Autism Acceptance Month and The Harmful Effects of ABA
With this month being Autism Acceptance Month, it’s important to talk about Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA therapy, and the harm it does.
While ABA programs aim to help individuals with autism, they reinforce the idea that certain harmless behaviors are undesirable (i.e., stimming and avoiding eye contact).
While the program claims this therapy is successful, many autistic adults report that, in addition to the abuse they endured from ABA, they developed masking behaviors that just hid their “undesirable” behaviors. The therapy did not eliminate their autistic traits, let alone their autism entirely.
What is Masking?
According to Medical News Today’s article, ‘Autism Masking: Signs and Effects, ‘ trying to eliminate behaviors will result in masking, and masking can cause distress and exhaustion. In the piece, they highlight three key takeaways:
- Autism masking involves consciously or unconsciously suppressing natural autistic traits, often to avoid stigma or fit in socially.
- While masking may provide short-term benefits in certain social situations, it can negatively impact mental health, leading to exhaustion, burnout, and potentially, a delayed diagnosis.
- Creating supportive and accepting environments is crucial for autistic individuals to feel safe unmasking and expressing their authentic selves, which requires understanding and effort from both autistic and nonautistic people.
They also list different forms of masking, reasons why people mask, effects based on gender, and impacts on mental health. They also provide tips on how to unmask and seek help when needed.
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Accounts of People Who Experienced ABA Therapy
Stop ABA, Support Autistics dedicates a blog site to anonymous statements from individuals who have experienced ABA programs. One person who went through the program themself wrote:
“Simply put, ABA was structured to destroy my self-confidence and agency for not following arbitrary cultural rules. Had I been allowed to interact on my own terms, I would simply have been able to learn, and I still hold that I was never truly disrespectful, just not obsequious, but unfortunately, the people around me growing up felt that they could enact any harm on me to try to change this, regardless of where I actually stood.”
A parent shared that ABA was used on her daughters in elementary school, before they were diagnosed. “We were never told the methods the teachers were using were based on ABA. PTSD, low self-esteem, and inability to emotionally regulate are severe now.”
Another person, who worked in a school utilizing this program, wrote:
“I worked briefly in a school which used it. It was nothing short of horrific, and put adults in a place of extreme power over children, controlling their every move and handling them constantly. The adult was always right, the child was always seen as wrong/broken and in need of fixing. This is in the UK, in extremely recent years. I saw signs of trauma in particular in children who had been in aba for a long time, such as starting to pull out hair, a desire to please out of fear (e.g. repeating ‘I’m happy, I’m happy’ and trying to smile even when crying), and meltdowns triggered by the demands of aba itself. Staff saw dealing with meltdowns, especially when the child became violent or destructive as a badge of honour, because it showed they were ‘doing their jobs’. Children were left with no autonomy whatsoever, and no dignity. Skills were tokenised, but ultimately crushed under the more prominent demands of ‘point to the cat…good job, quiet hands’. It didn’t matter if a child was skilled in maths, or piano, what mattered was that they could learn stock phrases to sound neurotypical and comply, comply, comply.”
Many others on the blog share horrifying stories of abuse through this program and its lasting impacts.
A Form of Conversion Therapy
To make matters a lot worse, the founder of the ABA program, Dr. Ole Ivar Lovaas, is also largely responsible for the conversion therapy used on LGBTQ+ patients.
According to a paper by the Catalyst Journal, “ABA is the most commonly used and funded autism intervention today that seeks to shape ‘normal’ behaviors in autistic children while extinguishing those behaviors designated as autistic. … Lovaas is widely recognized as the founder of ABA, the most commonly used and funded autism intervention today.”
They go on to write, “Lovaas’s approach initiated a booming autism recovery industry and LGBTQ ‘conversion therapy’ industry, asserting the need for urgent, very intensive (expensive), professionally guided, largely standardized approaches as the best/only hope for these children and their future selves.”
Recent Supreme Court Ruling
Summarized by the Trevor Project, a leading voice in ending conversion therapy, “On March 31, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that the conversion therapy practices in question in this case can be ‘protected speech’ under the First Amendment, and sent the case back down to the lower court to be revisited. In doing so, justices sided with the petitioner, Kaley Chiles, in an 8-1 decision. The full opinion can be read here.”
They went on to clarify that, “This decision does represent a disappointing blow to hard-won protections for LGBTQ+ young people’s mental health in states across the country. But, ultimately, it does not change the dangerous, discredited nature of these practices, nor does it prevent practitioners from being held accountable for the harms they inflict on young people.”
With the Supreme Court’s recent ruling and some of the current administration’s recent moves against both the autistic and LGBTQ+ communities, it’s more important than ever to speak up for them and reject conversion therapy and ABA.
Moving From Autism Awareness to Acceptance
April was originally more focused on ‘Autism Awareness.’ As the years have passed, the autism community has shifted its focus to ‘Autism Acceptance.’ This shift also addressed the initial awareness month’s connection to the organization ‘Autism Speaks.’
The group has largely been criticized by the autism community, in part for its support of ABA, its continued use of the puzzle piece symbolism despite its rejection by the community, and for not having autistic people on its board.
Autism Speaks is even considered a “hate group” by many. Austistic author Amy Sequenzia summarizes many of these criticisms in a piece published on the Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network (AWN).
#GetinMotion for Autism Acceptance
Even as April ends, it’s important to support the autism community, and especially our autistic loved ones, every day. This support comes in many ways, from advocating for your autistic children and ensuring that ABA practices are not used on them, to finding ways to accommodate the people in your life who are autistic, and patroning/promoting autistic artists, writers, and businesses.
Additionally, it’s important to support autism organizations that are managed by autistic people and that don’t promote ABA therapy.
And, make sure you are using a rainbow infinity symbol that has been largely adopted by the autism community, instead of the iterations of the puzzle piece used by Autism Speaks.
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