11/17/2025
Some of y’all have turned “ABA” into a boogeyman you can blame for everything from hurt feelings to… electric shock devices “stronger than police tasers.” Pure disinformation and that needs to stop.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are over here actually trying to help our kids live safer, happier lives.
ABA is not one monolithic thing.
It’s not 1980 anymore.
And the idea that modern ABA is just “camouflaging” or “self-erasure” might fit a viral tweet, but it doesn’t match the reality for kids like my son, kids who need help not running into traffic, not swallowing screws, not bolting from school, not hurting themselves.
That’s not “masking.” That’s SAFETY!
Are there bad providers? Yes.
Are there outdated practices that should never be used again? Absolutely.
But acting like the entire field is torture is just misinformation dressed up as advocacy.
My son doesn’t need to be “normalized.”
But he needs support. He needs communication. That’s why he learned to use an AAC device in ABA. ABA doesn’t suppress stims unless they’re self-injurious. No one is going to stop a child from flapping their hands. That’s not ABA.
If your only experience with ABA is TikTok horror stories, maybe at least have the guts to admit you’re not an expert on every autistic experience. Especially the ones that don’t look like yours.
Families like mine are fighting to keep their kids safe. Alive. And ABA helps.
[Attaching some of those comments in the comments.]
