WHY ABA WILL NEVER WORK.
Having just watched an excerpt of the movie, "Temple" about Temple Grandin, I put what I believe to be concrete evidence that blows any notion of "normal people" out of the water. There are four main types of learning, audio, visual, reading and writing and trial and error. And just because one person can't understand a particular way of teaching, which is what ABA seeks to do, does not render them stupid, what it does is prove that the method being deployed is unsuccessful.
I can remember, when I was fifteen, I read the story of "The Poacher's Son," by Rachel Anderson, about a lad called Arthur Betts, who struggled to learn in the traditional school sense, but who knew his way around nature very well. The conditions in which he lived were a damning indictment on turn of the twentieth century British society and how cruel the rector in the story could be. Arthur may have lacked ability in the classroom, but had he been able to learn the right way for him (he learnt to read when he joined the English Army), he may have gone far.
When I was at school, I struggled to learn mathematics, but once I received maths coaching on a one-on-one basis, I found it a bit easier. Although, I must say, my school maths teacher, nice man though he was, had to deal with a difficult class and could have done much better if he'd chosen to say, "Okay, those of you who want to fool around, do as you like, those of you who want to learn, sit here and I'll teach you," he could have done better, even if he only had two students!
When it comes to teaching, I think the best way to look at it is by asking a slightly silly question, "Which would you prefer, a Toyota Yaris or a Toyota Land Cruiser?" Well, what needs to be asked then, is, "For what purpose do you want the car?" If you want a car to just zip around the city, a Yaris might be what you need. If you want something to scoot into small spaces, it would be a Yaris, again. If, however, you want to tow a caravan, the Land Cruiser is the better option. If you prefer to sit higher in the seat, the Land Cruiser, again, is the better option. So, if a teacher can't teach a student, it doesn't mean that the student is stupid, it means that the student and teacher are as incompatible as a Yaris towing a caravan!
ABA is a type of intellectual straitjacket applied to a student, as was also shown in a video of a small kid having an ABA session and the therapist was showing him cards with a swing on them, but he pointed to the swing in the backyard. Him pointing to the swing in the backyard wasn't wrong! Just the same as if you point to a picture of a car and a kid then rattles of examples by saying, "That's a Ford, and that's a Mitsubishi and whatever else."
So rather than assuming incompetence, assume competence and try to find a teacher who can teach according to the student's style of learning and you can help, to borrow a line from Alan Duff's story, "Once Were Warriors" to help somebody "to realise their potential".