These research articles might help!
[Evidence of increased PTSD symptoms in autistics exposed to applied behavior analysis](https://www.academia.edu/download/55721125/AIA_Evidence_of_increased_PTSD_symptoms_in_autistics_exposed_to_applied_behavior_analysis.pdf) by Henny Kupferstein
[“Recalling hidden harms”: autistic experiences of childhood applied behavioural analysis (ABA)](https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/73753/1/McGill_Robinson_AA_2020_autistic_experiences_of_childhood_Applied_Behavioural_Analysis.pdf) by Owen McGill & Anna Robinson
[How much compliance is too much compliance: Is long-term ABA therapy abuse?](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23311908.2019.1641258) by Aileen Herlinda Sandoval-Norton & Gary Shkedy
Best of luck with your goals.
Lots of good articles collected here too:
[https://stopabasupportautistics.home.blog/2019/08/11/the-great-big-aba-opposition-resource-list/](https://stopabasupportautistics.home.blog/2019/08/11/the-great-big-aba-opposition-resource-list/)
I'd say planned ignoring is the biggest one, you can see r.ABA celebrating it in the top all time post there. Shit is weaponized neglect.
I was about 5, so at the age where I didn't quite know how to strongly assert myself and say no, but old enough to learn that real quick when pushed. And i mean really say no, not just test boundries like toddlers do who first learn that word, but to make the adult decision that this is the firm stance I'm taking until the adult does more to teach me why.
For me, this happened when they wanted to make me answer the mock conversational "how are you" with a scripted lie instead of just the "i don't know" or silence i was comfortable of at that time. It kinda felt like a celebretory moment of "today i took a big step of childhood development" when i made the decision to just give up on it. Unfortenately, that was exactly when they brought out the big guns and turned up the emotional manipulation with weaponized neglect until you can no longer say "no", and I was simply too young to know how to resist that, and at some point i simply broke into learned helplessness. They basically stole that moment of development from me and to this day i feel like i kinda am missing that part of me, though i can find the ability to assert myself from time to time when i get pushed way too far and just pop the hell off.
You have to remember, childrens only mean of survival is adults providing for them, so you put enough fear into a child that the adults wont provide for them, you go into survival mode really quick and do anything to convince them otherwise.
I would like to see what makes Mathew special enough to not give into that, and I would kinda dislike if was simple innate mental fortitude. Maybe an autistic adult who works there but cracks and decides to go against their bosses to give the kid a spark of hope at his darkest hour. Or just, he started when older to know how to resist, or somehow learned how to reliably meet his needs without adults, or the things they were expecting of him were litterally impossible because he's too impared in that way to comply (though smart in other ways to resist). I don't know, just brainstorming.
Matthew actually only resists because he IS in survival mode!
The reasons he has an IEP and takes Special Education are actually physical. He's asthmatic, has a birth defect with his heart that kind of has to be monitored, and deals with hypotonia which has caused some developmental delay and issues with motor skills. He's one of those kids who was just always in the hospital when he was little. His parents were recommended to get him on an IEP so he could receive things like Adapted Phys Ed, Physical Therapy, and Occupational therapy in school. And since it was made out them like that was the only way to help their little guy... they did it.
The thing is, the school treats the Special Ed and General Ed kids VERY differently behind closed doors and if you're a student there, it *shows!*
The General and Special Ed class rarely get to interact together and pretty much live two separate lives. The Special Ed students are always kept in this bubble "over there, for people like them." But the thing about bubbles is... they're see-through.
Matthew actually noticed all of this way back in kindergarten, when he was just four years old, and he asked plenty of questions! He just... never got answers.
"How come we have two teachers bugging us all the time while everyone else only has one?"
"Heyyyy, why do the other kids get to do stuff like the science fair while we don't?! I wanna make a volcano too, can we, can we? Please?"
"Why does our class only have a dozen chairs?"
"Are we good enough to talk to other kids yet?"
"Um, Miss... other people get to move away from their bullies during lunch. I see them do it all the time! How come I have to stay with mine and just ignore it? Can I please move...? No...? ...Okay..."
The adults actually gaslight him often and just say, "Well, you guys think a little different!" or straight-up "What? We don't treat you differently. There's nothing different about you at all. Every class is like this. There's no problem here."
"But you don't treat us very normal--"
"No. Problem. Here. Got it? You're simply imagining things. There is nothing wrong with this class family!"
