#autisic traits

[ambientbroth]

First poll :) repost are welcomed!

[superpussyking]

I'm just saying Elias Bouchard is autisic but it gets overlooked because a lot of his autisic traits overlap with his evil ones. Also he actively enjoys masking

I made a comprehensive list for every reason I think Elias is autisic and I think that alone should get me an autism diagnosis but that's asides the point. I'm gonna post it later after I clean it up a bit

Edit: check the reblogs that's where my autistic Elias master list is

[thisnerdjason]

I'm so sick of people that are the same age as me or younger, infantilising me just because I'm a virgin and they aren't, or that I'm new to smoking weed, or that I don't really drink, or just because I don't really understand social cues. It's fucking insulting

[anothermonikan]

I have. A headcanon about Avalon. And I have no idea if saying it would get me ripped apart by the fanbase or if everyone would be like. Oh yeah obviously

[tabithatwo]

Do you think Jackie is autistic? She has alot of autistic traits and some are even accepted by the fandom. There's a tag for her on Ao3

this is a really interesting question for me. i'm sort of going to give my opinion in a round about way because its very bound up in who i am, so bare with me. i wouldn't feel equipped to answer this question if i didn't relate very heavily to jackie. part of my yj love started just from how seen i felt by jackie's character.

i was captain of a girls sports team, i was so stupidly lesbian, i had the on a boys sports team boyfriend who i didn't like at all, my home life wasn't like hers in many ways but my mother was also an addict and generally not nice lady lol, i tried my best to be as nice as i could to everyone, and surface level i was liked in a homecoming princess type way, but i had very few super close friends. i often got the "wow you're actually nice" or "i assumed you were a bitch" comments from people i'd never spoken to before and i had no idea why or how to prove that i was genuine. jackie gets accused of being "fake nice" to "manipulate people" a lot, but we really don't see her doing any manipulating or get any evidence that she doesn't mean the nice things she says and does.

i heavily relate to that and as i've gotten older i've realized that people often mistake the sense that something is off with fake kindness. i think there are a few reasons that jackie is treated the way she is, both by the other girls at the end of her life and by viewers, but it would take like...an extensive essay to get into the nuance of them lol, so i'll just stick with this:

i think being neurodivergent gets you the treatment that jackie gets a lot of the time. i'm EXTREMELY adhd, like really blow the assessment scores all the way up adhd lmao it impacts my life heavily, and i wasn't diagnosed until my twenties. i also score high on the autism screener and fit the criteria, but i have never/will never seek any formal diagnosis there just out of personal preference. all that to say, i relate heavily to jackie taylor, i think the girl is some kinda neurodivergent, and i think headcanoning characters as autistic makes total sense when the evidence tallies up lol.

the thing is, so many characters are lesbian-coded or adhd-coded or autisim-coded, because so many people don't know that they are those things. i knew i liked women from an early age, but i had the comphet of thinking i liked men also. so i didn't know i was a lesbian until i was 24. i didn't know i had adhd until i was 25. i didn't know i was (probably) autistic until 26. we don't have to know the words for the things we feel and do to embody them or to see them in others or to write them into characters. does that make sense?

anyway, if you think jackie taylor is autisic i love that and i can't say i disagree. that's my long-winded answer!

[cryptidjeepers]

I dont know if anyone else has mentioned it but laios reaction after shuro tells him how annoying he finds him and pretty much always has really hit me. Not only that, but shuro's annoyance with laios is so obviously connected to laios' autisic traits and general awkward personality. It's hard enough as an autistic/anxious/awkward individual to make friends and keep them, but finding out one of your first friends has thought you were annoying throughout your entire friendship is such a deep, uncomfortable rejection that is so much worse than someone just not being your friend for those exact reasons.

As someone that has always been extremely self conscious about my own awkward social anxiety (and maybe undiagnosed autism) i was always afraid of that exact scenario. You know, befriending someone and then finding out they were just nice to you or never really liked you or just tolerated your existence. In high school, it was really hard to tell who were actually my friends and who were just acquaintances, and who straigh up did not like me because i couldn't pick up on social cues. I literally did not make any deep relationships until 3 years into highschool. I think my heart actually dropped at hearing shuro berate him for not picking up on hints and reading the room. Goddamn

[sanityshorror]

Julius is autisic? what are his traits?

