What You Need To Know About Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy

In this webinar, Melissa Hale, Ph.D., BCBA-D, shares information about applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy.

Follow SPARK on social media:

[angelNoll]

24:59-- many people who are neurodivergent will experience some form of disordered eating and be labeled a "picky eater" as a child. However, as someone who has been through eating disorder treatment as adult and minor, it's very important to also explore the barriers to food and eating. I'm glad you mentioned these barriers such as gastroparesis, the very real physical barrier that comes with disordered eating and stomach problems as a result of that, but I think it's also important to remember that sensory issues and food aversions and executive dysfunction can all be neurodivergent barriers to food and eating.

[oscarhunter]

As someone who's worked in ABA for 4 years. The families I have had the honor to work for/with have been eternal grateful, often breaking the rules as to what kind of gifts they give me and wanting to maintain contact after services. The children absolutely love me because I do not see them as a puzzle, I see them as children who require extra patience and extra awareness from me. I treat each child better than if they were my own child. Peace and Love to all peoples and families who have faced the obstacles of Autism+. This diagnosis can be intimidating to the ignorant and I am ever grateful to the universe for allowing me to be a part of the faciliation of moments that many thought were lost. Autistic kids, and the families who seek any care, are awesome.

[melissasuer]

This was a great presentation. Thank you so much for sharing! I have an interview for an RBT Position tomorrow, and I am trying to learn more about this strategy. I have worked with individuals with disabilities for many years, but I don't know a lot about ABA Therapy. This really helped me a lot. I appreciate your time and effort that it took to share this.

[gerrytrevis]

I am a lab rat that conditions myself. To quit smoking, to lose weight, to exercise, to eat healthy and to live long and prosper.

[RBTStacy]

Random personal opinion: I think most people engage in stimming. Some call it "OCD", "tics" or "habits". Some people hum "randomly", count teeth, tap their fingers/pencil on the table etc. To a certain degree I am sure most people stim. If it starts causing negative effects on the individual or being harmful to others then it needs to be addressed. Otherwise, no need for treatment or change (unless that's your personal goal).

[rajkumar-ieoi]

Hello mam how can i get aba therapy degree

[SelfMasteryPeace]

Nice lecture, if u cant restrict a child a bit for there good, u are nt making them strong enough to bear shackles of the tough world, restricting in healthy manner is important

[Zabear]

In the picky eating section, the way the I assume therapist would just give the girl a treat after she did what they wanted was dog training.
If the young girl wasn’t malnourished, and was fine without eating chicken, that’s a preference. I don’t understand, why it was so important for her to like different foods?

[JeanClaudeRegistre-gj]

SOME OF THE PATIENT THEY BEHAVIOR HAS CHANGED OFTEN TIME.

[alienpix]

And we wonder why those with autism are more often abused by police.

In Canada at least, the Ontario police force is trained with a free course through ABA, where their other courses are paid individually.

Now, extrapolating that: I wonder what the rate is for autistic symptoms without diagnosis presenting in first Nations folks.

This would explain the residential schools, and the ongoing genocide (including the sterilization of first Nations birthing people, reminiscent of nazis sterilizing any "undesirable"). It's a bunch of Stepford sociopaths trying to cure emotion and free will.

[Reticulan]

ABA is just autistic conversion therapy. This isn't a hyperbolic statement. I mean this literally.

ABA was developed by Ivar Lovaas, a Norwegian-American psychologist (not mentioned) who was also a fouding member of the feminine boys project, which used similar methods to "fix" childrens expression of gender and sex.

Though todays ABA doesn't use as many restraints or punishments (shock therapy), it does reward "acceptable" behaviors. Which is just forcing them to mask more effectively.

Masking may allow someone with autism to hide thier true feelings and needs in order to fit in, but will cause MORE meldowns and behavior problems as well as serious trama responses like PTSD if masking is forced long term.

[Neilgs]

"The science was monumental beginning in the 19th/20th century." Yes, indeed, so was "Phrenology."

[amandasmith]

If it is a study of "general behavior" then why is it ONLY applied to autistic children? EVERYTHING I have seen about ABA therapy has been exclusively practiced on vulnerable autistic children who are considered disabled. It is not a quality "study" without a control group. You would need a group of "normal" children as well as the group of autistic children. If the study is really trying to understand behavior then it should also study every age range all the way to adult.

[IamLaDonnaa]

Thank you so very much for your knowledge! I’m on my way!😃

[cherry-ksyb]

This is horrible. Restraining a child? Conditioning children to act neurotypical, this is kind of horrifying to watch. my heart goes out to all autistic people that have been forced to go through this

[nathanvleugels]

ABA therapy is abuse and people promating it should be sent straight to jail and/or educated.

[ShahabSheikhzadeh]

What a horrible presenter, this person needs a class on how to utilize Powerpoint appropriately. This presentation can probably be shortened by 1/5th in length.

[OccupationalPhenomenology]

What you need to know about ABA is that it should be illegal because it is harmful to autistic people.

[Neilgs]

When you "Try to figure what is motivating the child or older to engage in self-injurious behaviors" and "What is getting them to do it" you are really framing it in such dissociated and despicable manner as to evince not one iota of empathic or attempted empathic understanding from that child's perspective! Asking a child was is in autonomic distress let alone severe autonomic stress, "Is it Green or Blue" is so moronic and devoid of any connectedness of empathy on part of the clinician that I would promptly get rid of her in a heartbeat. Naturally, it is going to excaerbate the autonomic distress. It is NOT about figuring out the "function that the behavior is serving!" No, No and no! Nor for that matter is about accommodating to an easier"task" of communicating that displeasure by choosing a card that would signify/signal "I don't like this."

Rather, it is about connecting where precisely he is in that particular moment, reading the affective somatic physiological distress, facially, bodily and proceeeding to cultivate not more appropriate means of communicating, but cultivating the conditions of felt (interoceptive) safety where the data if you will is shown in the shifting of physiological state ("intense adaptive sympathetic fight/flight to increased safety) as expressed by his ventral vagus striated muscles of facial expression, middle ear muscles, vocalization/inflexion tone as well as overall somatically. This requires not understanding "the function that the behavior" i.e., escape what have you "the behavior" is serving but shall we say course 101 about Neurophysiology, i.e., state autonomic regulation, associated stress hormones and a bit of empathy, empathic reciprocal engagement on your part that would convey/register much more systemically and meaningfully! It is about being with him and having him "feel" yes feel increasing safe in being, relating and becoming with another!

[stfuyoutube]

what you need to know is that aba is outright fucking abuse