Thread by @ekverstania

Asking #BehaviorTwitter: What is the correct definition of ABA and who provides this authoritative answer? I have this from the North Dakota Autism Center site:

"Applied Behavior Analysis is a science devoted to understanding behavior in order to change socially significant behavior to a meaningful degree. Socially significant behavior are behaviors that can improve the life experience of an individual."

Is that a standard definition?

If so, let's test this:

Ten boys enjoy bullying an autistic girl. They believe that their life experience would be enhanced if they can bully the autie to the point that she leaves the school. Can ABA help them individually or collectively to achieve this?

I'm pretty sure you'd find some clause somewhere in some ethics guide to say that although this would be possible and easy, it should not be done. Like, you shouldn't teach monkeys to climb through windows and steal jewellery.

So, assuming this would be a bad thing to do, and yet bullying IS actually happening worldwide, why isn't there a massive ABA industry built around making nondisabled children into respectful humans?

Tomorrow I'm gonna tell you why this make-'em-nice ABA industry doesn't exist and why it SHOULDN'T exist.

But first, I guess we can agree that stopping school bullying would be a socially significant achievement. Imagine you could stop the gay kids, the disabled kids, the poor kids and the racial minority kids from being bullied!