Autism parents learn to critically read ABA research because many studies exaggerate effectiveness without solid evidence, manipulating those who don’t look beyond the headlines.

This excellent article by Jaime Hoerricks, PhD should remind you to believe your first doubt when you see a fabulous-sounding study about ABA, because hype often hides flaws.

Be science savvy:

Overhyped claims—this study was framed as proof of ABA’s universal success, despite its narrow scope and significant limitations. The researchers are not experts in autism or psychology. They are professors at a sports therapy department.

Context matters—it involved only 30 institutionalized boys in Wuhan, China, a group unrepresentative of non-institutionalized autistic individuals.

Flawed methods—the study did not compare participant success to a control group, making it the weakest type of experiment with no possible contribution to scientific understanding of ABA’s effectiveness. Without a control group, the findings lack validity and provide no meaningful insights.

APA Citation:

Du, G., Guo, Y., & Xu, W. (2024). The effectiveness of applied behavior analysis program training on enhancing autistic children’s emotional-social skills. BMC psychology, 12(1), 568.