Speaking as an autistic person, I don't feel comfortable labeling anything as "autistic traits," because my autism is simply part of who I am - and I have traits as a person. I'm not mad, I just don't personally like the terminology.

However, Julius experiences over stimulation very easily, he is highly sensitive to both sound and light as well. He can't handle excessive loud noises and very bright places but he also cannot handle silence or pitch darkness. It goes without saying that Julius intensely hyper-fixates - 'perfection' being the primary thing. He does have other hyper-fixations as well, including sewing, porcelain dolls, dissection and the process of decay (in a better timeline, he would have been a great scientist TBH). Additionally, Julius is non verbal rather often. Texture and taste sensitivity are also something that affects him a lot, he can really only eat bland food of a very specific consistency, which just contributes further to his anorexia given that what he's even able to eat is highly limited. Of course, he struggles with social cues and interactions quite a bit, despite him being able to read people as individuals incredibly well. Lastly, he does have some 'childish' behaviors and interests, such as being very obsessed with stuffed animals and he really loves Disney princess movies.

[cowboypossume]

Hailey Banks is autistic

not just because i am too and i relate to her

1. The first episode we LITERALLY get the whole "I'm adverse to new experiences so I just write them down instead!". To the nth degree too /pos. That's what causes the whole series to begin

a big Thing of autism is need for a routine -or at least an idea of what to expect- to the point changes to the plan can result in meltdowns or flat out avoidance (as we see with Hailey).

with the world ending, she starts to embrace the changes, but still doesn't necessarily Like all the new things.

i could be reading to much into it, but in the theme song we get things like "make a candle with my own ear wax???" and "eat an onion :/" where we see this aversion to not only trying but actually DOING new things, too. this is continued at several points in the show, too. she flat out says "i don't want to do that right now; let's find a different list item" NUMEROUS times. several of those scenes do come from her feelings for scott, sure, but i think that proves my point?

friendship for neurodivergent people is ,, complicated (we'll get there) so right now hailey has this steady, predicable pattern with her best friend. she doesn't want to ruin that, and thus we fall back into the "i don't want things to change" part of autism

2. Hailey and birds

special interests are a bit complicated, and this isn't the place to explain it, but in short its basically a Really Strong interest in something. it occurs to everyone, but people with autism are more likely to experience either stronger or more frequent :)

birds are DEFINITELY a special interest for hailey!

- half of her list items INVOLVE birds and thus almost every episode has some sort of a something with birds (frank, the red owl, petey, etc) - she has a party and the way she wants to have fun is build birdhouses with her peers - she adopts a flamingo. like. - her little birdhouse collection <33333

there's more but it's just silly and i love frank and petey so much and-

3. she has a really hard time understanding how to relate to her peers socially

ok, again there are so many better researched things than this so this is a BRIEF summary, but: autistic people just process the world differently. a lot of social cues go over their head because the world is processed Different.

so having hailey be a bit dense social-wise is so nice to see. especially because none of the characters penalize her or mock her for not getting it. instead they just, talk to her? like people?

examples off the top of my head about the miscommunication are - kristine wanting to have a date with scott and hailey tags along - becker flirts with hailey and hailey is like ":D wow ! what a silly billy !" (the 'i'm more of a ice cream girl if you catch my drift' / 'i still need to use this coupon????') - the rubic's cube episode where hailey doesn't understand scott's needs vrs her own and like ,, how those mesh together - that plotline where hailey admits that she doesn't have that many [female] friends (or any besides scott) because it's always been weird for her - part of what draws her to frank is that she's ALSO been labeled as weird and different, and she doesn't think that's a reason for isolation - at her birthday party she doesnt understand why people aren't having fun. because, for her, this is fun!! - that same said party was immeditaly followed with her admitting "this isn't fun for me; i would like to stop" when it comes to the truth or dare game.

there are a bunch more examples. again, this just for a general idea to show where this idea is coming from

4. [according to the wiki] "Hailey is quite determined for a kid her age"

afab austistic people go underdiagnosed for reasons like this!!!

things that can SO be autisic are marked off as "mature" because a lot of austsim is masking OR traits that appear one way in amab appear differently in afab.

this idea of "determination" can tie into the special interest thing as mentioned before, or why austsic people are often shown as "selfish": because they want something, and don't understand the social repercussion of saying no.

