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ABA therapy uses rewards ("consequences") in order to promote desired activities, such encouraging the child to interact more with others. It is criticized by some for being robotic in nature, but supporters of the therapy explain that practice has value. ABA therapy does not address or cure the underlying causes of the [[autism]].
ABA therapy uses rewards ("consequences") in order to promote desired activities, such encouraging the child to interact more with others. It is criticized by some for being robotic in nature, but supporters of the therapy explain that practice has value. ABA therapy does not address or cure the underlying causes of the [[autism]].
==Criticism==
The value of eliminating autistic behaviors is disputed by proponents of [[neurodiversity]], who claim that it forces autistic people to mask their true personalities on behalf of a narrow conception of normality.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nymag.com/news/features/47225/index4.html|title=The Autism Rights Movement|last1=Soloman|first1=Andrew|website=New York Magazine|access-date=8 March 2016}}</ref> Masking is associated with suicidality and poor long-term mental health.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cassidy |first1=Sarah |last2=Bradley |first2=Louise |last3=Shaw |first3=Rebecca |last4=Baron-Cohen |first4=Simon |date=2018 |title=Risk markers for suicidality in autistic adults |journal=Molecular Autism |volume=9 |pages=42 |doi=10.1186/s13229-018-0226-4 |issn=2040-2392 |pmc=6069847 |pmid=30083306}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cook |first1=Julia |last2=Hull |first2=Laura |last3=Crane |first3=Laura |last4=Mandy |first4=William |date=2021-11-01 |title=Camouflaging in autism: A systematic review |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735821001239 |journal=Clinical Psychology Review |language=en |volume=89 |pages=102080 |doi=10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102080 |pmid=34563942 |s2cid=237942158 |issn=0272-7358}}</ref> Autism advocates contend that it is cruel to try to make autistic people "normal" without consideration for how this may affect their well-being.<ref name="fortune.com">{{Cite web |title=Commentary: The autistic community is having a reckoning with ABA therapy. We should listen |url=https://fortune.com/2022/05/13/autistic-community-reckoning-aba-therapy-rights-autism-insurance-private-equity-ariana-cernius/ |access-date=2022-05-15 |website=Fortune |language=en}}</ref> Instead, these critics advocate for increased social acceptance of harmless autistic traits and therapies focused on improving quality of life.<ref name="DeVita 2016">{{multiref2|1={{cite web|url=https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/controversy-autisms-common-therapy/|title=The controversy over autism's most common therapy|last1=DeVita-Raeburn |first1=Elizabeth|author-link=Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn|date=2016-08-10|website=Spectrum|access-date=2019-04-07}}; republished in ''The Atlantic'' as:|2={{cite magazine|last=DeVita-Raeburn|first=Elizabeth|date=August 11, 2016|title=Is the Most Common Therapy for Autism Cruel? |magazine=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/08/aba-autism-controversy/495272/}}}}</ref>
A 2020 study examined perspectives of autistic adults that received ABA as children and found that the overwhelming majority reported that "behaviorist methods create painful lived experiences", that ABA led to the "erosion of the true actualizing self", and that they felt they had a "lack of self-agency within interpersonal experiences."<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last1=McGill|first1=Owen|last2=Robinson|first2=Anna|date=2020-10-23|title="Recalling hidden harms": autistic experiences of childhood applied behavioural analysis (ABA)|journal=Advances in Autism|volume=7|issue=4|pages=269–282|doi=10.1108/aia-04-2020-0025|s2cid=225282499|issn=2056-3868|url=https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/73753/1/McGill_Robinson_AA_2020_autistic_experiences_of_childhood_Applied_Behavioural_Analysis.pdf}}</ref>
==References==
==References==