What is autism and how does ABA therapy work?

Hopebridge uses evidence-based therapy that utilizes the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA therapy). From understanding what autism looks like to how to treat it, Hopebridge professionals focus on collaborating with families, physicians, and fellow therapists to deliver on a personalized plan of care.

[Matthias]

This take might be controversial (given how many have opposed in the comments), but I'd say early intervention therapy helped me a lot. I'm not positive if it was ABA or something else, but not once did I feel "tortured". Every time I went it was pretty fun. I'd have physical sessions where I'd do stuff like crawl through large plastic pipes to develop spacial awareness, and mental sessions where the therapist would sit me down and work through some cognitive exercises. I never once felt threatened in therapy, and I'm so thankful my parents cared enough to want to help me. I'm now studying Physics and Mathematics at University which I love, but I can't say I'd have come this far without early intervention.

[nw]

I'm autistic, and my disability causes problems in my marriage. Yes, it is a disability, and yes, compared to my wife and other NTs I am lower functioning. Considerably so, in some aspects. It's not just a difference in thinking. There are quantifiable deficits in my thinking and social abilities. When someone says "a little autism", they're talking about obvious differences in levels of impairment.
The reason I say this is because it terrifies me to think of the impact of pretending otherwise will have on autistic children. It's not loving to pretend someone doesn't have difficulties, that there is no problem, or that there aren't differences in how much I struggle when compared to how others struggle.

When we were dating, my wife and I thought I was just awkward after having been neglected by my parents my whole life. We thought I would grow out of it. But it turned out to be more serious, and I may never be as socially competent as others. But rather than accommodating me, my wife has placed high expectations on me. She's incredibly patient and understanding despite the stress I put on her because she knows its unintentional, but she always works works with me to teach me how people think and how its best to interact with them. It's very stressful for me, sure, but the effort has made me stronger and more capable in life. The whole world cannot bend over backward to accommodate me or any particular subset of individuals, so I have to be the one to grow to fit in as best as I can. That's reality, and I am determined to be strong and step up to the challenge.

I want to emphasize that the goal is greater understanding, not just encouraging masking behaviors. My wife teaches me why, on a deeply fundamental and psychological level (she is a truly brilliant counselor with several certificates and degrees), people like or dislike certain behaviors.

It's important to keep in mind that there is a baseline for life and reality called truth in a broad sense. We are social creatures by nature, and it's not just a matter of fitting in with social norms. It's about meshing as a unified and advancing society, without which we never would have progressed as far as we have. Striving to integrate into that reality has been the most difficult thing I have ever endeavored. But it's been more than worth it because there are a lot of beautiful people out there and I can reach out to them and connect with them better than ever before. It's still a struggle, and if it will always be a struggle so be it. The growth is what matters, not necessarily being able to sit back one day and say "I have finally arrived. I can take it easy from now on."

As someone with autism, my message to others who are autistic, or who have autistic children, is let's keep our eyes on continuous improvement, not on the difficulties. And let's never be complacent. I sometimes see too much emphasis on accommodation, and little or none on uncompromising striving to be the absolute best we can be, coupled with love, patience, and understanding. There is a fine balance between having high expectations and being understanding. Too much accommodation is a trap. We can't let the fact that something is unpleasant to us stop us from growing. No one improves in anything without the unpleasant strain of growth. Being able to handle that unpleasantness is one of the greatest, most freeing things in life. And of course, too much pushing for improvement is toxic.

Of course every case is different. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. This is also true of people who aren't on the spectrum. All of life is about growing into our maximum potential. That's true of every person. A focus on growth is my whole message in a nutshell. And that there is growth to be had, it means there is a direction to grow towards, a "normal" if you will. To think otherwise is to not be rooted in reality, plainly speaking, and we all need to be rooted in reality. A thoroughly balanced, comprehensive reality. This is all very much a matter of attitude and perspective. As those who make it through the brutal training to become Navy SEALs attest, the struggles they went through were only 10% physical (discomfort) but 90% mental (attitude/perspective).

