Look out, behaviorism lovers. We the autistics are monitoring your insistence on rebranding ABA. No matter what you will call it (neurodiversity informed, trauma informed, compassion informed, etc.), we see you. We will continue to publicize our concerns, as clearly, those who practice ABA are not perfect enough, and rely on feedback from their patient group to correct their misbehaviors.
There is no scientific method in place that considers ‘listening to the voices’ as primary source data. If they want to include our concerns in their research, they should survey us. Behaviorists who keep flagging my 2018 study are most likely to cite Leaf’s critique, while neglecting to cite Chown’s response to the editor.
Oxford Languages defines Compassion as “sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others” i.e. “the victims should be treated with compassion”. Yet, we have a growing body of behaviorist-led papers that propose adding “compassion” as the 8th principal in their standards of practice. Specifically, this month’s latest publication suggest: “Adding compassion as a definitional dimension of ABA will help behavior analysts find their way back to implementing interventions in a responsive, collaborative, and humble manner that includes working with our consumers and our critics, and listening to perspectives that can help us improve our practice.”
A google scholar search reveals a sublime trend of 17,000 results to the search of “compassion” in “ABA”. As behaviorists are not trained in conducting scientific research, their publications are typically proponents of change, directed at modifying their own. In the realm of adding “compassionate care or therapeutic relationship building” to their standards, we the consumers will be led to believe that we are a subject of their pity.
Compassion is an engineered concern for our “suffering,” without extinguishing their agenda to modify us. With compassion in their work, we the autistics are the “consumers” of their services, and we are informed to be grateful for their consideration to help us, the ones with the “misfortunes” of being autistic. One compassion-suggesting behaviorist is cited as an early hero, where Wolf and others (1963) “taught a young boy to wear his glasses so that he would not lose his vision”, as an example of application of operant conditioning. If this makes you gag, please comment.
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