A Phenomenological Exploration of Autistic Adults’ Experiences with Behavioral Autism Interventions

Abstract

Autistic communities have shared criticism, concerns, and trauma related to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and associated behavioral treatments (Kupferstein, 2018; Sandoval-Norton & Shkedy, 2019; Dawson & Fletcher-Watson, 2022; McGill & Robinson, 2020). Autistic voices have been excluded from research literature on this topic with only a few exceptions, however, paralleling marginalization of autistic perspectives in other areas of autism research (Ooi et al., 2016). This qualitative, depth-oriented research with four autistic adult participants explored their experiences with past behavioral interventions. Findings focused on themes related to both traumatic and positive experiences with ABA. All participants described long term impacts significantly affecting their lives today. Because of the breadth of the interviews, themes also related to many other aspects of autistic lives and histories. This work draws on perspectives from depth psychological traditions (e.g. Edinger, 1997; Klein, 1987; Bion, 1970; Atwood & Stolorow, 2014; Yalom, 1980) and Critical Autism Studies (O’Dell et al., 2016; Woods et al., 2018; Bettin, 2019; Bertilsdotter Rosqvist et al., 2020; MacLeod, 2019; Kapp, 2020), and was conducted using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, largely in keeping with Smith, Flowers, and Larkin’s (2009) framework, with some adaptations made to the methodology to center autistic narratives in autism research. These methodological changes were made with the intention of taking a transgressive approach to validity, and working to promote epistemic justice in autism research and clinical practices (Milton, 2014; O’Dell et al., 2016; Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, 2023; Chapman & Carel, 2022; Botha & Cage, 2022). The work also proposes to other qualitative researchers the possibility of adapting phenomenological and other research frameworks to foreground autistic participants.