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ABA is Conversion Therapy for Autistics

ABA is Conversion Therapy for Autistics

Same guy, same principles, similar traumatic experiences

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Jillian Enright
May 26, 2025
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ABA is Conversion Therapy for Autistics
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What is ABA?

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is a behaviour modification technique which uses rewards and punishments to change behaviour. Based on the work of psychologists such as B.F. Skinner and Ole Ivar Lovaas, ABA prioritizes observable and measurable behaviour over internal factors. Skinner and other behaviourists believe modifying environmental variables surrounding a behaviour will change the behaviour itself.

Reinforcement and punishment are defined by their influence on behaviour: Adding something the subject finds rewarding after the behaviour will increase its likelihood of being repeated, whereas removing something desired or introducing an aversive decreases the likelihood of a behaviour recurring.

The principles of behaviourism are ubiquitous throughout society, especially in public education, and in particular with Autistic children. For more than three decades, experts in child development and related fields have expressed increasing concerns about the lack of evidence supporting the efficacy of ABA interventions, and the potential psychological damage caused by their use.


What is conversion therapy?

Conversion therapy, an intervention developed by Ole Ivar Lovaas as “The Sissy Boy Project” in the 1970s, was an extension of his work with Autistic children that incorporated the same behaviourism techniques in attempts to “correct” what he perceived as “deviant” sexual behaviour.

In 2021, Canada finally banned conversion therapy, stating it violated numerous Charter Rights. Despite these changes, Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) continues to be marketed as the “gold standard” of “treatment” for Autistic children, even though it is the same approach based on the same principles.

No Conversion Canada defines conversion therapy as:

Conversion “therapy” or conversion practices (also known as “reparative therapy”, “reintegrative therapy” or “aversion therapy”) are any treatment, practice, or sustained effort that has the effect of denying, repressing, discouraging or changing a person’s non-heterosexual sexual orientation, non-cisgender gender identity or gender expression, or any behaviours associated with a gender other than the person’s sex assigned at birth. Simply put, it is abuse.

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