All humans (and other animals, ESPECIALLY those who don’t speak) communicate through their body language and behaviors (even if they are completely unaware they’re doing so).
When children (regardless of NeuroType) demonstrate “disruptive” or “inappropriate behavior,” it is often a sign they have unmet needs that they are trying to meet. Continue reading Alternatives to ABA: If not ABA… then WHAT?
These results are not limited to people who’ve experienced formal modification programs (because compliance-based programs permeate our society and many of its systems as a whole).
Continue reading Sounding the Alarm: Battling the ABA Epidemic: ABAers Target ADHD and Kids Who Started School Late During COVID
Recently, I asked my NeuroDivergent readers if anyone has “ever tried to “punish” the NeuroDivergence out of” them (while being reasonably sure I knew the answer to my question).
Overwhelming comments came pouring in on various platforms, with stories from my readers telling how they had been harmed by people around them (who insisted on unfair and unrealistic expectations of NeuroTypicality).
I knew there would be Autistic People and ADHDers who had been punished for our NeuroTypes because many of my readers are my age (or older), and when we were growing up, punishment was the standard of care for kids who struggled to fall in line.
What surprised me was how many people with other NeuroTypes were also punished for things beyond their control. Continue reading Have You Ever Been Punished (or Scolded) for Your NeuroDivergence?
Because I am incompatible with the world, I have two options regarding how to deal with the compatibility issues I face daily.
Option 1: Modify MYSELF to fit into the world (because the world expects me to conform and doesn’t have compassion for my NeuroDivergent brain).
Option 2: Changing my environment and the world around me to better suit my needs instead of changing (and breaking) myself to fit into the world. Continue reading My Autistic Truth: Two Choices – Modify Myself to Fit into the World OR Modify the World Around Me to Fit My Needs
Unfortunately, sometimes the people you think (hope) will be safe aren’t always safe. It can be tricky to know if someone will accept you or judge you harshly, thinking less of you when you tell them you’re Queer (regardless of what flavor Queer you are).
For those of us who feel safe enough to live “outside of the closet,” coming out is something we will choose to do (or NOT to do) repeatedly our entire lives. Continue reading Coming out: It’s not something we do “just once.” It’s something we will do over and over again our entire lives.
When I see a puzzle piece, I think of ABA as “missing a piece” and “building a person” (because I know the history). To me, it will always be something ugly.
Continue reading The History of the Puzzle Piece (a Controversial Symbol for Autism and Autistic People), ABA, Conversion Therapy, & Autism Speaks
I consider “Conversion Therapy” to be ANY behavioral modification program that uses negative and positive reinforcements to coerce and manipulate someone into emulating behaviors that are forced and unnatural to them to make the person blend in and appear more “socially acceptable” (whether for Queer, NeuroDivergent, or any other type of behavior that is not considered the “social norm”).
Continue reading Behaviorism 101: Identifying Autistic, NeuroDivergent, and Other forms of Conversion “Therapy”
As expected, both of my posts created pushback from angry parents who follow the ABA ideology and felt “shamed” by my choice of strong words – “Conversion Therapy” but I stand by them.
Continue reading Objections to the Terms Autistic and NeuroDivergent “Conversion Therapy”
Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, Ivar Lovaas conducted experiments using rewards and punishments to shape “desirable” or “normative behaviors” in gender nonconforming and Autistic children.
Continue reading NeuroQueer Timelines: Conversion Therapy, Queer History, and ABA – The Pains of Watching History Repeat Itself
There are many types of conversion therapy used to “normalize” Autistic and other NeuroDivergent People. ABA, or Applied Behavioral Analysis, is among the most widely recognized and controversial.
Continue reading You don’t have to have been subjected to formal Autistic Conversion Therapy to have experienced behaviorism and its harms.