5. as i mentioned, the list thing.

as generally mentioned, autistic people want a semblance of what to expect from something. when they don't get that, those feelings can cope in other ways.

in this show, hailey makes a list.

instead of trying something new, she just thinks 'oh i'll do that later!' and then DOESNT! :3

these are small things and obviously a headcannon, but it means a a lot to mean

[avocadofics]

Oikawa x autistic reader

FYI I want to do all types of autistic people so here are the autisic traits this reader shows.

Noise sensitivity

Not liking touch

Difficulty speaking

Content warning

Anxiety

Some mentions of overstimulation

If you are not autistic then this fic isn’t for you. There is barly any rep for us and I have always loved x readers. So while no two austistic people are the same. So I do my best to write so many of us can get comfort from it . If you interested in working on differnt fics but this is for my fellow neurodivergent friends.

Most of the time traveling could be handled. You knew an almost 1 day flight from your home in agentina to Japan would be a lot. So you would prep and make sure the flight was never to overwhelming. You made sure to have music and videos downloaded for the flight. As well as many snacks and stim toys. You knew no matter what you do you would be tired. One thing you had forgotten in all you prep was Oikawa first match was tonight not tomorrow.

You felt like a shitty partner because you walked into the gym stood there for a few minutes until Oikawa walked over to check in you.

“ sweat heart?” You looked down at you feet not wanting to disappoint him.

“Is it To much?” You gave him a small nodd.

“I’m sorry” you quietly apologize.

“My darling remember you getting overwhelmed and needing a space to recharge is nothing to apologize for.” He reached into you bag and pulled out your ear protection. He handed them to you so you could put them on exactly how you needed.

“How about you go back to the hotel room and rest. I promise I’ll win this one so you can come watch the next one tomorrow when you feeling slightly better.” You nodded again. He gave you a gentle smile

“is there anything you want me to bring back to the room when I’m done?”

You took a small step forward to let him know you needed to say something. He leaned down so you could speak at the volume you needed.

“Can you pick up my safe food?” You said in almost a whisper.

“Yeah. I can I grab what I can and I’ll see you back at the hotel in a couple of hours. He lifted his finger and kinda pointed at you. He knew you really did not like physical touch wich could be tough seeing as he did love it. So you made compromises. When you couldn’t handle it small touches like taking you pointer finger and booping his finger. Was a way you showed you cared without really stressing you out. It was almost you version of a hug for when you were to over stimulated. He made sure you got a into the oober.

You walked into the hotel room and changed into a comfy pair of pjs

You loved watching his games. Being there to celebrate when he wins. Sitting there next to him when he looses tik support him. You really did love going and he knew. But here you were sitting in a dark room. Wrapped in you favorite blanket trying to relax.

You heard a gentle knock on the hotel door and the sound of it being open. You hid under the blanket as the bright light filled the room.

“Oh shoot sorry a baby.” Oikawa voice filled the room. You heard his footsteps.

“We won the match and I brought you back your safe food. I’m gonna go take a shower. If you feeling better after maybe we can put something on the tv.”

You watched your boyfriend get ready for a shower as you slowly ate you food. It most defiantly helped. As You felt better.

Oikawa came out of the shower wearing matching pjs to you making you happy.

“I like those pj.” You said softly.

“I know it why I put them in. It helps that they are really comfortable.” He sat down in the bed and made sure you had you space.

“Okay here the remotes what we watching?” Todays like today are why you know Oikawa will alway love you. Even when he’s had a king day he still takes care of you and never has said a word when you can’t deal with something.

[wat-you-get-is-wat-you-see]

Autistic Rise Headcanons- because I can and NO ONE CAN STOP ME.

So with the whole Donnie pretty much confirmed as being written to be Autistic (which is AWESOME) there are many Autisics out there who don’t relate to his particular cluster of traits. With that in mind and also the fact that I have headcanoned the boys in other iterations as Autistic, I give you all my Autistic Rise headcanons!

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Leo

Speaks in memes. Atypical speech patterns- ‘We should go peoples blinds are starting to open.’

Stimms with words and puns. And hand/arm flapping

Has anxiety but doesn’t fully understand why

Insomnia caused by ruminating on EVERY potential social faux par he has EVER committed

Social mimic! People watcher. Goes against the common belief that autistics don’t know how to read people and is exceptional at it because he over analyses every social situation to ensure that he is not stuffing it up. Pretends not to be serious to other AND himself so any stuff up doesn’t hit so hard and also uses it to distract others from the fact that he is still figuring the situation out.

