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As an Autistic Adult, I’m Bothered That ABA Still Exists
It’s continuing the self-erasure that decades of masking caused me
As a late-diagnosed autistic adult, I often feel like I’m straddling two worlds: between an inner landscape rich with lived experience and the public-facing world of work and institutions that I operate within.
In my work as a family law mediator, I feel the friction of these worlds rubbing against each other. Many of the families I work with have autistic children and management of their child’s condition is on the agenda. Sometimes the list of interventions includes behavioural therapy along with occupational therapy, speech therapy and psychology.
The discussion doesn’t usually delve into the specifics of the behavioural therapy, instead taking it for granted that it’s necessary and beneficial. Other participants, including lawyers, are unaware of my unease and voicing it would be stepping outside my role.
Like most late-diagnosed autistic adults who have spent countless hours online trying to understand themselves, I’m well aware of the Autistic community’s concerns about Applied Behavioural Analysis, or ABA. The practice was developed in the 1960s as an alternative to institutionalisation of autistic children and has evolved to encompass other practices such…
