ABA is always abuse.

Aversives aren't what make ABA abuse.

ABA isn't abuse because of lemon juice being sprayed in mouths (though that is abuse), because of the JRC shocking people (though that is abuse and shut down the JRC), or because of Lovaas slapping people for handflapping (though yet again, abuse).

ABA isn't abuse because of aversives existing. Remove all aversives, and ABA is still abuse. It is not abuse because of the history of aversives.

All ABA is abuse. ABA is abuse whether or not aversives are part of the program. ABA is abuse no matter how prettied up it is, no matter how much it is "but we aren't like them, we don't do those things anymore". Because ABA is about controlling people, about changing people, about not letting people be themselves. You can be pretty and manipulative. You can give people gifts over and over and over again, to make them who you want them to be, and this is still abuse. ABA isn't abuse because of aversives. ABA is abuse because of the entire base point of ABA.

All of that "but not my ABA" or "ABA isn't like that anymore". Sure, your ABA might not involve squirting lemon juice in people's mouths for not speaking "correctly", but it does include things like taking everything loved, and making it only accessible if earned.

That is abuse.

It does involve things like making things necessary for regulating your body, for regulating your mind, and making you earn them.

That is abuse.

It does do things like tell people over and over and over and over and over again how wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong they are. (Even when you use checkboxes where they are seeing whether they are doing "good" or "bad" today)

That is abuse.

And beyond all this, at the base level of all this, it doesn't matter the methods. Because what ABA is doing, is taking someone, and taking control of them. These are just some methods used. And taking control of another person is. just. straight. abuse.

ABA is about saying that your body is mine, your brain is mine, you will do as I say. Stand up. Sit down. Don't move you hands. Say these words exactly. Do what I say.

ABA is about taking someone and molding them to who is wanted. Changing them to who is wanted. Not letting them be who they are.

ABA isn't about teaching. It is never about teaching. It has never been about teaching. It is about control. It is about making someone who is wanted by someone else. Sit up straight, repeat after me, earn your candy.

It doesn't matter whether you do this by spraying vinegar in someone's mouth, or whether you do this through praise. Controlling someone, changing someone, making someone into a model of who you want, is abuse always, and can only ever be abuse, because of the entire concept at it's core. You cannot mold someone into a being you want with "love" and not have it be abuse.

Abuse is not only physical. Abuse is not only getting in someone's face. Abuse is also controlling what you do, when you do it, how you do it, who you are.

This is true in all situations. This is true with ABA. ABA is abuse. It can only be abuse. It is always abuse.

There is no such thing as non-abusive ABA. There is no "but my ABA" there is no "ABA is friendlier now".

There is nothing that will ever be friendly. Nothing that will ever be acceptable. Nothing that will ever be non-abusive, that is at it's core about controlling and changing who a person is into who you want them to be. And that is what ABA is.

ABA is always abuse.

The point was always control

CN: abuse of children in schools, ableism, restraint, seclusion, BCBAs

When BCBAs are concerned meltdowns are "behaviors" to be "handled", and how much distress a child is in doesn't matter, but there are still rules in place. Rules they set up for themselves, but rules. Rules like whoever's the first adult in place for "managing a behavior" is in control of whatever is to be done for that "behavior". They control when restraints happen, and who restrains, and how transporting the child to the tiny room that the child gets put in to finish the meltdown in (because of course that'll help a meltdown). They control the decisions. They're allowed to explicitly hand it off to someone else, with consent of both parties, but otherwise, they have control.

This is a rule, an explicit rule, a rule that everyone is told, and everyone has to agree with, and everyone has to know that this is how it works, because this is apparently the safest thing to do. This means that everyone knows who to turn to, and people don't try to go in opposite directions in how they're managing a situation. There's someone in charge and everyone knows who it is and nobody has to make a decision of who it is ever when a "behavior" is going on, because they're more worried about the "behavior" (I mean not the kid of course).

But I mean, what happens if an autistic person is the first on the scene. What happens when a kid starts melting down, because of an entirely predictable reason to be melting down, because adults have pushed them into a position that is completely unreasonable for a child to be in and they cannot cope, and they're trying and trying and trying to cope, and they can't. What happens then? What happens when they're doing the best they can, and an autistic adult is helping them, because the autistic adult knows them, and is seeing their responses, and is seeing that they're calming down, and making it through, and it's working, and life is getting easier and more organized, because someone is there and helping them in ways that they need right now?

No, despite all these rules, these whoever's on the "scene" of a "behavior" first, if it's an autistic person, that's not allowed. An autistic person isn't allowed to be treated equally. The child isn't allowed to be respected that much. Nobody is allowed to have that much respect, because the BCBA needs the control of choosing who takes care of "behaviors" and how. Respect isn't allowed. You need the ABA, you need the restraints, you need the control, you need the abuse. You need to control the autistic people this way. You need to hurt both of them this way.

