In this video I talk about the ways in which an ABA intervention can create the problems it is designed to try to help with. I talk about how ABA takes the child’s mistaken belief that things are causally linked because they are linked in time and space and actually uses that as the basis for the intervention. That is prescribing the Problem as the Solution for the Problem! So, when we initially see kids for DIR/Floortime support, we see a period of ABA Detox, where the kid has to learn that he or she has ideas, even what an idea might be, and that he is free to act on his or her ideas.
I think ABA causes many of the symptoms we have come to associate with ASD.
While you’re here, take a quick look at my new, updated website. I went for an entirely different look. Click here for Gil’s New Website.
Hi Gill. Thanks for your blog. Your voice needs to be heard, I wish there was some way to expand on the work you are doing. They are giving college degrees out now in ABA! I can’t tell you how many young teachers I’ve met from all over the country who are wed to ABA and haven’t even heard of DIR. ABA is so damaging, I don’t know if my son will ever fully recover from it. Thanks for the important work you are doing!
Thanks, Mary. You do the work every day, in the way you move in the world, with your son and with your advocacy in general. You are an inspiration to me.
Dr. Tippy, Your certainly not afraid to get out there and say what you really feel!! Kudos to you for having an opinion and being willing to share it. Continued luck with your great work.
Fraida Flaishman
Thanks, Fraida. I presented at Los Ninos Child and Family Services conference today, and as my co-presented said, “No! Not everything is equally good! There are differences, and someone has to take a stand.” So, I appreciate that you are supporting my right to take a stand. I can tell you, that it is not always the easiest way to go.
Gil, I am finally taking the time to review these talks. Wow….you put into words everything that I think…..almost all of the young teachers with whom I work see getting a BCBA as a way out of the classroom…..and as a scientific fact. It’s not! And even when a teacher puts a human touch into her ABA, the kid is still the victim, the one acted upon….
Thank you so much. Your support means so much to me. Guess I have reached a point in my career I figure I had better take the lead and speak up!