ABA therapy for autism vs the biomedical approach - a parent's perspective
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A parent of an autistic child gives his view on ABA therapy and other behavior-based therapies versus the biomedical approach in the treatment of autism.
This article was edited from a post on the Autism Recovery forum by S Rochilli, who is from Indonesia.
Rochilli firmly believes that behavior-based therapies like ABA or Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) should be introduced after biomedical treatment -- not before and not even simultaneously. He shares his experience of treating his three-year-old autistic son.
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Biomedical treatment should come first – not the other way round. The two treatment approaches should not even be applied simultaneously, unless one has a lot of money to spend.
I want to share my experience about ABA therapy for autism.
For example, the ABA group that my son uses is quite arrogant and dogmatic in that the people who run the group insist that only ABA has been proven to be effective in treating autism.
I don't believe their claim that ABA 100 percent helpful. I have heard and read about cases where parents spent their whole fortune on ABA, 40 hours a week for years, on their heavily autistic kids with little result. To me, that is financially and emotionally devastating, not to mention lots of wasted time!
How could ABA for autism succeed if the biological issues are not corrected ?
The ABA newsletter asserted that treatments like HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen therapy) are not proven and of little use for treating autism. Yet I get the feeling that the people who make such statements know little to nothing about HBOT.
In this autism world, competing therapies do sometimes adopt a "competitive" attitude. This is unfortunate. They are supposed to help one another, not attack each other.
During one seminar on ABA therapy that I attended, they demonstrated techniques on how to handle autistic kids who are aggressive, or trying to hurt themselves – by hugging and restraining them in certain ways.
When I saw this, I laughed bitterly inside!
Why? By now, most of us already know that in almost all cases, the reason why autistic kids hurt themselves or behave aggressively towards others is not because they have behavioral problems.
Yet the people who offer ABA therapy still insist that autism is a purely psychological / behavioral issue, not a biological issue. That is the greatest tragedy of the thinking behind ABA therapy.
Biomedical approach
The biomedical approach to autism tells us that these kids are in pain, because they face issues such as gastrointestinal disorders. In frustration – plus the fact that many autistic kids are non verbal or unable to communicate their anguish – they lash out in anger and frustration.
I feel it is fiendish cruelty on the part of those who offer ABA therapy to ignore and refuse to acknowledge the biological issues in autism. Instead, they brainwash parents to handle their kids that way, as if using rewards will stop their unbecoming behaviour?
Imagine you yourself having very painful issues in your body. Won't you feel very frustrated? I have a relative – a normal, non-autistic adult – who becomes aggressive when he suffers severe headaches.
What do we do in such situations? Instead of trying to find the cause and remove the pain, do we instead offer money / rewards to stop the aggressive behavior? Isn't that silly and inhumane ? But that is what the ABA therapy guys are doing with these kids!
Sure it may work – even with adults in pain (and adults naturally are much better at controlling their behavioral urges than kids!) But how long will it take? How many hours of therapy?
And even if autistic kids are sufficiently "trained" by ABA therapy to control their behavior, they still don't feel well inside their body.
Now imagine if parents are taught to ignore the biomedical issues as unproven. They will not realize that their kids are suffering inside! They only think that their kids are "psycho" and should be taught a lesson – if necessary, harsher lessons such as those used in ABA therapy for autism! Imagine the kids' anguish!
Underlying problems
Perhaps with enough rewards, repeating the ABA methods will eventually make the kids endure their pain and stop them from expressing their suffering. In this sense, ABA therapy does work, but...
Isn't it more humane and more sensible to address the underlying problems than to suppress them with behavioral modification?
This is my greatest complain about ABA therapy and other behavioral modification techniques such as RDI. They think their method is the only way to cure a biological problem.
Well, if you do it long enough and with some luck – and if the kid's detoxification system somehow turns around on its own without biomedical treatment (it does happen in some cases, though I wouldn't count on it) – the kids might make it. But more often that not, that is a terribly inefficient and inhumane way to help these kids.
My son, after more than a year of biomedical treatment, simply has no more aggressive issues, violent behavior, temper tantrums etc. He no longer tries to hurt himself.
Why would he? I have already addressed many of his past gastrointestinal issues. Now he sleeps well at night and his poops are ok. He is, in fact, much more docile and pleasant than my other normal son who could be spoiled and bad tempered at times!
So my personal suugestion for parents is this: please put the horse in front and the cart behind. Recognize that autism is a biological problem, not a psychological / behavioral problem. Find out what's physically wrong with your kid, and do at least one to two years of biomedical treatment for autism.
Trust me. This alone – without or with minimal ABA therapy, RDI and other behavioral modification therapies – will reduce many of the behavioral issues as the child begins to feel much better inside his or her body.
Then, depending on how much progress your kid makes, you may want to use ABA / RDI – or God willing, maybe even a normal private teacher using conventional teaching methods – to help your child catch up with other kids in educational issues.
This, to me, makes much more sense! It is humane, cost effective and faster as well!
Cllck here to read Part II of this article on ABA therapy for autism