So instead, they take this autistic child, who's working through a meltdown, and grab, and restrain, and pull them across a room, and throw them into a tiny little space, for a meltdown that never even met the rules that they had claimed met the requirements of restraint was allowed for. Because control is necessary. Because helping children isn't the point. Because helping children was never the point. Because when children were actually getting helped, that wasn't allowed, that was giving too much power to people they didn't want to have any power.

Restraint, Seclusion, ABA, Abuse, children going through trauma, and living with this for the rest of their lives.

The point was always control.

"too emotional"

CN: suicide, ableism, ABA

I should not live in a world where I have to worry that my students won't be alive every time I go to school, because of how they're treated by their teachers. This world should not exist. This world should not be our world. I should not have to worry that my students that I care about, who play with me, who go out of their way to do things with me and include me, and who make sure that I'm someone who knows that they care about me, won't be there when I wake up, because every other adult in a school, instead of caring about them, only cares about behaviors, and eliminating them, and behavior plans, and doesn't even care how many times they even break their behavior plan because who cares if they hurt the children they have power and they'll show the children they have power. I shouldn't need to be there, listening to the children about their suicide attempts, not knowing how many more exist beyond the ones I know about, but knowing that they exist.

I shouldn't live in a world, where because I've not been at that school for a year and a half now, I don't know whether everyone is still alive. I know nobody will tell me. The students would, but they don't have a way to contact me. Some of them tried to friend me on steam, but somehow that fell through. None of the adults would. The adults didn't tell me whether or not I had a job anymore. They just stopped talking to me. Why would they tell me about students I care about living or dying. They don't care about me. They never hid they didn't care about me. They claim to care about the kids, but they abuse them. It's a common pattern.

I shouldn't have to be reminded and wonder whether people I care about are alive or dead knowing if they're dead it's probably suicide. I shouldn't have to think about teenagers and how many suicide attempts they've made. I shouldn't have to know what they've gone through because of how much people have taught them that they can't be autistic, autistic is wrong, they're wrong, among the piles of lessons taught by people taking over their minds and bodies through ABA. I shouldn't have to know these things.

And if I didn't know them, I couldn't have been there, and I couldn't have helped them through the years I was there. I couldn't have introduced them to neurodiversity and autistic community being a thing. I couldn't have been someone who they learned to trust. I couldn't have made the difference I know I made. And I would still know that this is happening to children. The children just wouldn't have names and faces.

I'm told by people I'm too emotional when saying that what people call therapy is actually abuse. I'm told that being angry will mean people won't listen to me.

I just don't want anyone I care about dying. I just don't want anyone else abused. I just want this to stop now.

How can they not be emotional about this?

Modern ABA

People claim it's not that type of ABA, it's modern, it's kinder, and gentler, it's not abuse. They try to remove our words claiming that what we're talking about isn't what they know, or what they do.

But we do know.

It's not kind to have a child hear hundreds of times a day how they're wrong. It's been a minute, you're wrong. It's been another minute, you're wrong. Why? Because you're autistic, you're wrong. You flapped a hand, you're wrong. You aren't currently writing an answer because you're thinking, you're wrong.

That's part of the program of multiple children I know, at multiple different schools.

It's not gentle to a child to grab and restrain them because they're sobbing. Grab them, pull them out of the room, throw them elsewhere. Crying isn't allowed for autistic children. Being upset about change isn't allowed, it's showing that you're autistic.

That's part of the program of another child I know. Restraint and seclusion for crying or yelling. Too disruptive. Time for another restraint. Maybe this time the point will get through that you're only allowed to do exactly what you're told to, not do things like show emotion.

These are places that are considered "kind" and "gentle", modern ABA.

They don't do the same things as they did in the 80s, but still, they restrict all activities that are used to regulate a child's sensory system, and they must be "earned", one minute at a time.

They're still places which write a child's bathroom usage into their ABA program.

They're still places which say if you haven't finished your work by lunch time, you're not allowed to eat anything until you've finished all your work. You need to stay here, and keep working while all your friends eat lunch and go to recess, no matter how hungry you are. You didn't do your work. Even if you worked non-stop. Food is for efficient workers.

They're still places which say swearing is enough reason to remove a child's favorite part of a day. That they hadn't been needing to earn in the first place.

They're still places which every one, three, five minutes a child is told everything they're doing wrong.

They're still places which use restraint and seclusion. Not to mention restraint and seclusion for things like being upset about change.

This is modern ABA. Every one of these things is something I've seen written into an ABA program in the last 5 years.

And none of this list gets across the pain.

None of it can explain the amounts of self-injury I see because of what is being done to them while adults are telling a child over and over how much they're a horrible person, which gets followed up by immediate restraint because of people being called a danger to themselves and others.

Or the amounts of teachers getting away with making children repeating work while watching classmates play because they felt like it and the reason being given just being "I felt like it".

Stimming becoming hated. Scripting becoming hated. Autism becoming hated. Because all adults say how autism is bad. And yet, everyone knows they're autistic. Children acting "less autistic", but doing so because of learning to hate everything about themselves. I cry every summer, not knowing if my students who I care about will still be there when I return.

Behavior Training 101

The first thing they teach you is that everything is a behavior.
The second thing is that if it's a behavior then autonomy is optional.