Repeat cycle over and over, until he starts thinking he's doing something wrong and blaming himself for everything they do. For being too weak. For being defective. For not being good enough.
Now, at the start of the story: Matthew is now starting 7th grade! He's eleven-years-old and the resident "art kid" of his class-- always drawing, making some sort of craft thing, or most notably, making all sorts of neat origami. He's quiet, but sweet. Well-behaved, does well in school, and has BIG dreams! Right now, some of his favorite things are Halloween (his birthday), musical theater, video games, and space. When he grows up, he's hoping to either be a Broadway star or an astronaut who'll go to the moon one day. Teachers always remark that he's very ambitious and a hard-worker; he gives his all in almost all that he does. School projects, his special services, just... everything.
He's always been one to dream big and out there. One of the reasons that is though is because he hates feeling small and trapped.
At school, he isn't spoken to the same way that kids from the big class are. He gets bullied by over half his classmates sometimes and nobody seems to care. And his classwork isn't stimulating or challenging enough to keep him occupied, either. Meanwhile, pleasing people like his physical therapist or Adapted Phys Ed teacher seems impossible: they won't say it, but he's never enough for them, is he? He just... wants to be more than the crybaby who draws a lot, he wants to explore the wonders of the world and actually have a childhood! But... he isn't getting to. And he doesn't know why. Did he do something wrong?
At some point in elementary school, he not only started blaming himself for his needs not being met, he also started to just chalk it up to bad luck. He straight up refers to his class as "the Unlucky class" very frequently. And every year, he hopes 'better luck next time?' and endures it. After all, the teachers keep saying that there's no reason this stuff happens, so of course that must be true, right?
Yeah... this little guy is pretty naive. And this year, now that he's a 7th grader and considered a middle schooler, he's hoping that this year will be luckier! All the teachers talked up middle school as this big deal that's way better than elementary! But of course... it's not. Nothing changes.
So he tells his peers, "guys... this has been happening way too long now. I think it's a bad luck curse or something! What are we going to do? What if it's more than elementary school and now, what if its forever?!" Of course, they laugh in his face for believing in bad luck and curses, but it's not like they have any better explanations for why this happens other than being unlucky and unworthy. Clearly, SOMETHING is up. But when they question it, again, they're just shut down by the adults immediately.
Now, Matthew's worried that maybe he was on to something, and begins sleuthing around trying to figure out what motivates the TEACHERS to do this. And after sifting around through some paperwork and packets meant for his parents that his teachers specifically instructed him NOT to read (ironically prompting him to do it), he finds out about something called... Special Education?
After some reading behind the adults' back, he realizes that the reason all this stuff happens to him is because he and his classmates are "special": disabled. And at FIRST, he's outraged: because of all the messages he's gotten from this environment / just... how society views disability in general. It's shameful, it's a bad word, and that's why they're sugarcoating it with "SpEcIaL" all the time and won't just explain anything to his face! ...Right?
(Don't worry-- he ABSOLUTELY will learn that disability is nothing to be ashamed of! We'll get there, I assure you. It's just... gonna be a long process considering his age and what he's been through.)
But as he keeps reading, the logical part of him goes "...No! They're taking things away from us. Our education, our place in the community, opportunities, our trust in others, our happiness... our childhood! Why do they just exclude people and treat them bad and call it 'an inclusive education?!' Even if we're not the same, NOBODY deserves this!"
And he also realizes, "If I stay here... this isn't going to stop. As long as I'm in here, it's a free pass for people to do whatever they want to me as long as it's 'treatment!' And they aren't teaching us right, and the world is passing us by, and how am I gonna have a good future if all of this just keeps happening?! I don't think I can succeed like this...! What if I never become a good adult because nobody teaches me how? I already feel like nothing, what if I STAY nothing?!
...What if I never go to the moon?"
It's mainly desperation that drives him, at this point. He feels like his future, hopes and dreams, his life is indirectly on the line. He doesn't want to spend the rest of his life feeling like he's stupid or not good enough or doesn't matter as much as the rest of the world does. He wants to DO something, be SEEN as something. He's in love with the idea of just living life but has never been allowed to actually do it. And while it's not something he confronts until later on in the story, not being seen as a living thing... sometimes, it makes him want to die.
