A mom who is home-schooling her young child with autism recently posted a poignant commentary on professionals who know just enough about behavior analysis to make them dangerous. This person was a speech-therapist who sees the child regularly, or did, and the mom reported that when she asked for help with a recent pattern of repetitive speech. 
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”
Mom asked what she should do when David starts one of these repetitive episodes. She said she knew it meant something but could not figure it out. “Just ignore it.” was the quick response. No functional analysis. No attempt to help the mom figure this out and her reaction was, ” I HATE IT when therapists decide to ignore a certain behavior, so they talk louder in their no nonsense voice and strong arm the child into doing (insert activity here).”
I hope that we train our therapists a little better than this and help parents try to understand behavior rather than just giving pat answers. This speech-therapist assumed that the mom was reinforcing the behavior without any evidence. But, the therapist didn’t recommend a DRA: “Just ignore it.” Mom’s real frustration at this insensitive treatment came a little later, “Maybe my approach is just different and I have to admit to being frustrated and not understanding what David needed that day, but I think it’s inhumane to discount his (repeated) attempts of expression.”
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”‘
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”
“I feel happiest talking about giraffes.”
“Giraffes live on the grassy Savannah”, he blurts and then continues…
“I feel happiest talking about the giraffes.”
“I feel happiest talking about the giraffes.”
Mom decided to seek out a different therapist, someone who would give her some help in understanding her child’s behavior. I wish she had reached out to a behavior analyst, a very well trained behavior analyst, but she hasn’t yet.
As a postscript: She mentioned the episode to her husband a few days later, “David was obsessed with the giraffes at the outdoor store* I took him to last week. He couldn’t stop talking about it, I had to practically drag him out of the store.”
* The outdoor store is where Dad goes to buy his fishing gear. It is a mega-sportsmens store, with a large section of equipment for hunting. The store has huge displays of real (taxidermied) animals seen on safaris. One section has elephants, gazelles, and of course, giraffes.
