Thread: Michelle Dawson (person with autism) says ABA is a failure

I am familiar with Michelle Dawmson's perspective from her many postings on the Net. While I cannot debate her own personal experiences (of which ABA is not one; she is too old to have gone through Canada's fledglinfg ABA programs). Ms Dawson is not autistic full-blown, she is very HFA. I concur that for those indivisduals who are so HFA that they can survive in a regular ed classroom with mods/accoms ABA is indeed innapropriate and overkill.

Ms Dawson is part of a group of HFA's/Aspies who have created an internet ":group" dedicated to p[reserving their "culture" at all costs. Anyone (parent, professional, etc.) who dares to suggest that autism is something to be either prevented or remediated is the enemy, and they work very hard to defend their own right to be different. Again, for those people who are so high on the Spectrum that they can survive our society without major assistance I will tend to agree that tolerance for the difference is indeed a worthy goal. They do not, however, have the right to speak for persons who are so debilitated by autism that they are not only functionally helpless, but are actually a danger to themselves.

The best analogy I can think of to compare this situation to are the deaf individuals who are militantly against cochlear implants for children to give some semblance of hearing to those who would otherwise be in a silent world.

What Michelle and others like her should truly be advocating for is the deliniation of persons on Spectrum ionto those who absolutely deserve intensive treatment intervention and those who are high-functioning enough to decide for themselves whether they would like to remain as they are or get the quality of help needed to achive a more "level" existance.

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I - like DAD - am familiar with Michelle Dawsons views. She is indeed high functioning - at least in some ways. She is in fact a strong critic of BEHAVIORAL INTERVENSION – which includes TEACCH though primarily directed at ABA.

If you want to get tempers boiling with the likes of Michelle Dawson, you need only to cite that a goal is recovery from autism, buzzword “indistinguishable from their peers”. A story like this - [url="http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/story/5957706"]http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/story/5957706[/url] - in Michelle Dawsons mind is a scandal. This is a kid that has by all means “recovered”, and been taught conformity.

Are the Marinos abusive parents that have disregarded the needs of their son, and disrespected his personality? They are not in my opinion.

If you reed the article, I get a sense of a child that is extremely happy to have gotten this help, and being able to live as a “normal” teenager. The article does not name any specific method, and it is apparent from other sources that they have not uses only ABA or any other single program, but it does make a strong claim for the ability to “recover”.

You will see many of Michell Dawsons views in the following forum [url="http://www.kevinleitch.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?id=15"]http://www.kevinleitch.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?id=15[/url]

Michelle Dawson gives an example where she recommends just giving an autistic person an laptop to let him type at will, rather than applying any learning program like ABA, TEACCH, Speech Therapy… Michelle Dawson has many valid points on the quality of research, but also a colossal amount of unfounded claims. In the above mentioned thread she expresses that it is good that she never learned to tie her shoes as that would have hampered her AUTISTIC development. I don't buy that!

When you refer to people it is wise to remember the old saying – the enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend – as seen with Osama Bin Laden. Michelle Dawson has strong views that she is entitled to, yet I doubt that Mike Marino would have liked her to speak on his behalf.

I am a strong believer in objectivity and there is currently only one method for autism intervention that can prove its effectiveness, by standards applied in the society in general, i.e. IQ, Social Functioning…

Kind Regards
Jens

Ms Dawson is so vindictive that she went to the trouble of submitting an affidavit to a the supreme court of canada, in a case of a family who wanted ABA. She was instrumental in making sure this family and others did not get their child's ABA program funded.

Ms Dawson needs to keep her nose out of parents business in terms of what THEY think is right for their children.

The analogy to the "deaf culture" is a good one. I wonder if Ms Dawson also believes that blind children should not be helped either.

Truly she has an axe to grind, has a small queue of rabid followers and is, in my opinion, a woman with way too much time on her hands. Finally, she does not have children and it is galling in the extreme to listen to this woman vent her spleen at parents like me who only want the very best for our children

I suggest she attend some of the mental institutions where adults with autism who never received any intervention now live. She speaks from a glass house, namely that of HFA and doesnt really understand any other point of view except her own.