Hi! I'm Henny Kupferstein
and this video is a short response
to the self-confirmatory tactics employed by
behaviorists to justify their practice.
In my recent paper, it is discussed that
(1) an autism diagnosis comes from a
parent who fills out a questionnaire
about their child's behavior, and (2)
the evidence for effectiveness of ABA comes
from the behaviorists themselves. So, if the
parent can purchase or create an autism diagnosis,
and I know this as a parent myself,
and the behaviors can fabricate
an effectiveness, then I can use the
survey as an instrument to check for
symptoms, and to check for
effectiveness, and to check for parent satisfaction.
They use the exact same
instrument to prove their worthiness,
but they are challenging my use of the same
instrument to test for ineffectiveness.
Let's take a step back and look at how
other industries use the same tactics.
It's well documented that the tobacco
industry funded and used scientific studies
to undermine evidence linked to
second-hand smoking and cardiovascular disease.
So these tobacco-company-funded studies
were conducted specifically to
support the development of 'reduced-harm' cigarettes.
Now go back to 1971 when
President Nixon appointed a special committee
to push the increase for corn
farming. This was specifically done by
the influential farmers who had a vote
in this particular issue and they
represented their dying industry.
Burgers became bigger, fries were cooked in corn oil,
corn syrup was used to sweeten cereals,
and 90% of foods eaten
by Americans today have corn.
And if you look at the government initiative that
sponsored research, what they did was
insist that corn does not contribute to obesity.
And they went out of their way to
refute the effectiveness of low-carb high-fat diets.
Some studies even suggested that such diets were
directly linked to the increase of heart disease!
Autistic people and autistic parents
should be advised to keep the faith alive.
You are not going to be hurt for much longer.
Trust you intuition, follow your heart,
and do right by your child.
When you stand up to so-called professionals
who say you must listen to them
and to prevent lifelong disability and dependency,
check with yourself if those
are outcomes that you are aligned with.
Do you wish for your child to be "normalized"
and be made "indistinguishable" from his peers
by subjecting him to an
intervention that was used for
conversion therapy, and to support the
practice of 'pray the gay away'?
Behaviorism is no longer allowed for animals.
It's unethical to train animals
with rewards and punishments for scientific exploration.
Know the facts, and stick to your guns.
It's your life.
You should be in the driver's seat
when deciding on what your needs are.
How you coexist in the world is of nobody's concern except yours.
YOU MATTER!
And to all other ethical researchers out there,
here is a call for you to propose research
to demonstrate effectiveness of your work.
However when using the voice of the people you claim to help,
you need to justify
why you're excluding the
voice of the people who you regard as
incapable of providing informed consent
or owning their own narrative in
whichever way they relay it.
As an autistic researcher, mother of autistic children,
and practitioner to
non-speaking autistics who rely on
radically different means for communicating,
a counter-study must be able to account for the bias
that is glaringly obvious.
Thank you for listening and sharing.
You can click below to subscribe to my channel
and be updated on my work.
