Did you know this about autism #10 (ABA)
ABA. My mother and speech therapy soul got lit on fire once again this morning with a wonderful comment left on my blog by an SLP who also has a grown son with autism. We, as mothers of grown children with autism have been there. We’ve done that. We’ve danced the dance. And we are here to say, WE’RE SOOOO GLAD THAT WE DID IT WITHOUT THE STRICT, REGIMENTED, ROTE, NON-DEVELOPMENTAL, ETC. ETC. ways of the ABA community. YES, ABA has a place in the field of autism. It’s place is strictly behavioral. The trainers (I refuse to call them therapists) are not developmental specialists, speech and language therapists, or any other kind of therapist. They work from checklists, in prescription style binders and go from one level to the next only if the “little robot” is performing. Is that good enough for YOUR child? For YOUR family life? For your child’s future? Well, it wasn’t good enough for me or for my Doug or for this SLP’s son.
The world of speech and language therapy has always been about applied behavioral analysis with dealing with language skills down through articulation. We drill, we apply, we change behaviors. The difference is, we, as SLP’s change those behaviors within sound developmental norms and expectations and with the benefit of social language ~ pragmatics.
ABA trainers and even SLP’s can make robotic speech and language out of anybody’s speech. I recently had this discussion with one of my SLP’s in my private practice in Las Vegas. You see,
PRAGMATICS SET LANGUAGE IN ACTION
Without the social aspects of language function, there IS no manipulating the enviornment. There is no reciprocity of communication. The content is flat and void of emotion. The “fun” of life is stolen. The figurative language of life is never to be realized. Language and the understanding of the world cannot bloom and grow.
My favorite book is not about autism or speech and language, it is about life and how to teach that experience to a child. Every SLP and parent should have to read Rachel Carson’s The Sense of Wonder. It will open YOUR eyes as to what you’ll miss if you do not help your child or those with whom you work to see the world as it’s set in action through social language not just ABA drills.
My Sense of Wonder book is frail now from all of the times I’ve read it and used it in speeches. I can open it to any page and find a memorable quote: “I am sure no amount of drill would have implanted the names so firmly as just going through the woods in the spirit of two friends on an expedition of exciting discovery.” Oh, don’t miss the function of life and living in it!
My new SLP friend who commented on my blog ~ the one who set me on fire once again said,
” I thank God that my son was too old to have been influenced by ABA in the schools! He is independent, can cook and clean, does his own laundry, landscaping and planting around the house, is sociable, and can carry on a conversation(about things that interest him), and is a very hard worker. All without ABA!”
You can read more about my son, Doug, on this site. These boys (men) have taught us so much and it is all fitting and proper that the word gets passed along. ABA, you have your place with the autistic population but it is not acting as a speech/language pathologist with our children.
Tags: ASD, Autism, disability, Education, Parenting, Speech/Language Therapy