I have greater mastery over myself and my world, and besides her loyalty, that's the greatest gift my wife has given me. My parents should have been the ones to give me that. Things would have been much easier for my wife, but they were only interested in accommodating me. They thought they were being loving, but the truth is they hamstrung me. They thought they were being kind, but they "loved" me into a pit. It sounds harsh, but that's the undeniable reality of it, and reality doesn't pull its punches. My parents tried to shield me from reality, but nothing stops reality so they only gave me a false sense of security. And those walls came tumbling down real quick and I was left unequipped to handle myself when they did. My wife, on the other hand, helped me face reality and overcome difficulties. My wife expects me to do things that are uncomfortable, but what's she's doing is the truly loving thing. Now, with expectations being placed on me, I am more powerful than I ever have been. Being pushed to improve has changed the entire trajectory of my life.

[relentlessrhythm]

As an adult with autism and also a special education teacher, I oppose ABA. My Stimming harms no one and I teach my students to find safe ways to stim if they are harming themselves or others. I'm happy when they find healthy stimming methods!

Let's view autism as a different ability, not a disability. Autism isn't a disease needing a cure, it's a different way the brain works, which isn't bad at all. Our brains are developed differently, which is something no one can change. We can "mask" our autism for only so long before we burn out.

ABA trains one to be overly submissive and I had a boyfriend who took advantage of this.

Support neurodiversity!

[robertsonkira]

why is lack of eye contact a problem? It doesn't harm anyone if someone doesn't look at eyes, but forcing me to do eye contact is uncomfortable and make me have anxiety and therefore makes me selectively mute.

[laurad]

I've what is considered mild autism. I've lived most my life being completely fine. But lately I've been collapsing, having meltdowns, not being able to vocalize etcr.
So I've been looking at what can cause it. Turns out practices like this played a huge roll in it.
They learned to ignore it when I'm uncomfortable. They teached me to just accept things and move on. They learned me to mask, to stop the behaviours that were supposed to help me with the world.
So please don't do this. Although it might seem helpful, aba can cause things like trauma, burnout amd makes things way worse in the long run.

[joanateixeira]

I am a teacher of children with autism and while I can see the value of some aspects of ABA, I think it is simply wrong to reinforce desired behaviours with food. This is tantamount to bribery, giving the child the feeling that they only deserve food when they are "good" and setting up a whole world of possible future eating disorders.

[rick]

53y Autistic here.

ABA is dog clicker training. Esp discreet trials.

ABA causes PTSD and sometimes even Complex PTSD(PTSD on steriods.)

Lots of therapy to help us become our best for Autism.... Early Intervention, Floortime, Speech, Occupational Therapy, Neurofeedback, Interactive Metronome, Music Therapy, Music, Feingold more....

Three things....
1. We have more Empathy than any NT. NTs use mimetism and not empathy.

2. Stop forcing ridiculous eye contact on us. Lack of eye contact doesn't mean that we are not listening and/or lying.

3. Solitude is wonderful. Just cause you hate being alone to watch a movie, cook, clean, read, think, mean we Autistics hate being alone. Solitude doesn't equal loneliness. If we desire extra social contact we will let others know or show it by engaging. And no don't need to come out of our more than NTs need to go back into their shell.

[e.t.]

Great job, giving all of those children PTSD and conditioning them for exploitation! You must be so, so proud of all the little autistic girls and women who "comply" thanks to your training.

[megbro]

is this really benefiting the children or the people around them in order to make them more “manageable” and “act normally/act how other people expect”?

[margretoddny]

“... daily battles with these kids ...” what a horribile horrible standpoint. Horror chills allover my body. So you are molding the behavior of the children so you can feel better and the child seams to feel better. But does the child feel better? Really? Please listen to the autistic adults that have had to endure ABA. How do they feel about it? Please please listen!

