tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000861130039293919.post2881564311243999814..comments2022-08-08T18:17:07.469-04:00Comments on A View From the Boundaries: Management of Children With Autism Spectrum DisordersAlexander Cheezemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08446703016516906469noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000861130039293919.post-65546099884365649862010-07-28T07:13:33.315-04:002010-07-28T07:13:33.315-04:00One extremely impressive piece of commercial SPAM ...One extremely impressive piece of commercial SPAM deleted (had the author link not linked to a "generic viagra" seller, I would have seriously wondered whether that was actually SPAM or just a somewhat incoherent serious author).Alexander Cheezemhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08446703016516906469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000861130039293919.post-24171909624855713202009-08-06T09:21:23.551-04:002009-08-06T09:21:23.551-04:00Mr. Doherty,
You seem to forget that I am one of ...Mr. Doherty,<br /><br />You seem to forget that I am one of those professionals as well. Just what do you think I'm a grad student in? Have you looked through my blog long enough to notice that my program has a heavy practicum component? There are several other relevant questions I could ask, but I think you get the idea.<br /><br />I'm due to finish my program in a week or so, too... so this blog will need a new subtitle pretty soon.<br /><br />Now that I've addressed the ad hominem portion of your message, let's focus on the actual content.<br /><br />The problem with the ABA section of the article that I address is its constant purveyance information that is incorrect, oversimplified, or otherwise erroneous in some fashion. For instance, it lumps ABA-based interventions together in terms of effectiveness, thereby inappropriately generalizing studies done on one form of intervention to another based solely on the fact that those interventions are based on the same theoretical model. The fallacy involved here is something that I believe should be obvious.<br /><br />For obvious reasons, a study on the effectiveness of PECS says little to nothing about the effectiveness of Lovaas-style DTT.<br /><br />I also object to the way it describes both compliance and imitation as "foundation skills" without further citation. There's a great deal of emperical evidence that imitation (especially motor imitation) as defined in ABA practice is anything but, and compliance...<br /><br />I'm not getting into the ethical issues involved with that in a mere comment. If I ever write about it, I'll try for a peer-reviewed journal.<br /><br />Then there's the way the article implies that the only (or even primary) criticisms of DTT are the issue of generalization difficulties and the "naturalness" of the teaching environment.<br /><br />I could go on and on. Functional assessment methodologies are described as a singular method despite being anything but. Functional analysis and assessment are confused (admittedly an easy enough mistake to make and one that even I make in colloquial speech, but one that has no place in an edited article submitted to a major journal). Elements of theoretical models are taken as fact without citation... etc., etc.<br /><br />As for the previous reviews, I cannot speak about most of the ones you cite. I tend to read peer-reviewed literature, which none of the reviews you mention qualify as (to my knowledge). The MADSEC report, however, is in my queue of things to read through, somewhere after a rather interesting paper by Edelson (2005) on criterion contamination in intelligence tests.Alexander Cheezemhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08446703016516906469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000861130039293919.post-12593908014807469622009-08-06T08:09:43.717-04:002009-08-06T08:09:43.717-04:00Apart from your comments about the proper definiti...Apart from your comments about the proper definition of ABA do you take issues with conclusions drawn in the AAP article about sustained gains made by autistic children who received ABA intervention? Do you also discredit previous reviews of ABA effectiveness such as the MADSEC Report, the NYSDOH reviews, the US Surgeon General and the various reviews of the Association for Science in Autism Treatment? <br /><br />How about the opinions of professionals who actually work with autistic children such as Doreen Granpeesheh of CARD, Alan Harchik of the May Institute, Dr Mickey Keenan of the University of Ulster, former Director of Parents’ Education as Autism Therapists (PEAT)or Dr. Paul McDonnell of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Professor Emeritus (Psychology) and Clinical Psychologist? These people are not grad students, or former postal workers. They have spent decades actually working with autistic children, applying ABA principles to help them make the gains specified in the studies quoted above.<br /><br />I respectfully disagree with KWombles. Your article is not very good at all. No offense intended.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05838571980003579163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000861130039293919.post-68995208891135149922009-08-04T14:06:25.119-04:002009-08-04T14:06:25.119-04:00Good work, Alexander! :-) I'm looking forward ...Good work, Alexander! :-) I'm looking forward to reading the articles you linked to that I hadn't read yet.Kim Wombleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15492455180502821052noreply@blogger.com