I decided to write a thread on this topic since it is a critical one if we're going to move toward acceptance of autistic people and, frankly, thoughts of the things autistic children are enduring break my heart.
Fortunately, I escaped clinical notice as a child in the late 60s and 70s so was never subjected to "therapy" but aspects of my experience are still relevant.
I'm going to start with the single best article I've found, notable for its extensive collection of links to other resources. I have not read every single linked resource because they are ... difficult for me to get through. I can only manage them in limited doses. Please start here.
I'll start with a little personal history. Hello, I'm Scott and I'm autistic. Because I am able to type cogently on a keyboard, your first instinct may be to dismiss me as one of those "high-functioning" people who does not need and shouldn't receive any support. I'm just a bit eccentric and quirky. And isn't everyone a little bit autistic?
Please. Don't.
Just don't.
Part of that misconception is tied to now disproven associations between early language development, autism, and later ability with language.
I was completely nonverbal until I was 3 years old and had issues like dropped and substituted syllables until I was 5. Speech therapy cleared up my lingering issues in that area.
Had I been diagnosed in the US earlier than I was, my diagnosis would have been Autistic Disorder (so-called "classic autism") not Asperger's Disorder as everyone seems to assume.
In reality, there was never a substantive difference between the two except those with early language or cognitive delays or a co-occurring intellectual disability were excluded from an Asperger's diagnosis. Autistic Disorder could include almost all.
The way I interact with the world flowing from my own experience, I was glad I would have been filtered into the more despised group.
I was so overjoyed and relieved to discover there were people like me in the world, that I wasn't some uniquely broken type of human, I immediately saw everyone as almost my family. I wanted to stand beside and with everyone.
And none of those original techniques are off the table today, including the use of electric shock as punishment. "Clients" (victims) of the Judge Rotenberg Center are forced to wear their torture devices on their backs and the center recently won a court case allowing them to continue the practice.
So don't talk to me about how the "therapy" has changed. Its most brutal elements remain in use today.
But even the "softer, gentler" forms are just as abusive and recent research demonstrates its victims are also much more likely to exhibit PTSD as adults.
I wrote about that because I worked very, very hard to make myself look as "normal" as I could as a child and I pretty much achieved their so-called optimal outcome. I know what drove me and it wasn't good. I wanted others to treat me like a human being. Even so, internally driven was still better than externally imposed.
https://faithandfood.morizot.net/2017/08/12/optical-outcome-for-whom/
And I continued to pay a price for that "optimal outcome" my entire adult life. I wrote about that as "The Price of Passing"
https://faithandfood.morizot.net/2018/05/27/the-price-of-passing/
And please note again, forcing an autistic child to look as non-autistic as possible is the ONLY purpose and goal of ABA.
ABA does not help with language use. That's speech therapy.
ABA does not teach life skills with accommodations as needed. That's occupational therapy.
ABA does not help an autistic deal with sensory overload and emotional regulation. Play therapy, art therapy, and similar forms fill those needs.
No autistic person is telling the world not to help autistic children.
We're practically screaming for people to give them real help, the help and support they need.
And in the process, give them the space to BE autistic without exclusion, abuse, and condemnation.
My post from Week 6 of the #TakeTheMaskOff campaign examines more of the impact masking has had on me and how I'm trying to approach it today.
https://faithandfood.morizot.net/2018/08/27/coping-strategies-week-6-of-takethemaskoff/
This paper, which outlines a small trial of an intervention that focuses on educating those around the autistic children, references the only RCT of ABA I've found anywhere. And as described, that trial found that ABA had no statistically significant impact.
http://www.gernsbacherlab.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/1/Gernsbacher_reciprocity.pdf
ABA is the worst sort of pseudo-science because it actively harms children. *That's* what current research is demonstrating.
It really is autistic conversion therapy and is just as evil as LGBT conversion therapy.
But children who underwent ABA improved on "measures" (whatever those measures might have been)!
You know what? Children develop and change and learn even faster and in greater leaps than adults do. And people in general learn and change over time. It takes a *lot* to attribute change to a specific cause. It is *not* easy to do.
And again, we come back to the only goal of the "therapy" in question: ABA tries to make autistic children look more like their non-autistic peers.
That's it.
Why is that even a valid goal, not matter what methods are used?
I don't believe the ends justify the means, but in this case even the desired ends are horrible.
I am happy to respond to any legitimate questions or concerns people might have. I don't necessarily have answers, but I will do my best.
I am not, however, at a place where I feel I can engage the sorts of ABA apologists I've seen elsewhere. If that describes you and you decide to invade my mentions, I'll probably just summarily block you.
I've referenced my recognition that so much of what I did as a child flowed from my recognition that other people didn't interact with me as if I was a human being. That's the root of ABA. Lovaas explicitly stated it on record more than once. It's pervasive. I wanted to add this paper to the thread, "On Not Being Human"
Scott Morizot 
colton
Carissajoy