“Building a Person”: Legal and Clinical Personhood for Autistic and Trans Children in Ontario (by @JakePyne)

"Despite open violence, Lovaas framed ABA as compassionate... Despite uncertain evidence, he presented ABA as scientific..."

cambridge.org/core/journals/…
"Psychologist George Rekers, a key figure in the world of conversion therapy (and co-founder of the notoriously anti-gay Family Research Council), used Lovaas’s techniques to treat so-called “deviant sex-role behaviors” in male children."
@AlexKronstein nsadvocate.org/2018/07/11/tre…
The man behind ex-gay “conversion therapy” started out trying to make autistic children “normal”:
"Both projects were based on the same fundamental view: that it’s easier to change a child’s behavior than it is to destigmatize that behavior in society"

lgbtqnation.com/2021/03/man-be…
"Their justification for the experiments they subjected him to was that it’s more difficult to modify society’s behavior than [the child's behaviour]." — Sebastian Rubino, on #ConversionTherapy
It's time to ban ALL forms of #ConversionTherapy. It's time to dismantle the multibillion dollar #ABA industry founded on the work of Lovaas, where 'therapists' use operant conditioning to train non-autistic behaviour into autistic people.
"He used electric shock on them... shocking them if they didn’t hug him or the other experimenter in less than three seconds. Lovaas considered the experiment a “success” because the twins’ behavior “changed markedly toward increased affection.” #ABAisAbuse #ConversionTherapy
There is a Web of people and organisations complicit to the abuse.
Banning electric shocks is not enough; there are plenty of other ways of doing #ConversionTherapy.
Planned Ignoring also works to break down a vulnerable person and makes them realise that you're not going to support them unless they act in ways that you deem correct, and don't express their distress.
For some autistic people, though, it is simply impossible to move their bodies to comply with the demands of the 'therapist'. (People don't get to choose the design of their nervous system.) #ConversionTherapy tania.co.za/behaviour-is-c…
"Over the next several years, I went to court five times in an attempt to halt the administration of ABA and to protect my son against continued injuries." (The author is an ABA survivor. Her child died in an ABA related injury.) trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewconten…
She's not the only one who repeatedly tried to stop the American government from abusing her disabled child.

Ban this abuse. Ban #ConversionTherapy. #BanABA. The BACB, CARD and ABAI are complicit. The US government funds torture. Ban this everywhere.

Many think that #ABA is probably necessary for the "low-functioning" people, even though it would be traumatic for "high-functioning" autistic people—almost as though they don't really think disabled people with high support needs are... people.

#LISTEN!
Well, guess what! That is EXACTLY what Lovaas said too: they're not people! And through torture, you can "build a person".
#ListenToNonspeakers and stop subjecting autistic people to government-sponsored #ConversionTherapy!
Stop colonising Africa with this brutality. #BanABA

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More from @ekverstania

4 Aug
So, my friend just got accused of using the Dark Web playbook because she calls herself 'severely autistic'. OK. I don't use the term 'severe autism' myself, but that's her way of expressing the extent of her difficulties.
I kinda feel that we should hear people out when they need a lot of support, and not constantly deny them that support just because they frame their experience using taboo words.
Here's the thread that evoked that accusation.
Read 27 tweets
3 Aug
And some schools for disabled children in South Africa 🇿🇦 and elsewhere.
Chemical restraint in South African schools for disabled children is one of the areas we'll be addressing in collaboration with the Western Cape Network on Disability. autisticstrategies.net/2021-autistic-…
Read 5 tweets
3 Aug
[THREAD] A friend with high support needs asked me to post this. She's not on Twitter. She said that the questions are rhetorical, and don't demand replies. She just wanted me to put it out there. So I'm doing it in the spirit of this:
[For clarity: When she says 'autism community', she means communities of #ActuallyAutistic people engaged in activism.]
"I struggle with the autism community they make me meltdown so I avoid them. I have severe autism and I can only stay out of secure units with powerful psychotropic meds that chronically sedate me and my friends who work hard to keep me alive."
Read 11 tweets
2 Aug
BAN OF CONVERSION THERAPIES FOR AUTISTIC PEOPLE [THREAD]

"Conversion therapies are pseudoscientific practices of trying to change an individual’s behaviour to conform to the social expectations of a particular culture using psychological and physical interventions."
"Various jurisdictions around the world have passed laws against LGTBQIA+ conversion therapy."
"However, the same underlying techniques of coercion continue to be applied to young autistic children and other vulnerable people, as can be seen in [the School of Psychology, University of Auckland] description of the scope of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)..."
Read 18 tweets
7 Jul
I wish to remind you that the BCBAs who work at the Judge Rotenberg Center are credentialed by the BACB. The BACB takes away the credentials of professionals who violate their code of conduct. The BACB code of conduct permits torture. #ABAisAbuse
Who's on the board of this organisation which tortures disabled children?
Chairman of the Board at the Judge Rotenberg Center: Henry Slucki, Ph.D.
Psychologist, Senior Research Associate at University of Southern California, School of Medicine, Department of Human Behavior
Co-producer and Co-Host of weekly talk radio program on disabilities
#ABAisAbuse
Read 136 tweets
6 Jul
My friend had some kind of medical emergency. When paramedics came and took her to the hospital, she had an autistic meltdown. They then called the police, who put her into restraint for 9 hours. She's now being sent home on a bus without treatment. Normal for the UK, apparently.
They tasered the patient.
9 hours, strapped down in pain during all that time, no medical treatment.
Read 6 tweets

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