Ain't Misbehavin'

Authors

Abstract

The most common intervention used on Autistic children in the United States is so-called Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). This chapter addresses the deeply flawed theoretical underpinnings of ABA and its harmful practical consequences. ABA, along with the dominant neurocognitivist conception of Autism, promotes a medicalized and pathologizing understanding of Autism. The core theory underlying ABA is Skinnerian behaviorism. Since behaviorism explicitly holds cognitive processes to be irrelevant to understanding or modifying a person&s;s behavior, ABA is in tension with neurocognitivism and, more importantly, is in principle incompatible with understanding Autism in terms of the Neurodiversity Paradigm and hence with respecting Autistic identity. This chapter aims 1) to demonstrate that claims that ABA “works” are false and deny Autistic identity; 2) to show that both ABA and dominant neurocognitivist conceptions of Autism fail to adequately grapple with the Double Empathy Problem as a problem of mutual misunderstanding; and 3) to advocate for a biosocial or biocultural model of Autism that centers the experience of Autistics and conceives Autism as a cultural identity and a form of life. Such an approach promotes developing neurodivergence-affirming intervention strategies that appropriately support Autistics.

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