[MakiPcr]

"get their needs met" is the last thing she mentions! I checked out at the functioning labels, but holy shit "tolerating" (ugh) other children is more important than having your basic needs met? This is why we say ABA is abuse

[YoshiXO]

*So I guess I would say my babe is mild functioning because she has some eye contact, has some speech and working on more. She is very smart, understanding more language than she can say.*
*I always knew that my babe was different since birth. I got her evaluation at 2.5 (2019)and she was diagnosed immediately.*
*I’ve Been working diligently with her. She just turned 3 in May 2020 she’s potty training and everything. I take it Day by day. It is tough. I commend any caregiver/parent who’s helping mold these little angels . It is possible. Some days I want to just stop but I know she needs me. I’m a single mom*
*God bless us all while we figure out this journey of autism. 😇 🧩 I wish you all the best*

[yesnonotexactly]

1) don't use functioning labels like "high functioning and low functioning". Those come from the outdated idea that IQ has anything to do with autism, which is doesn't. Also, there might be someone who is "high functioning" socially and "low functioning" at home taking care of themselves, and there might be someone who's the opposite, and you'd have no idea, so you apply the label to one kind of person and not another because you dont see the scope of how they are as a person. People arent "low functioning" humans - accommodate their needs instead of training them to be what you want and see what all they can do

2) there isn't "mild autism" and "severe autism" - you just experience their autism more or less depending on the person. There's someone who might have most of their traits be visual or "more obvious" and there might be someone who you can't outwardly tell is autistic because they've trained themselves not to look like it but they've got more autistic traits than you could guess. Autistic people are autistic, period. Which leads me into my next point...

3) people aren't "just a little bit autistic". You are, or you aren't. Just because a kid might not have a ton of traits that would apply to this therapy doesn't mean they still don't have other traits too. There isn't "more autistic" and "less autistic" - it's a difference in the way your brain works. That's like saying that non-autistic people are like cakes and autistic people are like muffins and you're asking "how muffin are you?", it doesn't make sense

[jellyfish]

The aba therapy is not a therapy. It's just something made to make autists person look as "normal" as possible just for the comfort of their parents and non-autistic peoples. The problem is that the whole "therapy" is totally unnecessary for autistic children's health and is incrediblely painful to them. The most of the children who had experienced this horror has a PTSD (yes autistic people can be traumatised) and make a child suffer just for the selfish comfort of other persons is just torture if you really love your child please don't do that flapping hands and generaly stimming is almost vital to autistic people it makes them mentally healthy and helps them to aprehend their environment.
English is not my language I apologize if something is not grammaticaly correct.

An autistic person who stim every day and is happy with this

[nmhdez]

There are so many negative comments. Am I missing something? I have autism myself and a recently became an RBT. I been using techniques to help out my 7-year old brother who has autism and noticed a huge positive change in him he never had any kind of intervention prior to myself helping him) that has helped him become better at communicating.

Want to know what is abusive? People treating you differently and harshly because of your personal challenges with autism. I once had a group of friends that would low-key make fun of me whenever I struggled/was awkward in social situations and then get called autistic at times. They never knew that I actually have a form of autism called Asperger's. Those experiences traumatized me and made me very self-conscious that I had a fear of social interactions for a long time, that I started to avoid making new friends. ABA has helped in some ways.

[mswinter]

I'm a behavior interventionist & what I usually see is a lot of uninvolved parents/ families when it comes to special needs children. I have been a preschool teacher & I've seen the same thing with parents of non-special needs children. It's worse for special needs children though. Solution? Parents being trained on how to interact with their children (special needs or not) because many behaviors can be changed early on. Children respond well to adults who meet them at their level. Parents just need to recognize when they need help with their children & not feel ashamed by that fact. Every behavior won't always be able to change altogether, but many can be reduced significantly with help.

[gbimakarngarbahtokpah]

Hi My name is Gbima
I am from Africa and have a child with autism....thank for all your support

[gailasprey]

No! Autistic kids don’t need to stop stimmimg because it can calm them down, they don’t need to be compliant, they don’t need to be like other kids and they don’t need to be touched by others. I’ve seen ABA therapy and I’m lucky my parents didn’t subject me to it. It’s fine that they prefer to stay away from loud situations or keep to themselves. They can be a child, they can be an autistic child.

[sammi]

ABA therapy has come a long way. yes it’s controversial but it’s still important to helping people, especially those with low functioning autism. i understand ppl saying stims and lack of eye contact are not harmful, and i agree. but what about those who don’t communicate? if we use positive reinforcement to help people with low functioning autism learn that communication is beneficial, we can set them up for a better future.

[damonkirsebom]

A “low functioning “ person? We really don’t use type of language anymore, do we?