One common response to criticism of ABA is to claim that people subjected to it enjoy it:

• “My child loves his therapist and asks to go to sessions!”
• “All of my clients smile and have fun!”
• “My ABA is play based!”

What people forget is that affect is a set of behaviors, and that behavior modification methods work as well on affective behaviors as they do on anything else:

• You can reinforce people to look happy
• You can reinforce people to praise therapy
• It doesn’t have to be an explicit part of the behavior plan to happen
• And it can keep happening even after you fade direct prompts or direct intentional reinforcers

ABA programs give the therapist massive power over the person. That power in itself can cause people to look happy, through a more subtle reinforcement mechanism than takes place on a behavior plan:

• If you have power over someone in the way that behavior therapists do, they’re going to be highly motivated to please you
• If they figure out that you want to believe that they are happy, they are very likely to act like they are
• If you treat them better when they display the affect you want or praise you, they’re likely to act happy.
• It doesn’t mean they’re actually happy
• Or that what you’re doing is good for them

(Also, affect often is an explicit part of someone’s behavior plan. It is not at all uncommon for ABA programs to involve actively ignoring distress and withholding attention and rewards until someone looks happy. It is not at all uncommon for ABA programs to involve teaching people to smile, to hug, or to otherwise do things that would out-of-context indicate happiness, enjoyment, or affection. It doesn’t have the same meaning if it’s prompted or trained.)

Also, programs based on positive reinforcement involving controlling someone’s access to stuff they care about:

• The first step in a program based on positive reinforcement is to find out what someone most enjoys or cares about
• (This is called a preference assessment or a reinforcement inventory. Here’s an example.)
• And then making sure they have no access (or limited access) to those things outside of sessions or other situations in which someone is actively reinforcing them to do something
• Of course if someone’s only access to everything important to them happens in sessions they will ask for sessions
• That doesn’t mean they like the fact that someone has that level of power over them
• (No one likes being manipulated that way.)
• That doesn’t mean they like the things that the therapist makes them do
• That doesn’t mean the power dynamic is harmless
• That doesn’t mean ABA is a good approach to teaching

People who can’t say no, can’t say yes meaningfully. Looking happy isn’t meaningful if you’re rewarded for affecting happiness and punished for looking visibly distressed. Making the best of a bad situation isn’t consent.