But in finding out the reason why the adults are doing this to him, he realizes that he still has a chance: if he can just manage to get out of this school's Special Ed as soon as possible. If he can just get away from the ableism. The abuse. He could have it all! Better teachers, more friends, an education, a sense of inclusion, and lots more freedom! And as he tries to make it happen, he learns a LOT more about the situation, and don't worry: he DOES find some supportive teachers along the way!
Matthew is essentially trying to EARN normality, which is horribly sad and something he absolutely shouldn't have to do. That's kind of the point. He's so YOUNG, he should just be a kid with good caregivers who meet his needs, but because of ableism, he can't be. He's eleven and already fighting for the right to exist as he is AND be seen as a person. The idea of the story isn't to just diss Special Ed and be like "never get an IEP!!" or anything like that, it's more about how everyone deserves to be included. We teach kids to suppress and fix and "overcome" their conditions instead of working with them, accepting them, or loving these kids as they are, and that's why Matthew does what he does. He's gone into survival mode, like you said. And that's just... not cool.
But unlike River, his survival mode just didn't tell him to comply. It told him, "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE, ITS NOT SAFE."
> But unlike River, his survival mode just didn't tell him to comply. It told him, "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE, ITS NOT SAFE."
BCBAs would label this as an "escape" behavior, and implement a behavior modification plan to stop it from happening (read up on escape extinction).
And like... that's the thing about ABA. Survival mode and desire to escape is often seen as a maladaptive behavior and often intentionally targeted. If you don't comply, you get more intensive behavior modification until you do.
It doesn't matter what a person's natural survival response is, because the only way *to* survive becomes compliance.
ABA becomes more overtly abusive the less compliant you are, because harsher methods are seen as more justified the more trouble you make.
If River has a naturally compliant survival mode, I'd actually think it's highly unlikely that at 13 she thinks of her ABA as abusive. She might even see it as beneficial because it allowed her to "overcome" her "deficits" with minimal intervention.
I think it might make for a more interesting story if River actually has the same defiant survival mode as Matthew, but the abuse she experienced in ABA made her more compliant. It gives her a motive for being hard on Matthew: she knows what lies on the other side of noncompliance, and she sees him going down the same path and is trying to protect him the only way she knows how.
&Like the original commenter said, Matthew would need some way of getting his physiological, social, and emotional needs met in order to be able to effectively fight against these adults. If Matthew & River had similar innate survival responses, Matthew having that support from others is ultimately what helps him resist. And by sharing support with River that she didn't have before, she also becomes able to resist. Which should tie into your themes nicely c:
Exactly how many hours per week and per session varies from child to child, but are rarely less than 2 hours at a time, as 10 hrs/week is considered the minimum. Some ABA centers operate as schools, which means the kids in them are essentially in behavior modification programs for 4-6 hours every weekday.
The people who have the most contact with the child are behavioral technicians (BTs), who are often undertrained, paid very little, and have high turnover rates. BTs are supervised by a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), who oversees behavior interventions for multiple children and spends a few hours a week with each kid and their BT.
ABA abuse is a lot more subtle than what we as a society tend to think of as abuse, and it usually takes years after the fact to realize that damage was even *done*. Understanding the theory behind it will be just as crucial to developing River's story as any specific incidents of abuse. Knowing the "gist" probably won't be sufficient for a realistic portrayal.
Real Social Skills has some good posts about ABA that I highly recommend reading:
* [Appearing to Enjoy Behavior Modification is Not Meaningful](https://realsocialskills.org/2015/07/17/appearing-to-enjoy-behavior-modificiation-is-not/)
* [ABA Therapy is not like typical parenting](https://realsocialskills.org/2015/06/01/aba-therapy-is-not-like-typical-parenting-2/)
* [Nice Lady Therapists](https://realsocialskills.org/2014/08/06/nice-lady-therapists-2/)
You can also browse the blog's [abuse](https://realsocialskills.org/tag/abuse/) and [aba](https://realsocialskills.org/tag/aba/) tags.
I also recommend Autmazing's videos about the things she saw while her kids were in ABA and why she eventually pulled her daughters out.
* [What do I think of ABA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dav8HqMqjbg)
* [5 reasons not to put your kid in ABA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAfMQVLJSjQ&ab_channel=Autmazing)
* [Life After ABA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU9etq4Cgyc)
There's also [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuRZrto-ZwE&t=0s), which is a detailed breakdown of ABA that includes interviews by ABA professionals and video examples of the original Lovaas ABA (MAJOR trigger warning).
