Opinion: ABA therapy is archaic, ineffective and abusive. It’s time we move past it.
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Over three decades ago, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child mandated that “the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.” The United States, signing onto this, vowed to fight child torture and endorsed protecting children from any act that is harmful to their “health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.”
Conveniently, no U.S. president has brought the mandate before Congress to ratify it into law. In our nation, the rights of children are an empty promise. Despite helping shape the language surrounding the international agreement, child torture persists in our country in many forms. Applied Behavioral Analysis Therapy is one of them.
ABA therapy is advertised as a program that helps those with autism spectrum disorder develop social “skills” by rewarding “good” behavior and moving away from “poor” behavior. According to Elizabeth Devita-Raeburn for Spectrum News, certain behaviors, determined to be indicators of ASD, are punished with “sensory punishment” like bad smells and tasting foul substances. At its most extreme, therapists administer electric shocks. If that sounds familiar, it’s because ABA is based on the same principles as the archaic conversion therapy used against the LGBTQ+ community.
And the University of Oregon practices it. Advertised on its own page in the college of education’s HEDCO clinic, the university provides appointments, recommending the therapy’s use in the first 100 days of child diagnosis.
In many cases, ABA therapy punishes autistic children for their own helpful responses to painful stimuli. Many with ASD learn helpful behaviors on their own, like stimming and avoiding eye contact, which alleviates stress in certain situations. When doing so, Aileen Herlinda Sandoval-Norton’s research proves that they are protecting themselves from physiological pain and harmful sensory hyperactivity. ABA therapy punishes biological solutions for pain with more pain. ABA’s principle is clear: behaviors that neurotypical individuals do not like are not valid. They are to be punished.
The forms of “aversion therapy” embraced by ABA cause children to suffer needlessly. Clinical studies reveal that this archaic treatment doesn’t even work. Just this year, a group of neuropsychologists at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology reviewed ABA literature to determine its long-term efficacy. They found that previous studies of ABA interventions did “not present any neuroscientific research” regarding its effectiveness. Most damning, they found that ABA therapy has never been shown to be “even slightly efficacious” for nonverbal Autism populations.
In fact, in most cases, ABA makes conditions worse. A 2018 study looked at ABA therapy through a revolutionary new lens: actually consulting those it purports to treat. Instead of documenting its successes, the study found a clear connection between early ABA intervention and posttraumatic stress symptoms in hundreds of autistic children. Nearly half suffered from PTSD’s most extreme severity level.
Autism awareness organizations are quick to point out how bullied autistic children are at higher risk of suicide. They neglect to mention that their solution, ABA therapy, is essentially based on the premise of bullying autistic children out of “undesirable” behaviors. A 2021 study confirms this, highlighting that treatments based on the principles of ABA drastically increase rates of depression, anxiety and suicide in its recipients.
Studies celebrating ABA’s success collapse when interrogating their definition of success. Their rhetoric more often than not contains the word “normal.” Indeed, parents cherish their ASD-identifying child’s ability to live a normal life. Those who lived through ABA treatment disagree. Reid, who underwent full-time therapy from ages 2 to 5, argues that success means hiding who they are. Autism treatment’s largest organizations confirm this. Not a single public proponent’s definition of ABA remotely mentions autistic people’s emotions or well-being.
Put this way, ABA therapy is not a subtle breach of the U.N. convention on the rights of the child. Every principle of the therapy is a direct violation of children’s rights. ABA therapy is child torture.
In the long run, ending the use of a treatment consistent with child torture is only the start. It is time to move toward treatments that help autistic and neurodivergent children navigate a neurotypical world. It should be neurotypical people’s responsibility to accommodate a diverse world, not neurodivergent children’s burden.
Despite ABA therapy’s popularity, non-torturous and effective treatments for children with ASD exist. Many treatments have good intentions and positive outcomes. Occupational therapy, for example, helps neurodivergent individuals learn to do day to day tasks on their own. Speech Therapy works by encouraging children to enhance both their verbal and non-verbal communication. That should be our focus, UO included.
In a world not built for autistic and neurodivergent children, it is essential to adhere to the children’s rights standard by considering their best interests. That means helping them embrace themselves, not torturing them for being themselves.
