Customer Reviews

Controversial Therapies for Developmental Disabilities: Fad, Fashion, and Science in Professional Practice

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Autism and other disorders on the Autistic Spectrum are among the most serious of behavioral diagnoses. As such, the ASD's should be the focus of our most intensive, science-based efforts to find ways to address the difficulties we associate with the diagnoses (see www.asatonline.org). Instead, treatment has been a history of fad, with charlatans or the uninformed pushing useless and potentially dangerous "treatments." This book will inform you of the history, as well as current trends. Most importantly, it will show you how to avoid the common non-science based traps. The field's friend, Dr. John Jacobson, recently died. This book is a fitting final contribution.

This is a must-have for your autism library. The book begins with a brief history of modern medicine and then defines what separates science from fad and anecdote. Other reviewers here have discussed the way this book debunks modern fads and pseudoscience so I will focus on two other areas that really impressed me.

First, the editors concisely describe how to go about determining whether or not a treatment suggested for your child is based in science or not. After reading Controversial Therapies, I now have red flags that go up when someone suggests chelation or brush therapy or other therapies based in anecdote. Also I learned to expect specific goals from therapies and not the vague improvements usually promised.

Second, the authors debunk many fad treatments for developmental disorders, but doesn't discount all of them. Instead, the authors teach the reader how to set up a scientific trial of one for your child based on facts. For instance, if your occupational therapist prescribes brush therapy to help overcome a certain behavior, you must define the behavior, measure the behavior without brushing, then measure it with brushing. In my son's case, like the case given in the book, my son's violent behaviors increased after brushing. I have since performed a trial on the effect of small doses of caffeine on his self-stimulatory behaviors (it helped).

This book is an important work in developmental disability literature and I highly recommend it. I also wish you strength, laughter, and success on the way to recovery for your loved one with a disability.

Finally, a book that takes an objective view on the current "quick fix" and "miracle" treatments that are seen in developmental disabilities, specifically in autism.

Controversial Therapies exposes the ugly, inconvenient truth about sensory integration, auditory integration training, facilitated communication, positive behavior support, and a host of other fads and bogus treatments. Jacobson, Foxx, and Mulick have complied a set of chapters, and written many themselves, that provides all the ammunition that anyone needs to shoot down these wasteful and chronic malignancies that pervade the field of developmental disabilities and especially autism.

I use this text in my ethics course along with Ethics for Behavior Analysts (Bailey & Burch) and find that the combination makes for a great foundation for logical and responsible thinking about important treatment issues in our field.

Jon Bailey
co-author "How to Think Like a Behavior Analyst"

As an teacher educator this is a breath of fresh air - common sense and a spotlight on the ridiculous fads in education abound.

Some notes about the book:

Each of the Editors wrote one or more of the chapters, some were the result of collaboration among the three of us.

Many chapters are both informative and humerous.

One chapter updates the critique of of facilitated communication.

One chapter provides a critique of Positive Behavior Support.

There are several critiques of education and special education.

Many chapters refer to the same fad or pseudo-treatments to illustrate different points, so different perspectives are the result.

I'm using the book in a graduate seminar at Ohio State University, and it seems to be interesting to the students as they work on identifying and studying new fad and unverfied treatments for various developmental disabilities that continue to emerge to tap into the love and frustration of parents of children with disabilities.

Controversial therapies for developmental disabilities is an excellent book that describes a variety of approaches for the treatment of children and adults with developmental disabilities. There are 28 chapters that point out inconsistencies amongst therapies that claim to be effective for treating autism and other disabilities. This book points out in detail the difference between what is pseudoscience and what is science by pointing out important information about therapies such as sensory integration, facilitated communication, and other ineffective treatments. Many of the therapies described in this book are advertised as fun, loving, caring, and able to create relationships between care givers and children, which sounds appealing to parents. These therapies are not science-based rather they are based on intuition, and personal values and opinions. Take sensory integration for example, which lacks evidence that its effective for children with autism or for people with developmental disabilities, however some parents and professionals provide this treatment to individuals based off of claims that are made from other people and from the therapists that used this so called treatment.
Because of such claims uninformed parents spend a lot of time and money on therapies that have not yet been proven to be effective. This book can help such parents avoid potential dangerous treatments for their children. It's unfortunate that there aren't any laws that prohibit the use of treatments that have not been proven to be effective for the treatment of developmental disabilities. I think that it's unethical to provide such "treatments" and this book advocates for people with developmental disabilities about the truth of bogus therapies.
The book also discussed why applied behavior analysis is an effective treatment compared to the other treatments described. It would have been great if the authors provided more information about the evidence for its efficacy in comparison to other methods. Nevertheless, this is an informative book for educators, parents, students and professionals. I enjoyed this book because I have new ways to articulate many of the fads described and provide rationales why it's not an effective treatment for people with disabilities.

good book, good info. can't add anymore to other reviews except, have you noticed that disabilities is spelled wrong on the cover? and on the spine!