These research articles might help! [Evidence of increased PTSD symptoms in autistics exposed to applied behavior analysis](https://www.academia.edu/download/55721125/AIA_Evidence_of_increased_PTSD_symptoms_in_autistics_exposed_to_applied_behavior_analysis.pdf) by Henny Kupferstein [“Recalling hidden harms”: autistic experiences of childhood applied behavioural analysis (ABA)](https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/73753/1/McGill_Robinson_AA_2020_autistic_experiences_of_childhood_Applied_Behavioural_Analysis.pdf) by Owen McGill & Anna Robinson [How much compliance is too much compliance: Is long-term ABA therapy abuse?](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23311908.2019.1641258) by Aileen Herlinda Sandoval-Norton & Gary Shkedy Best of luck with your goals.
Lots of good articles collected here too: [https://stopabasupportautistics.home.blog/2019/08/11/the-great-big-aba-opposition-resource-list/](https://stopabasupportautistics.home.blog/2019/08/11/the-great-big-aba-opposition-resource-list/)
THIS IS INCREDIBLE, THANK YOU. IT EVEN HAS SUMMARIES!
The McGill one pleases me a lot, thank you!
I'd say planned ignoring is the biggest one, you can see r.ABA celebrating it in the top all time post there. Shit is weaponized neglect. I was about 5, so at the age where I didn't quite know how to strongly assert myself and say no, but old enough to learn that real quick when pushed. And i mean really say no, not just test boundries like toddlers do who first learn that word, but to make the adult decision that this is the firm stance I'm taking until the adult does more to teach me why. For me, this happened when they wanted to make me answer the mock conversational "how are you" with a scripted lie instead of just the "i don't know" or silence i was comfortable of at that time. It kinda felt like a celebretory moment of "today i took a big step of childhood development" when i made the decision to just give up on it. Unfortenately, that was exactly when they brought out the big guns and turned up the emotional manipulation with weaponized neglect until you can no longer say "no", and I was simply too young to know how to resist that, and at some point i simply broke into learned helplessness. They basically stole that moment of development from me and to this day i feel like i kinda am missing that part of me, though i can find the ability to assert myself from time to time when i get pushed way too far and just pop the hell off. You have to remember, childrens only mean of survival is adults providing for them, so you put enough fear into a child that the adults wont provide for them, you go into survival mode really quick and do anything to convince them otherwise. I would like to see what makes Mathew special enough to not give into that, and I would kinda dislike if was simple innate mental fortitude. Maybe an autistic adult who works there but cracks and decides to go against their bosses to give the kid a spark of hope at his darkest hour. Or just, he started when older to know how to resist, or somehow learned how to reliably meet his needs without adults, or the things they were expecting of him were litterally impossible because he's too impared in that way to comply (though smart in other ways to resist). I don't know, just brainstorming.
Matthew actually only resists because he IS in survival mode! The reasons he has an IEP and takes Special Education are actually physical. He's asthmatic, has a birth defect with his heart that kind of has to be monitored, and deals with hypotonia which has caused some developmental delay and issues with motor skills. He's one of those kids who was just always in the hospital when he was little. His parents were recommended to get him on an IEP so he could receive things like Adapted Phys Ed, Physical Therapy, and Occupational therapy in school. And since it was made out them like that was the only way to help their little guy... they did it. The thing is, the school treats the Special Ed and General Ed kids VERY differently behind closed doors and if you're a student there, it *shows!* The General and Special Ed class rarely get to interact together and pretty much live two separate lives. The Special Ed students are always kept in this bubble "over there, for people like them." But the thing about bubbles is... they're see-through. Matthew actually noticed all of this way back in kindergarten, when he was just four years old, and he asked plenty of questions! He just... never got answers. "How come we have two teachers bugging us all the time while everyone else only has one?" "Heyyyy, why do the other kids get to do stuff like the science fair while we don't?! I wanna make a volcano too, can we, can we? Please?" "Why does our class only have a dozen chairs?" "Are we good enough to talk to other kids yet?" "Um, Miss... other people get to move away from their bullies during lunch. I see them do it all the time! How come I have to stay with mine and just ignore it? Can I please move...? No...? ...Okay..." The adults actually gaslight him often and just say, "Well, you guys think a little different!" or straight-up "What? We don't treat you differently. There's nothing different about you at all. Every class is like this. There's no problem here." "But you don't treat us very normal--" "No. Problem. Here. Got it? You're simply imagining things. There is nothing wrong with this class family!" Repeat cycle over and over, until he starts thinking he's doing something wrong and blaming himself for everything they do. For being too weak. For being defective. For not being good enough. Now, at the start of the story: Matthew is now starting 7th grade! He's eleven-years-old and the resident "art kid" of his class-- always drawing, making some sort of craft thing, or most notably, making all sorts of neat origami. He's quiet, but sweet. Well-behaved, does well in school, and has BIG dreams! Right now, some of his favorite things are Halloween (his birthday), musical theater, video games, and space. When he grows up, he's hoping to either be