Some people argue that it's normal for a child to make random sounds and movements, but kids with autism can not control the sounds and movements they make like a regular child could do. An initial goal of ABA therapy is to assure they always remind the child to have “cool mouth, calm body.” This reminds the child that making random noises and random movements is not allowed. By having rewards it makes the child want to do well, so this gives the therapist the opportunity to teach positive reinforcement. The famous psychologist B.F. Skinner introduced the idea that reinforcing good behavior will make that behavior more likely to occur again. Autism Speaks highlights that “when a behavior is followed by something that is valued (a reward), that behavior is more likely to be repeated. ABA uses positive reinforcement in a way that can be measured in order to help bring about meaningful behavior change”. Parents are encouraged to have their child do 40 hours a week for therapy because this amount of time is needed for these children to progress through several stages of communication like manding, tacting, echoic, intraverbal. The 40 hours per week is actually beneficial for the parent because it allows them to work much like sending a normal child to school. The reason for this is if you continue to send your child to therapy for that amount per week you're more likely to show improvement because the program continues to teach kids good behavior …show more content…
The reason people believe this is because ABA therapy teaches kids with autism to go through the motions of conversation without expression. In other words, the child minimizes their expressive speech in order to comply with the removal of bad behaviors. People believe that other types of therapy, rewards can be used but it should not be the major factor of therapy. They think it takes away the goal of therapy and fails to teach the skill to the child.
The biggest drawback is that it is very expensive to have someone work one on one and the gains are slow to occur. It may take years for them to go into a classroom setting and as a result parents can’t justify the cost. According to the article How Much Does ABA Therapy Cost, the costs for ABA therapy without insurance can range between $20 and $75 per hour. For a full time student for 52 weeks it would end up totaling $156,000. This is over three times the cost to attend Harvard in 2016/2017 (without room and board). As you can see, the cost to teach a child is very expensive, but the alternative to not spending the money while they’re young is that