Thank you so much @Katherinee. I am glad you stumbled upon my Tumblr and find it a great resource.  Congrats on starting your program and entering the field as well.

We share a dismay for the amount of negatively that surrounds ABA and I hope we can also share an appreciation for what our science can do (beyond an autism therapy).  Some of that negatively is warranted.  ABA’s history includes an over-reliance on punishment procedures and practitioners forgetting our main purpose: affecting socially significant behaviours.  Our field is also saturated with soloists (working privately with no supervision) who have basic training in ABA but lack a thorough understanding of the effects our techniques can have on people.  When these people provide mediocre service, ABA gets the blame.  

You’ll soon find yourself reading more of B.F. Skinner’s work. After I read a few of his books, I could see the disconnect between what behaviourism is and what people assume it to be.  Our opinions of and support for behaviourism are of course, biased, but I feel some of the criticism comes from people who have not read what Skinner had to share with us; they’re going based on what somebody else had to say, or their very crude understanding of operant conditioning covered in a Psychology class.

Well, I digress (as I often do on this blog).  Thanks again for reading.  If you’re interesting in connecting with other ABA professionals, there is a large group of us on Twitter and we try to meet on Wednesday nights for #ABAchat.  Consider joining in on the discussion!