over 17 years, and I am tired of seeing generations of ND/Autistic children continually traumatised. It needs to stop.
We need to help those deciding and delivering support to actually listen to Autistic people, Autistic Parents and Autistic Professionals.
There is a better way. It is a way to teach NT children what the autistic experience means and teach our autistic children about their culture, giving them confidence and, most importantly, autonomy and identity. Introducing them to the Autistic Community.
The better way already exists. However, they are currently called “social Skills Training/therapy” and focus solely on the Neurodivergent (ND) child/ young person. Again, this does nothing but other and imply deficiencies. Yale scientists have pretty much proven what is referred to as Normal- doesn’t exist. See here
So why are we insisting in education that our ND and autistic children conform to the NT standard? Is it purely because Autistic people are a minority? Is it because it is easier to force compliance than to individualise education? Is it the lack of education about autistic people by those running the schools and the DfE (Department for Education)? I would say it is the instance of using the medical model of deficiency than to consider they have been wrong and the system itself needs a full overhaul.
Teachers and school staff need to be educated about autistic children and not a cursory half-day on SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability). That training should be created and delivered by Autistic/ND people. Other professions that work closely with autistic children also need education in the social model and the Autistic Experience, including SENCos, Physical therapists, Occupational therapists and especially Speech and Language Therapists. Following the medical model will always lead to compliance and behaviour based therapies.
Whereas using the social model automatically removes the idea of “changing behaviours”, and to do so would be accepted as dangerous. It allows the Autistic Community to be seen as equal, truly, with the differences in perception, thoughts, feelings, and sensory processing accepted fully. It allows our autistic children to be seen as complete and not lacking, and the idea of forcing compliance, “changing” to “fit in”, is abhorrent. It is a chance for NT children to understand the Autistic experience of their peers. Society is not teaching NT children about Autistic children and, as a result, is failing all of our children.
I envision instead of autistic children continually forced to mask and comply in social skills training and behaviour based strategies ( such as sticker charts- That is a whole other blog in of itself)- they have instead a chance to be autistically social with other Autistic students, led to exploring the community—identity and themselves as autistic people.
My vision, of course, is based on the Double Empathy Problem ( explained here ) and the idea that there is a breakdown in communication between NT and ND/Autistic people. My vision addresses this straight on and explaining Neurodiversity, autistic identity and Culture to autistic children empowers them. It gives them the understanding that the misunderstandings and difficulties they often experience are not their “fault”. Whereas the NT children would learn about their autistic peers, their identity, culture and again this empowers them. Their autistic peers are not “broken”, they are just different and being different is not a bad thing.
It seems very simple. So, this is my wish for 2022 and something I will be focusing on.
Bobbi Elman: NeuroDivergent Autistic Experience Consultancy & Training™ 