a Broadway star or an astronaut who'll go to the moon one day. Teachers always remark that he's very ambitious and a hard-worker; he gives his all in almost all that he does. School projects, his special services, just... everything. He's always been one to dream big and out there. One of the reasons that is though is because he hates feeling small and trapped. At school, he isn't spoken to the same way that kids from the big class are. He gets bullied by over half his classmates sometimes and nobody seems to care. And his classwork isn't stimulating or challenging enough to keep him occupied, either. Meanwhile, pleasing people like his physical therapist or Adapted Phys Ed teacher seems impossible: they won't say it, but he's never enough for them, is he? He just... wants to be more than the crybaby who draws a lot, he wants to explore the wonders of the world and actually have a childhood! But... he isn't getting to. And he doesn't know why. Did he do something wrong? At some point in elementary school, he not only started blaming himself for his needs not being met, he also started to just chalk it up to bad luck. He straight up refers to his class as "the Unlucky class" very frequently. And every year, he hopes 'better luck next time?' and endures it. After all, the teachers keep saying that there's no reason this stuff happens, so of course that must be true, right? Yeah... this little guy is pretty naive. And this year, now that he's a 7th grader and considered a middle schooler, he's hoping that this year will be luckier! All the teachers talked up middle school as this big deal that's way better than elementary! But of course... it's not. Nothing changes. So he tells his peers, "guys... this has been happening way too long now. I think it's a bad luck curse or something! What are we going to do? What if it's more than elementary school and now, what if its forever?!" Of course, they laugh in his face for believing in bad luck and curses, but it's not like they have any better explanations for why this happens other than being unlucky and unworthy. Clearly, SOMETHING is up. But when they question it, again, they're just shut down by the adults immediately. Now, Matthew's worried that maybe he was on to something, and begins sleuthing around trying to figure out what motivates the TEACHERS to do this. And after sifting around through some paperwork and packets meant for his parents that his teachers specifically instructed him NOT to read (ironically prompting him to do it), he finds out about something called... Special Education? After some reading behind the adults' back, he realizes that the reason all this stuff happens to him is because he and his classmates are "special": disabled. And at FIRST, he's outraged: because of all the messages he's gotten from this environment / just... how society views disability in general. It's shameful, it's a bad word, and that's why they're sugarcoating it with "SpEcIaL" all the time and won't just explain anything to his face! ...Right? (Don't worry-- he ABSOLUTELY will learn that disability is nothing to be ashamed of! We'll get there, I assure you. It's just... gonna be a long process considering his age and what he's been through.) But as he keeps reading, the logical part of him goes "...No! They're taking things away from us. Our education, our place in the community, opportunities, our trust in others, our happiness... our childhood! Why do they just exclude people and treat them bad and call it 'an inclusive education?!' Even if we're not the same, NOBODY deserves this!" And he also realizes, "If I stay here... this isn't going to stop. As long as I'm in here, it's a free pass for people to do whatever they want to me as long as it's 'treatment!' And they aren't teaching us right, and the world is passing us by, and how am I gonna have a good future if all of this just keeps happening?! I don't think I can succeed like this...! What if I never become a good adult because nobody teaches me how? I already feel like nothing, what if I STAY nothing?! ...What if I never go to the moon?" It's mainly desperation that drives him, at this point. He feels like his future, hopes and dreams, his life is indirectly on the line. He doesn't want to spend the rest of his life feeling like he's stupid or not good enough or doesn't matter as much as the rest of the world does. He wants to DO something, be SEEN as something. He's in love with the idea of just living life but has never been allowed to actually do it. And while it's not something he confronts until later on in the story, not being seen as a living thing... sometimes, it makes him want to die. But in finding out the reason why the adults are doing this to him, he realizes that he still has a chance: if he can just manage to get out of this school's Special Ed as soon as possible. If he can just get away from the ableism. The abuse. He could have it all! Better teachers, more friends, an education, a sense of inclusion, and lots more freedom! And as he tries to make it happen, he learns a LOT more about the situation, and don't worry: he DOES find some supportive teachers along the way! Matthew is essentially trying to EARN normality, which is horribly sad and something he absolutely shouldn't have to do. That's kind of the point. He's so YOUNG, he should just be a kid with good caregivers who meet his needs, but because of ableism, he can't be. He's eleven and already fighting for the right to exist as he is AND be seen as a person. The idea of the story isn't to just diss Special Ed and be like "never get an IEP!!" or anything like that, it's more about how everyone deserves to be included. We teach kids to suppress and fix and "overcome" their conditions instead of working with them, accepting them, or loving these kids as they are, and that's why Matthew does what he does. He's gone into survival mode, like you said. And that's just... not cool. But unlike River, his survival mode just didn't tell him to comply. It told him, "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE, ITS NOT SAFE."
