Response to Leaf et al., 2021

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In this commentary, we respond to a recent article published by Leaf and colleagues (2021), entitled “Concerns About ABA-Based Intervention: An Evaluation and Recommendations”. In their article, the authors attempt to address concerns raised by autistic people about ABA-based interventions. We argue that they only superficially engage with these important issues, and fall short of supporting neurodiversity, despite their intention to do so. We discuss issues related to biased claims of effectiveness of ABA, the potential for ABA-based interventions to cause harm, the reliance on past human rights abuses to justify current potential for harm, a lack of empirical support related to intervention intensity recommended by ABA provider groups, and the rigidity of procedures used to achieve therapist-determined goals.