The Denver Post recently published an article about Boulder parents who believe applied behavior analysis harmed their children. Their experiences deserve to be heard. No child should experience therapy that is coercive, demeaning or traumatic.
But those experiences should not become an indictment of an entire field or erase the experiences of Colorado families who have seen their children and adult family members communicate more effectively, become more independent, participate in their communities and enjoy fuller lives with the help of modern applied behavior analysis or ABA.
Much of the article’s critique reaches back to practices associated with Ivar Lovaas and ABA’s early history more than half a century ago. That history deserves scrutiny. But describing contemporary ABA primarily through practices from the 1960s is like judging modern medicine solely by treatments used generations ago.
And there is one particularly important correction:聽the Lovaas model is not the gold standard of autism treatment today.聽To present it that way is misleading.
ABA has evolved. Today, ABA is increasingly integrated with developmental approaches, natural environments, relationships, play, communication and the individual’s own interests and preferences. Approaches such as the grew from behavioral science while moving far beyond the highly structured practices of ABA’s earliest decades.
As a mother, I am not interested in making my child look less autistic. I want my son to have a bigger life.
I want him to be able to communicate what he wants and needs. I want him to make choices. I want him to learn skills that give him greater independence and autonomy. I want him to participate in his community, form relationships, contribute and experience the dignity of having meaningful control over his own life.
For my son and many others, ABA has helped make those opportunities possible. We are not the minority.
That is the part of the story missing from the article. We were only shown one view, missing the voices of many.
That distinction matters.
And it matters beyond the individual. When people develop skills that allow them to communicate, navigate daily life and participate more independently in their communities, they may require less intensive support over the course of their lives. That can mean greater opportunity for the individual, less strain on families and potentially less pressure on the public systems that support them.
This is not an argument that ABA is beyond criticism. It isn’t.
Providers should be held accountable. Parents should have a voice. Autistic people should have a voice. Families deserve transparency about goals and methods. Coercion, unnecessary restraint, punishment and attempts to suppress harmless autistic characteristics should never be defended simply because someone calls it ABA.
But accountability requires distinguishing between bad practice and an entire discipline.
Autism is a spectrum. A verbal teenager preparing for college, an adult learning workplace skills and a person who cannot reliably communicate pain or danger may need profoundly different supports. No single family’s experience, positive or negative, can speak for all of them.
We should listen to autistic people who report harmful experiences. We should also listen to autistic people and families who say behavioral supports have improved their lives. And we should recognize the professionals who have spent decades evolving their practices around dignity, individual choice, assent and quality of life.
The question isn’t whether we are 鈥渇or ABA鈥� or 鈥渁gainst ABA.鈥�
The question is whether we are giving each person ethical, evidence-informed and individualized support that helps them build the fullest life possible, without asking them to become someone they are not.
For my family, that means communication, choice, independence, autonomy, belonging, and joy. Like many families, this was achieved through modern naturalistic ABA that is now the Gold Standard.
It means the opportunity to be an active citizen in the community we live in.
That is the standard Colorado families deserve.
Robin Koncilja serves on the board of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition and has served on the board of REVEL for nine years. She is also the proud mother of a 13-year-old with profound autism.
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