Fake it till you make it!

COMICS!!! And Lou Jitsu and JUPITER JIM!!! SPINs Will pace in circles reciting lines when overwhelmed. ‘Hot Soup Ha Ha Hot Soup Ha Ha Hot Soup Ha Ha...’

Magic and Illusionists SPINs- Learned a lot about reading people’s tells and how to deflect attention from the great illusionists.

Co ordination takes effort and sometimes he loses track of where his body is but it is something he has worked at because he has to be better than Donnie at something HE HAS TO WIN!

Tends toward shutdowns, though meltdowns tend to be quiet and more implosive/self injurious, bites himself, hits himself in the head with his fists sort of thing.

Hyposensitive to pain- gets hurt and doesn’t realise.

And touch similarly gets dirty and doesn’t realise he needs a shower because he doesn’t notice the mud/dirt stuck to him.

Sensory issues with slimy things that move, as in it’s fine until it moves (that time he cut Warren Stone in half).

Likes quite and dimly lit spaces to decompress in, also weighted blankets = sensory bliss.

Difficulty moderating voice volume.

Can have difficulty with empathy especially with those he is not close to.

Dyslexia - comics are easier than books to figure out what is going on than a WALL OF TEXT.

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Donnie

Autism poster child 

Savant/gifted child

Hyperlexic

Science and technology SPINs as well as Lou Jitsu and Jupiter Jim like his brothers.

Infodumps about his inventions and technology

Meltdowns and shutdowns. Meltdowns tend to be more self injurious than outwardly explosive, they are like Leo’s but with more yelling.

Hypersensitive to pain = battle shell

Hypersensitive to touch- issues with slimy things. Its not only with food though

Weight blankets and deep pressure, but NO HUGS! unless he initiates it 

‘Picky eater’ and SAMEFOODS!

Can’t handle being dirty or the feel of dirt on him.

Loves loud music but otherwise can’t handle loud noises he isn't in control of.

Has trouble regulating tone of voice and volume

Difficulty with fine and gross motor skills, but loves dancing.

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Raph

Anxiety about being alone and has meltdowns

Dyscalculia

Can have trouble regulating his own emotions

Not great at reading people

Likes things not typical of age (teddy bears)

Meltdowns. wrecks everything and/or wrecks himself, mostly now wrecks himself

Hyposensitive to pain, docent realise he is hurt

Hypersensitive to loud noises

Atypical speech, uses third person for himself and gets words and sentance structure mixed up

Hyper-empathy

Wrestling SPINs along with Lou Jitsu and Jupiter Jim like his brothers.

Can recite scores and results from every match with Ghost Bear in it.

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Mikey

Cooking and art SPINs along with Lou Jitsu and Jupiter Jim like his brothers.

Dyslexic

Collects cookbooks, (especially one with all the pretty food pics) and orders them by the spine colour. He knows where every one is exactly where each recipe is. With new recipes he has to read the recipe and have it planned out in his head and on the bench before he starts. If someone distracts him he loses track of where what when and how he is up too and has to start over.

Raptor hands!

Repetitive Motion stims- sleeps in a hammock.

Can’t multi task (I didn’t want to burn the risotto). 

Not great at reading people on the fly, but understands a LOT or the theory. Given time to think about and process a situation he will figure it out. Best out of all of them at understanding his own emotions because he has worked at it.

Meltdowns. Loud and explosive.  Bad ones are the kind of wreck everything in the room. Mostly though it is a lot of crying and yelling and banging his fists on things.

Hug loving Autie!

Withdraws into shell when things get too much- its like a weighted blanket

Loves BRIGHT and COLOURFUL until it overloads him

Hyper empathy. Doctor Delicate Touch is a defence mechanism so he doesn’t get taken advantage of.

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Anyone else out there have any Autistic Rise Headcanons?

