ABA & Aversives
A comment from my last post:
Anonymous said...Okay, well.Hi!
What sort of aversives does ABA typically use? The good ones and the bad ones.
I'm curious because we've been having a big discussion about aversives and their effect on behavior in a dog training group I'm in. (Don't laugh, it's my obsession and I've learned way more about managing myself and my abilities from dog training than from any teacher or coach i've ever had!).
I have to start by noting that I do not, never did, and never will enjoy using aversives, though I certainly understand the occasional need for punishment when working with any child.
I'm just going to list the aversives we had to use in the various ABA programs I worked in. You can decide for yourself which ones are humane and which ones are, eventually, just plain cruel.
First, in nearly all of the programs, we used the No-No-Prompt technique. Basically, once the child has demonstrated his ability to perform a task, you don't accept anything less than perfection. So if he does it wrong, you say "No" (flat monotone voice), mix things up and ask again. He does it wrong again, you say "No" (flat monotone voice), mix things up and ask again. He doesn't get a chance to do it wrong this time - you prompt him (help) immediately. Then you check it by asking one more time, to see if the prompt reminded him of what he's supposed to do.
Okay, so now let's get into the programs I worked in.
RQ - The first kidlet I worked with. We potty-trained him using an overcorrection procedure that required us to sit him on the toilet for 5 minutes and then wash his underwear out in cold water if he had an accident.
TS - The girl who drew me a snowgirl named after herself. We used a few different ones with her, but they really weren't useful. The one I remember best is one I set up myself. She wouldn't stop talking about her birthday, and it was going to be three months of it, so we set up a "calendar" (pull off the days kind) that would count down to the week before her birthday. If she talked about her birthday before the time was up, she wasn't allowed to watch TV for the rest of the day. Worked like a charm.
MC - Was 2 when I started working with him. Traditional ABA was SO not the way to go for him, but owell. We were doing an imitation drill with him, and he wasn't turning around. So we did overcorrection. I am awfully good at it. Here's how it works:
Tx: Do this. (Tx stand up, turn around, sit down.)Hm. Those are the obvious aversives I can think of right now.
MC: (Does nothing.)
Tx: No. Do this. (Tx stand up, turn around, sit down.)
MC: (Does nothing.)
Tx: No. Do this. (Tx stand up, turn around, sit down. Immediately take hold of MC's shoulders, pull him into standing position, and spin him around three or four times, then sit him down again.) Good. Do this. (Tx stand up, turn around, sit down. Immediately take hold of MC's shoulders, pull him into standing position, and spin him around three or four times, then sit him down again.) Good. Do this. (Tx stand up, turn around, sit down.)
MC: (Whimpering at this point, stands up and turns around slowly, then sits down again.)
Tx: YOU DID IT! Good for you! Go play!
This is, of course, not all that's wrong with the way ABA programs are played out in real life. Do note that all three of the children cited here had different consultants who were trained in different places but all purported to be running Lovaas ABA programs (except that one that I did - by the time that happened, we'd dumped the consultant and were sorting stuff out on our own).
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6 comments:
thank you for clear examples of real situations.
Cheers
Janna, there's a young woman who's doing the whole ABA training thing and claiming that it's very gentle and doesn't hurt kids at all, over in the LJ asperger community. Any chance you can go over there and smack her one (figuratively speaking) about what ABA really entails?
Wow, interesting- thanks!
The flat 'no' seems sort of like what dog trainers call a 'no reward marker'- a way of telling who/whatever you're training that the current behavior isn't going to produce a reward, try something else.
The whole thing is pretty strange. The things that I found worked BEST for ME from clicker training were remembering to set gradual criteria and use significant rewards. As a dog trainer, I know that aversives can be VERY potent when combined with the right rewards- but that doesn't make them humane- just convienient when you are working on an hourly pay-scale! (particularly with humans- dogs are a different story to some extent, because dogs *aren't* human and we don't send humans to be euthanized for misbehaving)Because who/whatever your training has to find them sufficiently unpleasant as to want to avoid them, you could even make a case that they're inherently coercive- or that one would only need to use aversives if the rewards are not sufficiently rewarding to the train-ee, even if the trainer thinks so- after all, it'd take a pretty good reward to convince someone to do something they find stressful or scary or unplesant, as opposed to just boring or pointless... anyrate, thanks for answering- enoguh rambling, that's what MY blog is for.
Working on an article/blogpost about the whole subject now. The LJ Asperger community is one I'm also on (
PS - Malcolm (my service dog in training) would like to tell you how much he likes your firefly icons!
These are good examples, although here in Toronto, some feed the kids Tobasco sauce if they don't do what's asked.
When Adam started his ABA program, I was appalled: first, every ABA therapist, including Bridgitte Taylor trained ones (I had one in my home after calling her), were very naive about children. They closed the door and made Adam "touch the ball" in isloation for two months. Now, the story is, I could not get Adam to play ball with me prior to January 2004. That month, just before we started ABA therapy, he suddenly just kept bringing me the ball and wanting me to play with him. I was ecstatic and Henry watched in awe from around the corner. Adam did this 25 times.
So, when the therapists came in after that, they assumed because he knew the ball, they would use it for "touch." He mastered it the first day, so why on earth do it over and over again? He ended up hating that ball and it took another year and a half for him to play ball with me.
Then I had a US VB person come to my home. She was more concerned with her transition trials than even looking at ADam. Adam tried to cosy up to her and it was like "ew, yukcy," expression on her face... anyway, she really looked at him like a pathology and like most behaviourists, far too concerened about her career, operationalization and technique and graphs and data. I think between her and another woman, we spent inordinate time training therapists how to draw graphs with straight rulers, than engaging Adam. When she came, I was still nursing Adam. (he was two). She told me how bad that was for him and insisted I stop. I didn't. Adam stopped on his own time just like toiletting and everything else he has done to date. I don't even want to talk about that stupid "look at me" program, which I had to dump. AGain, Adam learned to look when he was ready and having fun, not throught ABA which in my honest view and experience (I really did give it a try), diminished him.
There are teachers who love kids, and those who don't. ABA doesn't teach love for a kid. ABA teaches how to get kids to do what you want first. While I believe strongly that kids must learn skills to move ahead, I have also experienced that these skills can be taught with a combination of fun, exposure, repetition without the classic ABA style.
Estee, thank you for your comments.
This is a big problem in a lot of ABA programs - the lack of understanding of child development (though they talk about "developmentally appropriate" all the time) and the emphasis on data over all else. The VB bit makes me laugh because the data they take is nowhere near as accurate as the Lovaas-style trial-by-trial data, but they place so much emphasis on their graphs etc.
I have in my head a way of taking accurate data on skills learned while keeping everything fun. I'm hoping that I'll be able to develop it once I'm back in school.
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