Karolyn, I didn't write this. I found it on the Aspergers site, and it's mostly adults. This was a response to a thirteen year old child who is afraid his parents are going to put him through interventions that will change him, and he doesn't want to change. The thread is interesting if you read the whole thing.On this site, at least, the adults don't want to get rid of their ASD, and I don't want to either. I'm trying to show that, although parents may get obsessed over changing their children, their grown kids are often very happy with the way they are and angry at parents who try to change them, especially through unorthodox methods. My son was before ABA (he's 13). I don't know much about it. I do know many autists fear these interventions because I chat with the autists, not their parents. The person who answered in the blurb I posted is an ASD adult.
http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=37
Here is advice to a poster who is afraid because his mom joined a "cure autism" group. He is 13. The others are adults. Read before you jump.
The problem is that there are pseudo-scientific "cures" right now - ABA, chelation, sonrise, exclusion diets etc. All are claimed to be cures for autism, and all cause some level of harm. My advice to asiansrock is this:
Try to educate your mother BEFORE she tries any of this crap (I looked at the ASA's site - they do promote most of the "therapies" listed above it seems). If she does try any, then get help from a trustworthy adult you know in real life.
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I disagree that ABA (in its current use) causes harm. It is a teaching style, in which desired behaviors are REWARDED and non desired behaviors are ignored. I am not seeing anyone hurt by having a behavior ignored, people ignore mine all day long. I am seeing HUGE learning happening when the "desired" behavior is letter or word recognition, and suddenly the person being taught (using ABA) is reading.
Do I think ABA should be used to eliminate "sterotypical" behaviors? absolutely not. But every educated professional I know in the field of autism knows that "eye contact" as a goal is a thing of the distant past.
I just hate to see this lumped with the "cures". I often let others know that there is no known cure, and if there was, there are many autists who would choose NOT to use it. As for the others- I think there is some harm in the negative effects on the autist, as well as harm to the people seeking and using them because they usually cost a fortune.