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Comments on Autistic
Behavior, Behavior Analysis, and the Gene - Part II
Note: Dick Malott's reactions are in ALL-CAPS.
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Hi Dick,
We met briefly at this
year's ABA when I bought one of your wonderful t-shirts. I
confess that I have yet to wear it other than when concealed by another
article of clothing but am working on that.
YEAH, I HAVEN’T
WORN MINE EITHER.
I have a son with
autism (he's the youngest of our three children). His siblings are typical children
(Oliver, 10 and Lucy, 8). Simon is 6 and lost his language
and all functional communication skills over a period of about
4 months when he was 2 years old. Prior to his regression
he had been putting 2 or 3 words together and although not a
fast developer, was doing fine as far as we could tell.
THAT IS A VERY MOVING ACCOUNT. AND I'M VERY SYMPATHETIC TO THE
CHALLENGES ALL OF YOU ARE FACING.
It's very hard for me
to comment without sounding defensive, which I don't intend
to be,
HAVING READ YOUR ENTIRE MESSAGE, LET ME SAY, I'M MORE THAN IMPRESSED
WITH YOUR LACK OF DEFENSIVENESS AND THE REASONED TONE WITH WHICH
YOU ARE DISCUSSING THIS HIGHLY EMOTIONAL AND PERSONAL ISSUE.
although clearly the
very idea that I (and my wife) somehow contributed to Simon's condition
is a horrible one.
I AGREE AND THAT THIS
IS A HORRIBLE IDEA AND I DON'T MEAN TO SUGGEST SUCH AN IDEA, THOUGH
IT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO DISCUSS THESE ISSUES, WITHOUT APPEARING
TO DO SO. I KEEP SEARCHING FOR THE PROPER METAPHOR TO MAKE MY POINT,
AND I THINK DRASH AND TUDOR'S POINT, AS WELL. PERHAPS SOMETHING
LIKE THIS: IF A ONE-TON BOULDER IS ROLLING TOWARD A CHILD AND BOTH
PARENTS RUSH TO HOLD BACK THE BOULDER AND PREVENT THEIR CHILD FROM
BEING INJURED, THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SUCCEED. THE ONE-TON BOULDER
IS TOO OVERWHELMING. AND THE PARENTS ARE NOT TO BLAME FOR BEING
UNABLE TO HOLD BACK THE BOULDER. INSTEAD, THEY ARE VICTIMS OF THIS
ENVIRONMENTAL EVENT, JUST AS THEIR CHILD IS.
AND I THINK THE IRRESISTABLE,
OVERWHELMING BEHAVIORAL CONTINGENCIES THAT COME TO RULE THE INTERACTIONS
BETWEEN THE CHILD AND THE PARENTS CONSTITUTE AN IRRESISTABLE, OVERWHELMING
ONE-TON BOULDER. AND I DON’T
THINK IT WOULD BE MUCH DIFFERENT, EVEN IF BOTH PARENTS WERE
PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR-ANALYTIC AUTISM EXPERTS.
YOU MAY SEEN MY EARLIER EFFORTS TO EXPLAIN THIS POSITION, BUT IN
CASE NOT, HERE ARE THE LINKS:
http://old.dickmalott.com/autism/autismgene_part1/
http://old.dickmalott.com/autism/autismgene_part2/
It's just that in situations
such as ours, I really don't get how our behaviour could have precipitated, or even contributed
to, a regression. Even if it could have, could it have
been so different to our behaviour with Simon's brother and sister
to have accounted for their dramatically different developmental
paths (e.g. Oliver and Lucy both have reading ages 3-4 years above
their actual ages while Simon is functioning at around age 3)?
I THINK YOUR RESERVATIONS
ARE WELL STATED. AND I CERTAINLY HAVE NO PAT ANSWER. THAT'S WHY
I THINK WE BEHAVIOR ANALYSTS NEED TO WORK WITH A LARGE POOL OF
PARENTS TO DO MICROSCOPIC ANALYSES OF THE CONTINGENCIES AND INTERACTIONS
BETWEEN CHILDREN AND PARENTS AND TO CORRELATE THOSE CONTINGENCIES
AND INTERACTIONS WITH THE REPERTOIRE ACQUISITION OF BOTH THE CHILDREN
AND THE PARENTS. IN OTHER WORDS, I THINK IT WILL TAKE A LOT OF
CAREFUL WORK, BEFORE WE CAN SEE HOW CHILDREN WHO SEEM TO BE EXPOSED
TO THE SAME CHILD REARING ENVIRONMENTS CAN END UP ACQUIRING RADICALLY
DIFFERENT BEHAVIORAL REPERTOIRES AND REINFORCER/AVERSIVE VALUES.
BUT, AGAIN, IF THAT WORK EVER GETS ACCOMPLISHED, I’M
SURE IT WILL NOT SUPPORT THE POINTING AN ACCUSATORY OR A LAUDATORY
FINGER AT THE PARENTS.
