Toxic Social Skills Training Goals, “Be yourself, but not like that.”
The vast majority of new-to-me students come with IEPs that have, probably well-meaning, but in actuality, toxic social skills goals. Here are some alternatives.
A Parent’s Guide to Respectful Feeding Therapy – Part 1
When children have trouble eating, it can be incredibly stressful for parents. But you’re not alone! There are qualified professionals waiting to help you and your child.
Neurodiversity and Autism Intervention (ABA) can’t be reconciled.
And let’s talk about considerable ethical and financial conflicts of interest with this paper and its authors, shall we?
Reader, every single author of this paper is trained in ABA, (three of them are actually BCBAs), so clearly each author has a vested financial interest in duping people into believing that ABA is “Neurodiversity Approved”.
(It’s always about the $$$.)
They refuse to work. So now what? Just let them become unemployed and play Fortnite and eat Cheetos all day?
They refuse to work. So now what? Just let them become unemployed and play Fortnite and eat Cheetos all day?
Performative Neurodiversity – the appropriation and watering down of a Human Rights Movement for profit
What are some signs that you’ve wasted your money on a neurodiversity-lite product, book, or class?
Confessions of a Previous ABA Technician – 2
Through the pairing procedure, children begin to learn that doing things that feel good to them (e.g. autistic play, stimming, etc.) are less valuable than the things that make the therapist feel good (i.e. neurotypical play, compliance). They learn to ignore their feelings of distress when confronted with a task they find aversive and mask their distress to please their caregivers. They become motivated by the praise they receive when they “do the thing” and become reliant on external reinforcement rather than intrinsic motivation, regardless of how much they are suffering.
So an SLP was late-diagnosed as Autistic this week…
“… scores on the CAT-Q indicate she engages in a significantly higher level of camouflaging than neurotypical people and elevated camouflaging even when compared to other autistic individuals. It is highly likely that she has camouflaged so much and for so long that she fails to see some of her autistic traits even though they may appear obvious to others.”