Earlier this week I found a workbook that was used for a mandatory training about working with students with "behavioral problems". I'll let the first of the definitions of "challenging behaviors" from such book speak for itself.

Disruptive behaviors interfere with learning and functioning but are not direction harmful. Examples: yelling, uncooperativeness, swearing, asking repetitive questions

Behavior problems means doing things that children do, that teenagers do. But these students aren't allowed to. Because everything is a behavior to be eliminated. Because these children - autistic, otherwise disabled, disproportionately PoC students, these ones in segregated classes, they're aren't allowed to simply be children.

Our second of these definitions (and the other worth including) is

Dangerous Behaviors are potentially harmful. Examples: slapping, light head banging, biting without breaking skin (self or others), bolting within a building

We're dangerous if we get overwhelmed or frustrated, if we meltdown, if we try to get away. We're dangerous if we use biting or digging fingernails into our skin as ways to cope with sensory overload. That word makes us less of a person, and more into behaviors to be fixed. We're dangerous if we show how things are.

Pretty quickly this workbook gets to ways to improve staff safety. (I'm going to note here that it's staff safety and we're not getting into improving safety of everyone.) It teaches to put a hand on the Individual's arm as the staff member walks up to the Individual, so they can't unpredictably move and hurt anyone.

Except, how many autistic people (which you know this book is primarily written about. It's all ABA based.)...how many autistic people won't be able to handle unexpected touch? Does that matter? Does our safety matter, our comfort? For those who aren't autistic, how many people at all can handle people walking up and unpredictably touching them? In the "special ed" settings I work in how many disabilities include sensitivity to touch?

But no, according to how I was trained, staff should use this method of walking up and touching people who are rather likely are hurt extremely by touch, unexpectedly. This should be done every time that staff walks near every person who has ever shown a Dangerous Behavior. (Look at those again and see how much this is everyone. Or at least if you've shown a dangerous behavior and are deemed somehow not a person. Then your Dangerous Behavior was a behavior rather than understandable frustration.)

And if you don't like the touch? Oh well, they need to get used to it.

Skimming past "other relevant factors" (such as cultural, racial, gender, and other, which has nothing cultural, racial, or gender related listed. We're autistic, we must all be 8 year old middle class white cis-boys. It'll just be listed there so we can pretend to have talked about it.) brings us to how there's an Antecedent to the Behavior which leads to a Consequence. Beyond that we have methods of helping Individuals calm down.

Methods such as telling someone to say "I want THING", where they're told what to say what the adult thinks they want. Or the method of prompting someone to do something every 5 or so seconds until they do it, at which point swap to a different thing to prompt for, requesting repeatedly.

Compliance training means they get what they want if the only goal is compliance.

I'm really made speechless when it comes to people even thinking these might be helpful. The former trains people to say and do what others think might help rather than do what actually helps. It makes things worse over time, by training more and more compliance and doing and saying what others say to do, even when it isn't what should be done. It makes it harder to think of what does help, because it's overshadowed by this.

The latter just makes things worse, right now. Processing takes time, and repeating now, now, now, do this now, faster than reactions can happen, when in an overwhelmed state, only makes it harder and harder and harder, to even understand. Might it be done? If I'd do it its in order to get the noise to go away so I might have enough space to think. And that assumes that there's enough processing that has happened between the repeated requests.

Help means help. This isn't help.

Beyond this lack of anything useful is the sections on physically interacting or interfering with the Individual. As I luckily never had to go through any of that training, I'm not going to look into the horrors. There is, however, half of the book on such topics, and I should simply mention the existence of quite a few holds included in this book.

This is a training session about controlling people hidden inside of a session about how to help in overwhelming situations. It's taking away autonomy for the ease of the staff, because of the Behaviors of the Individuals.

And throughout the entirety, there's two phrases which are repeated:

• Communicate respect
• Promote dignity

to that I really only have one reply

Inigo Montoya picture with the quote
"You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means"

They don't need to touch you

They tell you to stop.
They don't need to hold your hands down, it's so forceful.
You need to stand there, perfectly still, hands glued to your side
Until your hands are deemed to have been still long enough.

A movement begins.
And again you must stop.
And stand there until the release word is given.

Attempting to learn.
But no, a stop.
No movements allowed.
Stand there, motionless.

They don't need to hold your hands down.
Instead they take everything away,
Unless there's an immediate reply to the "Calm Body"
Forcing you back to that stand, no movements aloud.
But they don't touch you. Because they don't need to.

Calm
That's what it is to them
When we remove all recognition of who you are.

Calm Body
That's what it's called
A body which can pass, it not mattering what else is going on.

Calm Body,
In the middle of lesson,
Not mattering the disruptions. Or whether it's harder to learn.

Calm Body,
In the middle of lunch,
When it is supposed to be free time.

Calm Body,
To remind you your body isn't yours.
And school is a place of teaching compliance, not of teaching academics.

Calm Body,
Because that's all it matters to learn.
How to stand perfectly still.
Hands to your side.
Not able to move an inch.

They don't need to touch you,
They already have control.