[treeshman]

autism coded

I dont see this discussed much but when i have its been a really negative discussion but anya imo is i think unintentionally coded as autistic. like that does make sense but lemme explain. Like characters like data from star trek, werent made with the inherent idea that this character would not only have a large amount of autistic traits but be very much like amongst autistic folks bc of that, but thats very much what ended up happening anya i love love love! she is my favourite character. The body, possibly the most critically acclaimed episode of buffy, defining moment for me was anyas speech. That speech for me really hits hard for me as an autisic person. it never fails to make me cry. that episode is so well made

[ambientbroth]

Gatekeeping culture is like: “don’t get your information online it’s too easy😡!!!” Then offer “find research papers online it’s really easy🙄”

Then block you.

Self diagnosing isn’t TikTok videos and random blogs. It’s literally months to years of research. There’s a lot of reasons why someone can’t get professionally diagnosed.

Misdiagnoses happen a lot

People aren’t taken seriously

It’s expensive asf

Its inaccessible

People want to adopt

People want the right to their bodily autonomy

I’m disappointed when I go online and see my bullies are now nurses. That’s kinda the same thing when I go on here and see professionally diagnosed people who shit on undiagnosed for posting coping mechanisms.

Stop calling people “the problem” for coping. The real issue is people who post any “if you have these… you might have” THATS DANGEROUS. what isn’t dangerous is:

Finding coping mechanisms

Find organization tools to function

Therapy

Talking about experiences

Researching extensively on traits

Documenting

Unmasking

Printing off quizzes or research articles from well established resources (Embracing Autism, ASAN, AIM, awn network, A4A)

Stimming (if it isn’t harming)

Advocating for diagnosis is one thing. Being a bully online is another. It’s a disability not a quirk, a lot of self diagnosed people know it’s a disability. We can identify the actual problems in the self diagnosing community but a lot of us aren’t those.

We’re valid

[chmyri]

seeing how many animation meme community members that were constantly hounded on and getting put into drama by others turned out to be autistic speaks a lot i think, the internet just hates autisic people, whether or not they knew the person was autisic is irrelevant (or i guess the internet hates autistic traits? stereotypical people can be victim to this too)

if somebody can word this better please do this sentence is a mess but hopefully you get what i mean

[princess-of-the-corner]

Main reason while I'm... not a fan of but like believe Villian Izuku fics is because I've seen kindness beat out of a kid. Kid was nice but weird and probably autisic and I heard he was homeschooled before he went to our school but that was apart of like some really fucked up definetly not true shit so I don't know if to believe it. Over the like 3 years I went to school with him he went from like a nice kid to a kid who might try to hit you if you approach him on the wrong day.

It's a weird thing because like.

On one hand, I get that. I've seen that sort of thing. The sweet kid who's had so much hell thrown at them that they break. Very realistic. A lot of villain backstories are like that too.

On the other hand, I take into account the character himself. One of Izuku's biggest traits is wanting to save people, even the ones who have been awful to him or tried to kill him or anything else. So while I could see him going the vigilante angle where he is breaking the law to save people and attacking corrupt systems and even the more villain-adjacent 'realizing some people are beyond saving and being down to murder for the greater good'. I can't see him go full villain where he's just doing evil shit and taking revenge on society for how he was treated when there's any chance of someone salvageable, much less someone innocent, getting caught in the crossfire.

[autistpride]

There is no female or male version of autism.

Autistic females have the same symptoms as Autistic males, however the instruments used to diagnose autism is based on and geared towards those AMAB.

Research has shown that many females also begin masking as early as six months making their autisic traits more difficult to see in comparison.

Research has also shown that more often females often have less physical signs (external behaviours) like hand flapping. Females are shown to have more rigid and repetitive symptoms in behaviours or in play instead (excessive talking or organizing, extremely strict on following or making others follow rules, wanting to play the same thing in the same way, or playing with a character toy who only says lines the character says).

This could simply be due to learning to mask by often copying the other females in their lives or that they see in the media, or having strong interests in "gender appropriate" topics that are then overlooked because they aren't "unusual" interests.

The questions used in the diagnosis tests are geared towards stereotypical male interests. Ex: the evaluation asks if they are interested in small parts of an object such as wheels of a car. The question isn't asking parents does your child focus on wheels on the car. But a female could be only interested in the shoes for Barbie instead and focus on playing and organizing only the shoes for barbies.

So while the question is only asking about repetitive behaviour, many parents and diagnostic individuals get caught up in the examples and will misdiagnose.

[notactuallyanonky0mk]

Why Even New ABA 'therapy' Is Bad.

