🚨 #Petition - Mitzeichnungsfrist endet am Samstag, 29. Juli 🚨
#ASS #Autismus #ABA #AppliedBehaviorAnalysis

Leider hab ichs grad erst gesehen:

Auf der offiziellen Petitionsplattform vom Deutschen Bundestag gibt es gerade die Petition:
"Einführung eines Gesetzes zum Schutz vor Applied Behavior Analysis-(ABA)-Autismustherapie"

Die Mitzeichnungsfrist endet in 2 Tagen - ob es da noch zu schaffen ist, von aktell 333 das Quorum von 50.000 zu erreichen, was zu einer Anhörung im Bundestag verpflichtet? 🤔 Ansonsten ist es ein unterstützendes Zeichen, um es vielleicht später noch einmal zu versuchen.

https://epetitionen.bundestag.de/petitionen/_2023/_06/_19/Petition_152589.nc.$$$.a.u.html

A few hashtags relating to something that still happens in far too many countries but really needs to stop, because in all its guises it is abuse, if not torture:

#ABA
#BanABA
#BanConversionTherapy
#ConversionPractice
#ConversionTherapy
#EndConversionTherapy
#PBS
#StopTheShock

Despite me speaking about it ad nauseum, I am often asked what my thoughts are on #ABA and always given an example of "different" ABA. Let me make this very clear. ABA IS ABUSE. It caused my CPTSD, as it has for MILLIONS of other #ActuallyAutistic humans around the world.

@actuallyautistic

Asking about autism during childhood:

"You're not autistic, we had you assessed when you were a baby."

"You showed all the symptoms, but fell just below the criteria for a diagnosis."

"You have a lot of the same tendencies as people on the spectrum, but I think you have social anxiety and maybe sensory processing disorder."

Asking about autism during my adulthood:

"No, you met the criteria for a diagnosis, but they didn't want to diagnose you."

"They said they didn't want to label you or have you deal with the stigma."

The other day, when I decided to look up the organization who I did occupational therapy with when I was ~2-5 years old:

"Research shows that behaviourally based intervention programs are the most effective way to teach ASD and foster functional life skills."

"The AIP (Autism Intervention Program) uses evidence based approaches that have been endorsed by [...] the Surgeon General of the United States."

I only remember a nice lady coming over a few times to help with my motor skills. I didn't know it was years of #ABA 😭

I guess that explains the intense masking and loss of identity, the grooming and abuse I experienced later in life, the anxious attachment style and fear of abandonment, the dependent personality disorder, the inability to make decisions, and all of my fucking trauma!

#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticTrauma #CPTSD

Oh wow, it's taken many weeks, but I think I've finally achieved some kind of consensus on #Wikipedia that this was not, in fact, a neutral way of describing the controversies around #ABA: "ABA is considered controversial by some within the autism rights movement due to a perception that it emphasizes normality instead of acceptance, and a history of, in some embodiments of ABA and its predecessors, the use of aversives, such as electric shocks."
#weaselWords

I was subjected to #ABA as a child, abusing me and leaving psychological scars that I am still dealing with today. That is the case for most #ActuallyAutistic humans who were born & dx in the West. But our late dx & self-aware comrades have been abused and caused trauma too.

Their abuse was not at the hands of an ABA "technician", but by their families, friends, teachers, and society at-large. Their abuse was via conditioning, bullying, and being made to feel small and worthless. We are all living with the consequences today. Be you. Be proud.

@actualyautistic @autisticadvocacy

@tanepiper @ItsTrainingCatsAndDogs I think this article about #ABA and did training is very interesting and worthwhile:
https://neuroclastic.com/is-aba-really-dog-training-for-children-a-professional-dog-trainer-weighs-in/?amp

One thing that absolutely does my head in is reports on #ABA that come out with findings that include things like 'Based on outcome measures data for this reporting quarter, 76 percent ofTRICARE beneficiaries in the ACD had little to no change in symptom presentation over the course of 12 months of applied behavior analysis (ABA) services, with an additional 9 percent demonstrating worsening symptoms' but then follow it up with 'In summary, the Department is committed to ensuring military dependents diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder have timely access to medically necessary and appropriate ABA services.'

So ABA is only effective, by its main chosen metric, in less than a quarter of cases; and almost one in ten get 'worsening symptoms'... so we should definitely keep doing that!

...??

Friendly Reminder - #ABA is abuse. It doesn't exist to "help" #ActuallyAutistic people. It exists to erase us. To control us. To alter us. All to make life easier for NT people. It destroys one's sense of self. It leads to CTPSD in at least half those who are subjected to it 🧵🧶

@CorneliusHecker the old BACB Code of Ethics also specifically required practitioners to promote #ABA, although I can't find anything to that effect in the current version.

#Autism #Autistic #ABA #Neurodiversity

One thing I'd like to do in 2023 is to #BanABA in California. We'd be the first state in America to ban #ABA, as we were the first to ban conversion therapy in 2012. I talked to an intern in Sacramento about this late last year, but put it on the back burner until the new year because holidays. I do think it's possible to make this happen, but of course it's not going to be easy.

I don't know if we'd be starting from scratch. I did some searching and couldn't find anything about current activism or efforts to ban ABA in California. Anyone know if someone is working on this I could connect with? If not, who's up for getting the ball rolling? I have some ideas to talk about, and I'm pretty good at pestering elected officials.

#Autistic #Autism #ABA #BanABA #SueABA #AbolishABA #ABAisAbuse

#Autism #Autistic #ABA #IvarLovaas #ConversionTherapy #Foxtrot #IAmDisabledCommunicateWithMe

#StarTrek #Tuvok #HarryKim #Autism #ABA

#ABA #Autism

#AutismSpeaks #ABA

Just finished watching another Philosophy Tube video, a longer one about the [lack of] medical healthcare for trans people in England.

🔗 https://youtu.be/v1eWIshUzr8

But what calls my attention to all of this - and to my precious toots about #transphobia is how closely related the history of #Autism is to all of this. All the bigotry, the violence, the medical treatment and exclusion, the diagnosis. I wish I had the time to collect and build all the resources there are about this.

But to start, I want to lead with a paper about the Queer History of Autism, that shows how #ABA treatment for autism was first made as queer #ConversionTherapy. Their main proponent, Autism Speaks, poses as allies but are actually a hate group. A lot of what #ActuallyAutistic people go through daily is very similar to what queer and trans folk go through as well. And Abigail Thorne, from Philosophy Tube, also ends her reflection on this process talking about disability, the medical and social models and how a lot of ot comes down to #SocialExclusion.

🔗 https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/article/view/29579

Not considering, as well, how much of our communities - #AutismCommunity and #QueerCommunity - overlaps:
"Autistic people are more likely than neurotypical people to be gender diverse, several studies show, and gender-diverse people are more likely to have autism than are cisgender people" (🔗 https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/largest-study-to-date-confirms-overlap-between-autism-and-gender-diversity/ ).

My point is that we should all work together and learn from one another.

#ABAisAbuse #BanABA #BoycottAutismSpeaks

#ABA #Autism

#ABA #Autism #Autistic #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs