Special Needs: Get A Glimpse of Autism's Most Controversial Therapy and How It Sparked Debate Among Professionals

Parents raising children with special needs are bound to giving their child only the best. As for those who are raising children with autism, parents would usually adopt the ABA or the Applied Behaviour Analysis. Though ABA may seem to shed light among other therapies, it was mentioned that the ABA therapy is still noted as one of the most controversial.

Lisa Quinones-Fontaneza mother of a child with autism shared her experience with ABA. Despite being considered by most therapists handling children with autism, Spectrum News mentioned some professionals and parents think that the ABA therapy can do more harm than good. The ABA therapy is said to be cruel and even misguided.

"He would cry sitting at the table during those sessions, hysterically cry," Lisa Quinones-Fontanez stated when asked about ABA. "I would have to walk out of the room and turn on the faucet to tune it out because I couldn't hear him cry."

The downside of the ABA system, however, was mentioned by Ari Me'eman wherein it was stated that it has a "predatory approach" among parents. It is often implied that parents who refuse to work with an ABA professional, your child would not have any light in terms of learning and interaction.

"ABA has a predatory approach to parents," Ari Ne'eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and a prominent leader in the neurodiversity movement said. The message is that "if you don't work with an ABA provider, your chil0d has no hope."

"I define ABA as a set of empirically proven interventions / tools, which can be utilized to teach skills and/or change behavior," Adam Holstei, who has a Master's Degree in Developmental Psychology, told Psychology Today.

"I want to emphasize that I believe both positive interventions and consequences are naturally occurring and ABA programs should reflect both, Holstei told Psychology Today when he was asked about the pros and cons of the ABA therapy. "Some proponents of ABA suggest that only positive interventions are necessary to teach but I believe that by failing to put consequences in place we do not prepare our children to deal with negative results or failure."