I got bored so I decided to start a project.

Note: I write everything in the notepad app on my computer so it isn't exactly fit to Tumblr format and might look a bit wonky because I don't feel like editing it to fit. I also put off posting it for a while because it wasn't something I originally thought about posting while writing. I don't actually know what to put as a rating so I will put mature as it does make a mention to SA/Peer pressure + Bullying. I will note that even though I did do research it does not mean I am fully correct on some of these topics so feel free to correct me and remember that I am just another person on the internet and not an actual professional.

Reminder: This is all opinion backed up on personal research and experiences.

2:03 PM 2022-10-21

Why Applied Behaviour Analysis "Therapy" is Harmful.

ABA 'therapies' direct goal and main focus is to alter and/or eliminate an Autistic childs

behaviour, this holds to the fact that they think Autisic children need to be "fixed" and that

their behaviour is bad, behaviour is a from of necessary communication to people who

do not talk or even those who do talk, towards the people they know an example would be

"Grabby Hands" that is often used to show a want or need for an object in sight without

touching, or taking it away from its spot or the person who has it in their possession, if you

saw two children playing together and one suddenly grabbed a toy out of the other childs

hand you would think to reprimand the child for "Stealing", Children pick up on the fact

that taking it is bad, so they have to instead find a way to get the other child to give it to them

by communicating that they want it, usually using "Grabby Hands", by teaching children that,

said behaviour is bad they might resort back to just grabbing it, but by reinforcing the child to

talk who is often mute, it stresses them and causes anxiety, by punishing them when they

don't talk it teaches them that being comfortable and feeling safe in situation is "bad" and

"against the rules", often leading to them growing up with Mental Health issues and difficulties

with rules and/or authority causing outbursts, anger, and dislike towards those things.

Forcing a child to practice scripts and sit still so they can look like a

"Normal Child" is abuse, its unfair and teaches them to mask their Autism

and Neurodivergent traits. Autistic children should not have their behaviour

changed simply beacause it is not how an Allistic/Neurotypical child

acts, masking is a destroying behaviour and it ruins the ability to create

a personal identity, because you are constantly acting as if you were a

different person, to teach a child how to do this ruins their life,

It is abuse.

Credits to Research:

For more information on Masking and its Consequences. Also quoted a "A life of Suicidality".

https://www.healthline.com/health/autism/autism-masking

Quote From Above Site :

People may mask their autism characteristics for many reasons —

to boost their careers, connect with others, or avoid being stigmatized by other people.

Masking may help at times, but regular masking can have serious effects on mental and physical

health. This may include anxiety, depression, exhaustion, a loss of identity, and suicidal thoughts.

https://psychcentral.com/autism/autism-masking-why

Quote From Above Site:

Standard practice in particular autism therapies such as applied behavior analysis (ABA) has

historically been to redirect autistic behaviors and traits to meet neurotypical expectations.

But some autism advocates and members of the autistic community disagree with this strategy.

Some research has suggested ABA may cause post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in some

autistic people.

https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/costs-camouflaging-autism/

Quote From Above Site:

Lawrence says that if she’d been diagnosed as a child, her mother might have understood her

better. She might have also avoided a long history of depression and self-harm. “One of the main

reasons I went down that route was because I knew I was different but didn’t know why —

I was bullied quite badly at school,” she says.

Mandy and his colleagues interviewed 14 young women not diagnosed with autism until late

adolescence or adulthood. Many described experiences of sexual abuse.

https://walkietalkiespeechtherapy.com/why-teaching-autistic-people-to-mask-is-an-outdated-and-harmful-practice/

Quote From Above Site:

In addition, research has shown that autistic people are more likely to commit suicide.

Many autistic people report that they feel a direct correlation between this statistic and the

exhaustion and depression that accompanies constant masking. Many autistic people mask

because they are expected to do so by society. But even occasional, limited masking can be damaging,

exhausting, and lead to long-term burn-out.

Why Applied Behaviour Analysis "Therapy" is Harmful.

