Wednesday, April 14, 2004
I still feel icky, just in case anyone is interested. LOLOL.
But I did want to take a second to address the comments I have received on my position on ABA. Applied Behavioral Analysis. It is the most commonly accepted method today of "training" children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders). No one denies the premise that autism is a biological condition and there is no therapy that will change that bioligical function. But here is a question that, for me, boils down the difference between ABA and DIR (Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based Model for Intervention).
"Is autism/PDD a "thing" a person "has"? Can you cure it by training a child to "act normal"? Should early intervention focus on teaching compliance, or is there a more crucial and appropriate goal to aim for? "
see here for more info
In other words, you can teach a dog to drool when he hears a bell, but who wants a drooling dog? Yes, you can teach a child with autism not to bang on the table with behavior modification. And that will make for less disruption in the classroom/dinning room/restaruaunt. But the child himself has no investment in the change beyond the punishment or the reward. It's an external change, not an internal one. If you work with a child around the issues of others' feelings and his feelings, how his banging effects those around him and why banging makes him feel better, you will start to give the child an investment in the process. You let them make the change in themselves. Give them time and something to bang on when it's appropriate but make a deal that they don't bang when it's not.
In the words of Stanly Greenspan:
"Because emotions give direction to our actions and meaning to our experiences, they enable us to control our behavior, store and organize our experiences, construct new experiences, solve problems, and think.
Stanley I. Greenspan
The Child With Special Needs, p.111"
One of the reasons this isn't an immediately popular method is because it isn't fast. It takes a long time and a lot of intense work, especially with more severely effected children. It involves forming relationships with the child on many different levels, actually connecting with the child, forming a bond. This is how the child becomes invested in the process, when they are getting their needs met beyond a reward for not banging on the table.
Follow this link to a wonderfully inspiring story about a severly effected child who has not only succeeded but blossomed by using this method:
Jacob's Story: A Miracle of the Heart. I cried when I read it. There are some sections when he describes Jacob where I can say "That's Ian! That's my kid!". This story and Temple Grandin are the hope I cling to. I keep the picture of Ian as a paleontologist or marine biologist firmly in front of me and these stories firmly beside me whenever I talk to the teachers/therapists/whoever think they want to put him in a "special purpose program".
So yes, I will agree with you that ABA does what it says it will do. It trains children. But that's not what I want for Ian.
posted by Unknown
at 3:37 PM ::
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