Parents want a ban on controversial autism treatment for children

An online petition to ban the controversial and increasingly popular Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatment for autistic children in the Netherlands has been signed 2,400 times in recent weeks. Parents compare it to gay conversion therapy, Trouw reports.

Strictly speaking, ABA is several therapies aimed at teaching everyday skills and unlearning autistic behavior, such as uncontrolled movement and avoiding eye contact. The treatment came from the United States and is on the rise in the Netherlands.

Last year, the LBVSO, the interest group for pupils in secondary special education, received 450 complaints from parents and children about ABA. According to the LBVSO, there are hundreds of providers of this behavioral therapy in the Netherlands.

According to the complaints LBVSO received, three-quarters of pupils experienced the treatment as traumatic. “And more than 90 percent of those have since been officially diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” said Elijah Delsink, who founded the LBVSO and has autism himself. He compared ABA to gay conversion therapy. “With ABA treatments, children have to unlearn their autistic behaviors, such as flapping their arms or other tics. This is done through punishment and rewards. The children learn to behave as normally as possible, which is torture for many.”

Sander Begeer, professor of diversity and autism at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, is also hesitant about ABA. “In the short term, you sometimes see improvements in communication, social behavior, or intelligence. But the long-term consequences have not been properly researched. In the U.S., where the treatments have been offered since the 1960s, more and more adults look back with regret and indignation on the training sessions, which they experienced as traumatic.” However, he advocated for proper research before banning the treatments.

State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen (Public Health) told Trouw that he takes the parents' and children’s complaints very seriously. He wants to have conversations with everyone involved “to better understand what the complaints and concerns entail and how these can be dealt with as effectively as possible in a professional practice.”