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I have seen a significant trend in my practice, teens with high functioning autism unable to attend school due to intense anxiety.

The problem of children with autism who are unable to cope with school and develop agoraphobic type symptoms has long been around, but the increased numbers of highly intelligent, often with a "superpower" talented young people who are unable to participate in their educations and life in general is tragic.

Schools are not being flexible and creative in addressing this. They insist on the old paradigm of highly structured behavioral model programs that simply don't work for these kids any longer. Many of them reject, sometimes with vehemence, the idea of the stucture of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) being practiced on them any longer. They "age out" in a way.

But there is hope, in the form of a study of a school in England that developed a program based on empathy, kindness, and most of all, flexibility. (a link to the article is at the bottom of the page)

The school is proving that the humanization of behavior interventions is still evolving.

The profound positive effect of ABA for serious maladaptive behaviors is clear. Lives have literally been saved and ABA has provided a path to autonomy for countless children.

However, without significant changes, I do not see evidence in my daily interactions with parents that ABA is working for their kids.

It's time to look at programs like the one featured in this episode and make similar models available here.

Link to article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37860824/

In the transcript section I've included a copy of the outline I wrote for the episode.

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This short episode discusses the importantance of children being recognized for partially accomplishing an appropriate behavior.

There needs to be a series of steps in learing something new, and lots of practice to master it. Behavior is the same, learning how to act in a new way is like any other skill, the small successes need to recognized and celebrated.

Listen in to hear how this is done is a classroom setting.

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Many schools and districts practice a form of institutional gaslighting.

I talk about how the structure of schools, along with how the socioeconomic level of the parent determines how much influence a parent has on their child's IEP process.

Other factors such as parent participation are important, see this link for a research article (see link below), but parent's knowledge of the way institutions work in general are more satisfied with their experience in the IEP process. And a parent who has more knowledge of this are often more educated and affluent.

However, gaslighting appears in some form in most schools and districts, it's the nature the of beast, so to speak. Any time a group of people, in this case educators, feel threatened in some way, the natural impulse is to retreat or strike out.

I would argue that the potential consequences of complaints, due process filings and similar parent responses make some school staff feel constrained into non-participation in the IEP process. Generally, those staff members who are less educated about special education are generally more reluctant to participate fully. General education teachers are the group most reluctant to "make a mistake" in a meeting.

In this episode I talk about why some IEP meetings include open and honest discussions about issues, while others discourage parent participation, and what you can do if you are feeling gaslighted.

Here is a link to an article about the issue:
https://adayinourshoes.com/gaslighting/

And here is the link to the parent satisfaction article:
https://www.researchgate.net publication/321690929_Satisfaction_With_Individualized_Education_Programs_Among_Parents_of_Young_Children_With_ASD