Like many commentators,
I think there are many possible etiologies to the path that leads
to a variable collection of behaviours labelled autism,
and I am genuinely open to the possibility that parental/ carer behaviours
contribute. My own observations suggest to me that a causal
relationship is likely only in a very few families at most and
that in many of them, the impact of parental behaviours is probably
modulated in a negative direction by the child's admittedly unknown
neuropathology.
WELL, I’LL HAVE TO CONFESS THAT YOU’VE
PROBABLY HAD MORE OPPORTUNITY TO OBSERVE MORE CHILD-PARENT INTERACTIONS
IN MORE FAMILIES THAN I HAVE.
I am sure that Drash
and Tudor do not intend to resurrect the refrigerator-mother hypothesis
in behavioural form.
I AM SURE YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.
But I have encountered
it in humanistic psychological form (not a pretty sight) and I
think there is a danger of such a thing happening.
YES, IT IS VERY HARD TO PREVENT VICTIM BLAMING, INCLUDING PARENT
BLAMING; AND WE MUST ALL BE VIGILANT AGAINST THAT SORT OF SIMPLISITIC
ANALYSIS.
If it ever turns out
that we have a convincing theory of autism as contingency-shaped
and an effective means of undoing the damage based
on that theory, well, that will be a different matter.
DRASH IS WORKING ON JUST
SUCH AN EFFORT RIGHT NOW. AND, IN CASE YOU HAVE NOT HAVE ALREADY
SEEN THIS WORK, HERE ARE THE REFERENCES:
http://old.dickmalott.com/autism/prevent_autism_now/
http://old.dickmalott.com/autism/autism_shaped/
http://old.dickmalott.com/autism/worddocs/exploratory.doc
Tony Balazs, BCBA
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Hi, Dick - you wrote that article as a class assignment in LeBlanc's
class? Wow, you sure like to keep active.
WELL, IT'S THE ONLY WAY
I WOULD GET MYSELF TO READ THE LITERATURE ON AUTISM. AND ALSO LEBLANC GIVES GREAT LECTURES.
I know the thrill of being a student again because I attended classes
the past two summers in the area of psychopharmacology - I attended
with my youngest son - we went to class together, studied together
and took the exams together. That was really a peak experience for
me to do that with my son.
FRANKLY, THAT'S MUCH MORE IMPRESSIVE THAN WHAT I'M DOING. I'M READING,
ATTENDING, AND TAKING NOTES, BUT NOT STUDYING FOR THE EXAMS, WHICH
IS WHAT YOU REALLY NEED TO DO, IF YOU'RE GOING TO GET ANYTHING LIKE
FLUENT IN AN AREA. INSTEAD OF TAKING THE EXAMS, I WROTE THIS LITTLE
ESSAY.
You certainly have a great writing style. You have a way of writing
complex sentences which state the point succinctly and brilliantly...and
you do it over and over again.
WELL, THAT'S MORE THAN KIND OF YOU TO SAY.
I remember that you like to write,
YES, I REALLY DO LIKE TO WRITE, BUT IT'S VERY HARD FOR ME TO GET
MYSELF TO DO THE WRITING. I HAVE DONE ESSENTIALLY NO WRITING FOR
SEVERAL MONTHS. I ALWAYS NEED SOME SORT OF DEADLINE, PLUS PERFORMANCE-MANAGEMENT
CONTINGENCIES, TO GET MYSELF TO ACTUALLY PUT FINGERS TO THE KEYBOARD.
but do you find that
your writing comes 'naturally' and easily? Or, do you edit and
re-edit in several drafts of the paper before you are finished.
I'm sure it depends on the paper. (I remember Skinner saying that
he wrote "Walden II" in a relatively short
mount of time, but he had been thinking about it for a long time.
On the other hand, when he was writing "Beyond Freedom and Dignity," I
recall that he said that he had several boxes of drafts of the book
before he finished.)
I THINK YOU AND SKINNER
HAVE PRETTY MUCH NAILED IT. SOMETHING LIKE THIS LITTLE AUTISM ESSAY/RANT IS FAIRLY EASY TO
WRITE, THOUGH I DO EDIT IT A FEW TIMES. OTHER PIECES THAT ARE MORE
COMPLEX TAKE MUCH LONGER. ALSO WRITING OUR BOOK, PRINCIPLES OF BEHAVIOR,
HAS TAKEN YEARS, AS WE NOT ONLY GO THROUGH DRAFTS BUT ALSO EDITIONS
(NOW INTO OUR 5TH EDITION). IT ALSO TAKES LONGER TO WRITE TEXT BOOK
MATERIAL, BECAUSE I WORK MUCH HARDER AT MAKING THE COMPLEX CONCEPTS
AS CLEAR AND AS ENTERTAINING AS POSSIBLE, MUCH HARDER THAN WRITING
THESE LITTLE ESSAYS FOR COLLEAGUES.
I don't have critical feedback to give you on the contents of your
paper - just to informally tell you that I wish I could write as
you do.
YOU ARE MORE THAN GENEROUS, YOSH. THANKS FOR YOUR KIND WORDS.
HOPE TO SEE YOU AT CAL/ABA 2005.
Yosh Kawahara