Applied Behavioral Therapy (ABA) despite being commonly applied for the treatment of autistic children has run into controversy as people are talking about the efficacy of the therapy. People are questioning whether ABA therapy is an effective solution for inducing development in autistic children.
Concerns have been raised by parents and adults who have received treatment with ABA therapy in their childhood. Among many researchers, the outcomes of ABA therapy must be critically evaluated. Following are the reasons for ABA therapy becoming controversial;
Comparing ABA Therapy With Other Forms of Treatment is Quite Difficult
A major controversy surrounding ABA therapy is that it cannot be compared with other forms of treatment for autism. Unlike pharmacological studies which involve large samples of participants to understand the difference in outcome for both treatment and non-treatment groups, ABA therapy studies are usually conducted on a very small scale, around 20 people only.
Since ABA therapy studies are not comparative between the treatment and non-treatment groups, comparing the efficacy of the ABA therapy with other forms of treatment for autism may not be possible. Additionally, ABA therapy is seldom checked against a placebo model. Ethical implications are often left unexplored, which is a major issue with ABA therapy.
ABA Therapy is Highly Demanding
Early intervention ABA therapy was more of a formulaic approach. With a weekly therapy of 40 hours, children were expected to engage with the therapist and learn beneficial behaviors.
While several studies are backing the benefits of ABA therapy, some researchers are skeptical that ABA therapy is too demanding for children with autism.
These children are often extracted and may have an impoverished emotional and mental condition. Involving them for 40 hours a week is an intense mode of therapy, which could be demotivating and ultimately disastrous for the child.
Involving these children forcefully for the stated amount of time in a week is not favorable. However, it must be noted that in contemporary practice, children are not involved in intensive interventions of 40 hours a week.
In fact, according to Chicago speech therapy, “they are gradually moved into a longer schedule after their progress is monitored periodically. Hence, it is not highly demanding. Each individual is dealt with in a manner that accommodates space to their potential for improvement.”
Not Compatible with Neurodiversity
ABA therapy is often criticized by many researchers for being incompatible with neurodiversity. The behaviors of autistic children are often perceived as alien, which is not acceptable among social workers, scholars, and parents.
Acts of hand-flapping and toe-walking are unique among those diagnosed with autism. However, the prime objective of ABA therapy throughout the years has been to reduce such instances.
In fact, in earlier days, ABA therapy was used to convince parents that their child would be able to bond with their peers as their behavior would eventually improve and they would be indistinguishable from their peers. Hence, ABA therapy has been criticized for not being compatible with neurodiversity.
On one hand, it is important to mention that parents of autistic children want their children to be indistinguishable from their peers. Parents are influenced to consider programs to improve their child’s behavior so that they fit in the society comfortably.
Parents are influenced to do so because of social comparison when they find that non-autistic children excel individually and adapt to normal behaviors with great ease. On the contrary, this effort to make these children indistinguishable from the peers is not acceptable.
This notion of not appreciating the uniqueness of each individual and accepting them in society is considered to be dogmatic by scholars. While families are motivated to induce behavioral change through therapy, this controversy will continue to exist in the coming years.
ABA Therapy Works with an Inflexible Approach
One of the biggest controversies building around the ABA mode of therapy is that it takes a dogmatic approach to treatment. It mostly ignores the role thoughts, intent, feelings, and emotions would play. There is more emphasis on the behavior of the subject and how the behavior could be improved through effective and structured interventions.
However, this is not completely true as ABA therapy studies behavior with the help of underpinning factors such as emotions, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes of the individual. It would be better to state that not everyone is trained well enough to understand the terminologies used in ABA therapy. Connecting with specialists and maintaining a solid frequency in communication with the specialist will require good knowledge.
The Therapy Emphasizes Too Much on Eliminating Bad Behavior
It has often been argued that ABA therapy has too much emphasis on eliminating poor behavior. Negative behaviors such as aggression and self-harm are considered unhealthy for autistic children. Early intervention focuses too much on identifying negative behaviors and eliminating these directly.
There is too much stress on bad behavior. It may be more favorable if the course of therapy aims to deliver value to the user by encouraging them to learn language and game skills.
However, it could also be argued that each therapy is individualized. Individualized here, means that each intervention is designed to meet the uniquely challenging needs of an individual. Changing challenging behaviors may allow the individual to develop language and play skills and adapt normal, acceptable behavior more easily.
On the other hand, there are certain researchers who are with the view that enhancing language and play skills would allow an individual to develop the ability to easily overcome challenging behaviors of self-harm, and aggression. This is the controversy that is surrounding ABA therapy.
From a neutral standpoint, it is quite clear that each therapy is individualized and is tailor-made to suit the uniquely challenging needs of a client. Therefore, criticizing ABA therapy is not justified.
In fact, more research must be undertaken especially studies on large scale involving more responses to critically evaluate if the benefits proposed with the therapy are common across larger samples and if incremental developments in behavior are easy to sustain.
