Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names.
KFF Health News received dozens of letters in response to an article last month describing how state budget shortfalls have led to cuts targeting therapies that many families of autistic people call essential. Here is a sampling:
Autism Care: Pros and Cons
I am writing to provide additional context and research for your article on state cuts to the autism therapy known as applied behavior analysis, or ABA (“It’s the ‘Gold Standard’ in Autism Care. Why Are States Reining It In?” Dec. 23).
While the piece focused on caps or cuts in service hours being a harmful thing, there have been recent studies showing that increased hours of therapy do not lead to better outcomes for autistic children. While different families certainly have different needs that should be addressed individually with clinicians, and while some children may struggle with reduced intervention hours, it’s important to note that dire predictions about families losing hours of services are not borne out by research.
Another important piece of context missing from this article is that ABA is considered a controversial intervention among many in the autism community. While many families have positive experiences, many other families and autistic adults strongly criticize ABA and have described widespread abuse and trauma from it. Newer research is beginning to provide empirical confirmation for these reports of trauma from ABA.
An article about ABA that leaves out this controversy is not a complete picture. At a time when autism is on the national stage and autistic people are routinely dehumanized by our leaders in government, it is critical to think about how coverage about autism is fra …