Madam, - It was with dismay and disbelief that I read Minister for Education Mary Hanafin's views on the struggle of parents to get science-based education for children with autism ( The Irish Times, January 31st).
To put my reaction in context, I had previously sent her department a copy of the report, "Meeting the needs of families living with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder" (see www.peatni.org), funded by the Royal Irish Academy.
In your report, Ms Hanafin is quoted as saying "ABA is a valuable teaching method but only one; it only teaches behaviour."
Your readers are asked to contrast this view with material taken from the report in her possession.
Behaviour analysis is a distinct science and profession with a knowledge base that "includes the full spectrum of learning theories, human development, biological bases of behaviour, cognitive aspects of behaviour, affective aspects of behaviour, psychopathology, principles of measurement, ethics, clinical decision-making, ethnic and cultural diversity issues, research methods, and group and single-subject experimental designs" according to the American Psychological Association ( 2007). "Behavioural psychology is especially also concerned with how the various behavioural, cognitive, affective, biological, and social factors interact and impact each other."
Goin-Kochel et al. (2007) point out that, typically, parents try between seven and nine different therapies for a child with ASD. In order to short-circuit this process, the onus is on professionals to correctly inform parents on available empirically validated interventions (PEAT, 2007).
The scientific method is empirically validated for the education and treatment of individuals diagnosed with ASD (Lockshin et al., 2004; Manning-Courtney et al., 2003). More than 19,000 papers have been published using ABA within a variety of areas, including well over 500 studies concentrating on children with ASD (Anderson & Romanczyk, 1999).
"To date, enough behaviourally oriented Early Intensive Behavioural Interventions [ i.e., teaching methods based on ABA] have been conducted to suggest that not only is the approach effective, but as a congregate group of learning based methods, it stands alone as the only effective treatment(s) for young children with ASD" (Matson, 2007, p. 111).
Your readers can decide for themselves whether their Minister for Education has done her homework. Actually, this looks like a no-brainer and Ms Hanafin should be asked to work harder before she lands herself in more trouble. There is a big difference between a method and a science. Parents are asking for science. If not science, what else is Ms Hanafin offering them? - Yours, etc,
Dr MICKEY KEENAN, School of Psychology, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Co Derry.