r/ABA • u/Kind-Ad4622 • 4d ago

Advice Needed ABA in Schools

Hey everyone! I just wanted your opinion on ABA being used in schools, especially for our special needs learners or children with social-emotional challenges. I have been working with a SPED teacher since the beginning of the school year and every opportunity she gets, she always mentions that, "ABA isn't the solution" and that "I need to go back to a clinic" as well as not allowing me to practice my ABA interventions (even though that's why I was hired by the principal) and actively discouraging me. Is this just a bad teacher? Should I stay in the school district? Go back to a clinic? Any advice on the matter would be appreciated. 😌

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u/pantsforfatties 3d ago

The majority of publications in ABA from 1968-1978 were education-based rather than AUT/conceptual/OBM, whathaveyou. Just in JABA, I think it was 50%. The year after Science and Human Behavior was published (1953), Skinner published The Science of Learning and the Art of Teaching (1954). ABA has always been about learning, and early behaviorists were focused on changing the learning experiences of all students (see: Lindsley, Skinner, Keller, Schoenfeld, etc). Also look into Project Follow Through. The idea that ABA doesn't belong in schools is offensive, ahistorical, and ignorant.

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u/AmazingAmy712 3d ago

This very much aligns with my own observations in school based and clinic based settings. There are certainly children who benefit from more focused ABA, but imo for some children we're doing them a disservice if we're not doing ABA in cooperation with other fields. I often see children having to work much longer hours than their peers when an integrated, cooperative system could return similar or better results in less time.

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u/pantsforfatties 2d ago

Right. The "efficiency" dimension!