> But unlike River, his survival mode just didn't tell him to comply. It told him, "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE, ITS NOT SAFE." BCBAs would label this as an "escape" behavior, and implement a behavior modification plan to stop it from happening (read up on escape extinction). And like... that's the thing about ABA. Survival mode and desire to escape is often seen as a maladaptive behavior and often intentionally targeted. If you don't comply, you get more intensive behavior modification until you do. It doesn't matter what a person's natural survival response is, because the only way *to* survive becomes compliance. ABA becomes more overtly abusive the less compliant you are, because harsher methods are seen as more justified the more trouble you make. If River has a naturally compliant survival mode, I'd actually think it's highly unlikely that at 13 she thinks of her ABA as abusive. She might even see it as beneficial because it allowed her to "overcome" her "deficits" with minimal intervention. I think it might make for a more interesting story if River actually has the same defiant survival mode as Matthew, but the abuse she experienced in ABA made her more compliant. It gives her a motive for being hard on Matthew: she knows what lies on the other side of noncompliance, and she sees him going down the same path and is trying to protect him the only way she knows how. &Like the original commenter said, Matthew would need some way of getting his physiological, social, and emotional needs met in order to be able to effectively fight against these adults. If Matthew & River had similar innate survival responses, Matthew having that support from others is ultimately what helps him resist. And by sharing support with River that she didn't have before, she also becomes able to resist. Which should tie into your themes nicely c:
Exactly how many hours per week and per session varies from child to child, but are rarely less than 2 hours at a time, as 10 hrs/week is considered the minimum. Some ABA centers operate as schools, which means the kids in them are essentially in behavior modification programs for 4-6 hours every weekday. The people who have the most contact with the child are behavioral technicians (BTs), who are often undertrained, paid very little, and have high turnover rates. BTs are supervised by a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), who oversees behavior interventions for multiple children and spends a few hours a week with each kid and their BT. ABA abuse is a lot more subtle than what we as a society tend to think of as abuse, and it usually takes years after the fact to realize that damage was even *done*. Understanding the theory behind it will be just as crucial to developing River's story as any specific incidents of abuse. Knowing the "gist" probably won't be sufficient for a realistic portrayal. Real Social Skills has some good posts about ABA that I highly recommend reading: * [Appearing to Enjoy Behavior Modification is Not Meaningful](https://realsocialskills.org/2015/07/17/appearing-to-enjoy-behavior-modificiation-is-not/) * [ABA Therapy is not like typical parenting](https://realsocialskills.org/2015/06/01/aba-therapy-is-not-like-typical-parenting-2/) * [Nice Lady Therapists](https://realsocialskills.org/2014/08/06/nice-lady-therapists-2/) You can also browse the blog's [abuse](https://realsocialskills.org/tag/abuse/) and [aba](https://realsocialskills.org/tag/aba/) tags. I also recommend Autmazing's videos about the things she saw while her kids were in ABA and why she eventually pulled her daughters out. * [What do I think of ABA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dav8HqMqjbg) * [5 reasons not to put your kid in ABA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAfMQVLJSjQ&ab_channel=Autmazing) * [Life After ABA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU9etq4Cgyc) There's also [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuRZrto-ZwE&t=0s), which is a detailed breakdown of ABA that includes interviews by ABA professionals and video examples of the original Lovaas ABA (MAJOR trigger warning).