I am a BCBA and I will answer questions about ABA

[CertifiedBehaviorAnalyst]

I am a qualified behaviour analyst with years of experience. I have a varied clinical practice, but I do not consult directly with families so have nothing to gain by posting here.

I believe ABA is the most effective treatment for children with ASD and social communication difficulties.

I am happy to give my name if that is allowed.

Can I ask if a child has already received CBT from a child psychologist for almost 2 years and this hasn't 'worked'. Could ABA work, for an anxious child who self harms and is able to express what makes him anxious? (not sure about whether he can reflect on his own anxiety, as this would imply he had a good understanding and could analysis his own behavour)

I'm a little confused - why is this discussion not factual?

I am a little saddened to reach the conclusion that a basic summary of your answers on here is:

"ABA works if the child is non-verbal, can't vocalise why they do what they do and can't coherently complain about what we're making them do.

If they can tell us why they do what they do and can put up a logical defence, then ABA isn't right for them."

That's quite shocking

I have to say that I don't think ABA is intended to be like that, so I think it's just unfortunate. Not a great advert.

I do have one question:

What prompted you to come into our community and offer your advice? Have you been reading threads here and thought we could benefit from your advice? How did you hear of us?

Personally, I do think that this board could benefit from the advice of a BCBA with lots and lots of information about the ethical requirements to become board certified and to answer questions about practice.

But whoever that might be does need to be fluent at answering the very real concerns parents might have.

I think currently ABA (EIBI) benefits from not having to be as accountable to parents as it ought to be because LA provision is often so rubbish and often takes a lifetime to secure. ABA is there as an alternative and pretty much the only alternative, so parents buy it simply because it is better than what the LA have to offer, not necessarily because it is well run or well staffed.

If it is to progress as a therapy, it also needs to be accountable to LAs. I have been quite surprised to find those who study reinforcement of behaviour suddenly seem to forget it all when faced with LA staff. I agree that they tougher to educate than a nonverbal 2 year old, but if the principles are based in science, then it will work with everyone.

CBA I think it's great that you've come here as a BCBA to answer q's about ABA, and hopefully has been useful for posters who might be thinking about it but don't know much about it.

lougle You summed up the OPs discussions as:#

"ABA works if the child is non-verbal, can't vocalise why they do what they do and can't can't coherently complain about what we're making them do.

If they can tell us why they do what they do and can put up a logical defence, then ABA isn't right for them."

Sorry but that's totally inaccurate! The OP didn't say ABA wasn't right if a child could talk, nor (crucially) that ABA wasn't right if the child "can't coherently complain about what we're making them do That is putting totally the wrong words into the OPs mouth, and is seriously misleading. I have never heard of any child complaining about what they do in an ABA programme, ever.

Would you say that CBT also has no place in shaping behaviour just because the person doing it is able to say why they need it?

The OP said, in response to a specific point, that other forms of support eg CBT might be helpful for anxiety.

My ds is able to verbalise some things that make him anxious. It doesn't mean that strategies using an ABA approach (ie positive reinforcement) are inapplicable. Just being able to voice anxieties doesn't necessarily eliminate them - but finding techniques and strategies will.

Eg very small example but when ds was 4yo he hated parties because of the noise, esp of balloons popping. Also hated whoopee cushions. He was able to say what it was he hated, but was still scared. ABA worked on these fears and overcame them. He is not forced into going to parties now, he loves them now.