Teachers in a Racine, Wisconsin school district, the Unified School District, have been improperly restraining autistic school children and other children with cognitive disabilities. The Journal Times Online reports that a young autistic boy had been restrained in a chair with a belt for up to 50 minutes a day, without his mother's knowledge, and without entering information concerning the restraint on his Individual Education Plan. The teacher's involved were using it to "remind him to sit" and lacked adequate training in behavioral interventions for autistic children.
The "educators" involved, the bureaucrats, and the politicians who fail to ensure that educators working with autistic children have adequate autism specific training all deserve a share of responsibility for situations like this. But so too do the "autism acceptance" ideologues who continually, despite decades of evidence of its effectiveness, try to denigrate Applied Behavior Analysis as a proven effective method of helping address problem behavior in autistic children and helping them make real social, communication and intellectual gains. The anti-ABA crowd provide cover to bureaucrats and politicians who want to avoid the financial cost of paying for ABA trained teacher aides and teachers, to provide autistic children with a real education free of unnecessary restraints.
The "educators" involved, the bureaucrats, and the politicians who fail to ensure that educators working with autistic children have adequate autism specific training all deserve a share of responsibility for situations like this. But so too do the "autism acceptance" ideologues who continually, despite decades of evidence of its effectiveness, try to denigrate Applied Behavior Analysis as a proven effective method of helping address problem behavior in autistic children and helping them make real social, communication and intellectual gains. The anti-ABA crowd provide cover to bureaucrats and politicians who want to avoid the financial cost of paying for ABA trained teacher aides and teachers, to provide autistic children with a real education free of unnecessary restraints.
autism
Sadly even many of the so called "ABA trained" therapists in in Massachusetts restrain and are not trained as the centers claim. It happens quite a bit. As a matter of fact, parents have to sign a permission to restrain form before a center will even allow a child in and if the parents want to change their mind, the center kicks the child out. I've seen it happen to parents several times.
ReplyDeleteGood ABA only comes from very few highly trained providers. Anyone can called themselves ABA trained so be very careful and even many BCBA's have no idea of correct hierarchy and curriclum. ABA is the only proven educational methodology for children. Beware of watered down services with pathetic curriculum.
Stick with CARD, Autism Partnership or Lovaas trained providers or move to NJ where the ABA centers actually provide high quality services.