ABA is a Compliance-Based 'Therapy' this means it is considered successful when the

child does what the 'therapist' says, in majority of cases children have their personal

belongings withheld, or taken away from them until they meet, and comply with the

demands that have been made, whether the personal belongings taken away are simply

something they want like a favourite toy or something they need like a comfort item or

food they packed and brought along to eat within the very long appointment hours, alot

of times attention is withheld which means if the child asks for say a bathroom break, or

something to eat/drink, they won't get it. This 'treatment' style is incredibly problematic

because in any other situation, such as with a spouse, or friend this kind of treatment->(punishment)

is seen as toxic, and manipulative towards the person, as if they didn't matter, all that

mattered was compliance towards another person's orders.

Beyond that and more, focusing heavily on compliance for children, especially autistic

children, is extremely dangerous. When autistic children are pushed and forced into

hours upon hours of compliance-based 'therapy' and 'therapies' from such a young and

vulnerable age, they are taught that their body is solely at the mercy of someone else,

that their body is not theirs to make decisions with or express feelings with. That when

somebody tells them, to do something with their body, they must comply.

It may seem as though this is not such a bad consequence but what happens

when it isn't a 'therapist' telling them to sit at a table and rearrange number magnets,

but instead a peer pressuring them into drugs or even sex.

Credits to Research:

This leads to issues with consent and decision making, when somebody doesn't know

how to make decisions for themselves or understand how consent works it leads to

vulnerability towards sexual assault, rape, domestic violence and abuse, among other

things it makes them a likely bully victim throughout Elementary School, Middle School,

Secondary->(HighSchool) and even College or University. Students with Autism are

already more likely to be bullied in a general standpoint of just simply existing with or

without a diagnosis, an interview study showed that if you asked a group of bullies if they

would bully a child for having a diagnosis of autism majority would say no, but if you asked

them whether or not they would bully a child with autistic traits such as strong insistence

on organization, difference in speech, difference in social interaction, adherence to routine,

ect… They would say "Yes, I would bully them." 33.9% of students with Autism face

high levels of bullying victimization in school(Reported) based on a 2016 Study, with an

increased risk due to ABA or any other type of compliance-based 'therapy' that number

would probably look something more like '45.5%' or possibly even higher.

https://www.pacer.org/bullying/info/stats.asp

Quote From Above Site:

When assessing specific types of disabilities, prevalence rates differ: 35.3% of students with

behavioral and emotional disorders, 33.9% of students with autism, 24.3% of students with

intellectual disabilities, 20.8% of students with health impairments, and 19% of students with

specific learning disabilities face high levels of bullying victimization

Why Applied Behaviour Analysis "Therapy" is Harmful.

ABA focuses on positive reinforcement for target behaviour, though it may seem great it

doesn't work in the long term, as research has shown using extrinsic/external rewards

actually decreases the chance of the child doing said target behaviour in the future if a

reward isn't immediately present or available, instead intrinsic/personal rewards are more

effective as it teaches doing an action for personal need or want.

Rewarding extrinsically means that in later instances throughout life such as school work

or a business project, even just simply doing laundry will prove difficult to get done beacause

they have been taught that if they do something 'right' or 'successfully' they will get a

sticker or candy, so if there is no sticker the action is either 'wrong' or in the child's eyes

"Not worth doing." you don't get a sticker or candy for doing laundry or school work, so

the child will subconsciously lose any or all motivation towards doing the action and will

more than likely fail to even start the work, a example of this would be, reward a child for

sitting at a table and they will continue to sit at the table, but stop rewarding that behaviour

or expect the child to continue in a different setting than originally rewarded in they will

stop sitting at the table, this is especially true for autistic children who follow routines of

sameness and rules. In the child's mind if you give them a sticker for sitting at the table, they

should always get a sticker for sitting at the table. If you stop giving them stickers to sit at the

table why would they ever sit at the table?

Credits to research:

If the child ever wants to do anything in the future this will effect the decision making

behind its reasoning and rewards as they will begin to think that doing something

for personal reward isn't good enough, because there is no external reward, this causes

"Black and White" thinking, or as a more common term "All or Nothing", if they set a goal

and a 'good' extrinsic reward is there they will complete the goal they set even if it kills them,

another example would be if the task has an extremely important intrinsic reward that is

well needed they won't start it because it's simply not a 'good enough' reason to them, this

continues throughout adulthood and affects decision making behind reasoning, even if the

autistic person starts the task they either do their best and try so hard they mentally kill

themselves or they don't try at all, they are unable to see a middle ground in life thus unable

to make decisions surrounding it.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27084549/

Quote From Above Site:

Extrinsic Rewards Diminish Costly Sharing in 3-Year-Olds

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/black-and-white-thinking

Quote From Above Site:

An all-or-nothing mindset doesn’t allow us to find the middle ground. And let’s face it:

There’s a reason most people don’t live on Everest or in the Mariana Trench.

