If you have been traumatized by ABA, please know I love you and hope you can love you too.
And like most tools, it can be used to build up, or tear down.
ABA has frequently been misused to teach neurodivergent children to mask – squashing their authentic self and thus traumatizing them.
Atomic Habits is basically the layman’s guide to using ABA to build the life they want.
If your child does not LOVE going to ABA or seeing their BT/BI, then something is wrong.
ABA is supposed to be individualized, so if they aren’t customizing, it isn’t being used properly.
We use ABA to support acquiring self-regulation skills, self-advocacy skills, coping tools and communication skills.
We do not use ABA to teach compliance or masking – we don’t ask for eye contact, but we do point out that when someone is facing away or hasn’t gotten our attention, then it’s hard to hear, and if we don’t hear, we can’t reply.
The number one thing they do is catch the kiddo doing well and praising that. Which helped me realize how terrible I was at it. It felt really weird and kinda fake at first, but I’m much more comfortable now and it feels really good.