Thread by @ekverstania

PBS ('Positive Behaviour Support') is a harmful ABA-based behavioural intervention used on vulnerable children.

Planned Ignoring is used as a tactic to 'manipulate the environment' of the victim, to change their behaviour.

Some of us know what that's like. 😥

#PBSAwarenessDay

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1489567301439524871

On #PBSAwarenessDay, we need to be more aware of HOW and WHY PBS harms people, so that after we stop PBS, we don't implement any other methods which do the same thing in other ways.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1489659783137447937?t=xzeyWh_K1X9jLcUW8SIZSw&s=19

Wherever we find parents and professionals pushing for ABA-based approaches like #PBS, we also see low support for the types of communication methods that nonspeaking autistic people say they find helpful.

#PBSAwarenessDay

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1333798307034923014?t=7YVvvp2gNY1fH2mSLUyH9w&s=19

October is #AACAwareness month. (AAC is Augmentative and Assistive Communication.)

In the UK, where PBS is particularly promoted, it is difficult to get support for the use of robust AAC.

Nonspeaking autistic people are often silenced and spoken over.

#PBSAwarenessDay

The UK's most famous AAC user, Dr. Stephen Hawking, is now dead.

But the gatekeepers haven't learned: Many thousands of autistic people in the UK are without communication, while PBS promotors focus on behaviour.

#PBSAwarenessDay should draw our attention to the harms of #PBS.

#PBSAwarenessDay should draw our attention to a pervasive practice in the autism industry: therapies that autistic people describe as harmful are imposed on autistic people without informed consent, as a standard practice. #PBSisABA

https://twitter.com/AnnMemmott/status/1575421171834691584?t=7YVvvp2gNY1fH2mSLUyH9w&s=19

Our campaign against ABA and its derivatives (such as Positive Behaviour Support, or PBS) is supported by autistic survivors of behaviourist abuse, parents of survivors, and former behaviourist professionals who now campaign for human rights.

We urge those currently involved in PBS and other ABA-based methods, who would like to leave these professions yet continue to work with autistic people, to learn from autistic people with high support needs.

Many behaviourists have never even studied the writing of nonspeakers.

@jordynbzim's early years are typical of what happens to a nonspeaking autistic child who is forced into behaviourist therapies and classroom practices by people who don't #ListenToNonspeakers.

If you're still working in PBS, it's time to move out.

Jordyn, who is nonspeaking, is the chairperson of the board at @Communica1st, a civil rights organisation representing people with communication disabilities.

There are numerous other autistic AAC users on Twitter who have something to say.

Can we say that #PBSisABA? Here's the answer:

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1584196663878352896?t=gn9N10sCN_A0jsk3Y1HjcA&s=19

Are you a PBS practitioner? Would you like to have a dialogue with autistic people?

What's the topic?

What's the goal of the discussion?

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1584215658652323841?t=sPrbE3wR5qATReMfOu4qxw&s=19