It’s hard to sustain life at those extremes.

https://www.talkspace.com/blog/black-white-thinking-ways-poisons-your-perspective/

Quote From Above Site:

Of course, the world is not an either/or place: Our lives are full of shades of gray.

By seeing the world in black and white — rather than the complex rainbow it actually is —

we may initially make it easier for ourselves to separate out good from bad, right from wrong,

and beautiful from ugly. But this kind of thinking can be exhausting, sending us through

constant ups and downs. And on a deep level, simplifying things into easy, binary terms robs us

of much of the complexity that makes life and relationships so rich.

https://www.soberish.co/black-and-white-thinking/

Quote From Above Site:

Everything is all or nothing.

Either you’re 100% committed to this diet or you’re stuffing your face with whatever you

can get your hands on. If you mess up and have a cookie?

The entire diet is destroyed! Throw it all away. You’ll never be healthy. You can’t do it!

Why Applied Behaviour Analysis "Therapy" is Harmful.

Most ABA 'therapists' say that an autistic child should have 20-40 hours in 'therapy', that is

essentially a part time to full time job that is expected of autistic children as early as toddlerhood.

Why should we expect that out of such young autistics, or even any older child.

On top of that big pile of misfortune parent are also told to continue the 'treatment' outside of

'therapy' hours, It is teaching children to constantly mask and hide themselves, even with people

they are supposed to feel comfortable and/or safe with, such as their own parents or friends, and

possibly even when they are alone.

That they must hide who they are constantly to act like somebody else because others don't like it

and prefer that they would act neurotypical, but when are the children aloud to play in their own way

and with their own autistic behaviours, while nowadays children are being encouraged to spend more

time with unstructured play, autistic children aren't given that luxury.

Why do autistic children have to be 'on' for so long, when do they get to rest and have downtime.

No child should have to work 20-40+ hours changing who they are because of others opinions.

No person should have to work to change who they are because of others opinions.

Credits to research:

The effects of masking are terrible. Being told to do that all the time even when with someone you

trust or when you're alone is just torturous and escalates the effects of it.

www.acceltherapies.com/how-long-are-aba-therapy-sessions

Quote From Above Site:

This implies they might require up to 40 hours of ABA therapy every week.

Why Applied Behaviour Analysis "Therapy" is Harmful.

ABA 'therapy' promotes the idea that autistic people and children must change to fit in, that their

behaviours and personalities are unwanted, that they as a whole are broken, a toy, an object to be

fixed so others will be comfortable and want to play and even just interact with them, and as long

as we subject and force autistics into these intensive 'therapies' we are continuously telling them

and society that autistic behaviours must be changed, that they are wrong and not welcome.

A world where stimming and meltdowns were understood and accommodated instead of openly

shamed and trained away as if they were 'bad' behaviours in a dog.

That will never happen when autistic children are spending multiple hours every day being taught

and told they have to change by doctors, family, 'friends', peers, teachers, and every other person

you could think of or imagine walking into their life.

Do not dismiss the concerns, cries, and pleas of autistic people who are speaking out against ABA 'therapy'

because even if your experience with it wasn't the torturous punishment-beased 'therapy' that was used

from 1968 and only started dropping in usage during the early 2010's but is still used in some settings today.

Autistic people are tired of being spoken over by neurotypicals, especially when they ignore the issues with

something and only point out false positives.

Main points:

By: E. Kerr.

7:57 PM 2022-11-08

Word Count: 2415

1 Changing Behavior as the Primary Goal

2 Compliance-Based Therapies & Issues of Consent

3 Focusing on Positive Rewards Instead of Intrinsic Motivation

4 Extreme Hours of Therapy Limits Autistic Children’s Free Time

5 Promoting the Idea That Autistic Children Must Change to Fit In

I have done external research on these topics as well as on child and early

adolescence psychology focusing on how situations affect adulthood and

the childhood brain, I truly hope that this personal writing project will help

bring awareness on the affects of ABA 'therapy' and other 'therapies' or

situations like these.