Some of y’all have turned “ABA Therapy” into a boogeyman you can blame for everything from hurt feelings to… electric shock devices “stronger than police tasers.” Pure disinformation and that needs to stop.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are over here actually trying to help our kids live safer, happier lives.
ABA is not one monolithic thing.
It’s not 1980 anymore.
And the idea that modern ABA is just “camouflaging” or “self-erasure” might fit a viral tweet, but it doesn’t match the reality for kids like my son, kids who need help not running into traffic, not swallowing screws, not bolting from school, not hurting themselves.
That’s not “masking.” That’s SAFETY!
Are there bad providers? Yes.
Are there outdated practices that should never be used again? Absolutely.
But acting like the entire field is torture is just misinformation dressed up as advocacy.
My son doesn’t need to be “normalized.”
But he needs support. He needs communication. That’s why he learned to use an AAC device in ABA. ABA doesn’t suppress stims unless they’re self-injurious. No one is going to stop a child from flapping their hands. That’s not ABA.
If your only experience with ABA is TikTok horror stories, maybe at least have the guts to admit you’re not an expert on every autistic experience. Especially the ones that don’t look like yours.
Families like mine are fighting to keep their kids safe. Alive. And ABA helps.
1 Comment
J
2025-12-02 at 3:41 AMI’ve been reading a lot of your blogs out of curiosity as an autistic person myself, and even tho I’m someone who’s usually one of those “annoying social justice warriors” I find myself constantly agreeing with your takes. I’ve seen the TikTok ABA horror stories, and I do think they’re valid, but specifically for the higher functioning autistics. ABA should only be used to stop dangerous behaviors, not harmless stims, and that’s what the horror stories tend to focus on is the therapist trying to stop the kid from flapping their hands or whatever. That’s the kind of ABA I don’t agree with. If an autistic child isn’t a danger to themselves or others, the therapist should just deny service so the spot can be given to children like your son who would benefit from learning not to run in front of cars. It goes back to the whole broadness of the spectrum. ABA is advertised just to “the autistic community” but doesn’t specify which type.