Comments on Autistic Behavior, Behavior Analysis, and the Gene - Part II

Note: Dick Malott's reactions are in ALL-CAPS.

Hi Dick,

We met briefly at this year's ABA when I bought one of your wonderful t-shirts.  I confess that I have yet to wear it other than when concealed by another article of clothing but am working on that.

YEAH, I HAVEN’T WORN MINE EITHER.

I have a son with autism (he's the youngest of our three children).  His siblings are typical children (Oliver, 10 and Lucy, 8).  Simon is 6 and lost his language and all functional communication skills over a period of about 4 months when he was 2 years old.  Prior to his regression he had been putting 2 or 3 words together and although not a fast developer, was doing fine as far as we could tell.

THAT IS A VERY MOVING ACCOUNT. AND I'M VERY SYMPATHETIC TO THE CHALLENGES ALL OF YOU ARE FACING.

It's very hard for me to comment without sounding defensive, which I don't intend to be,

HAVING READ YOUR ENTIRE MESSAGE, LET ME SAY, I'M MORE THAN IMPRESSED WITH YOUR LACK OF DEFENSIVENESS AND THE REASONED TONE WITH WHICH YOU ARE DISCUSSING THIS HIGHLY EMOTIONAL AND PERSONAL ISSUE.

although clearly the very idea that I (and my wife) somehow contributed to Simon's condition is a horrible one.  

I AGREE AND THAT THIS IS A HORRIBLE IDEA AND I DON'T MEAN TO SUGGEST SUCH AN IDEA, THOUGH IT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO DISCUSS THESE ISSUES, WITHOUT APPEARING TO DO SO. I KEEP SEARCHING FOR THE PROPER METAPHOR TO MAKE MY POINT, AND I THINK DRASH AND TUDOR'S POINT, AS WELL. PERHAPS SOMETHING LIKE THIS: IF A ONE-TON BOULDER IS ROLLING TOWARD A CHILD AND BOTH PARENTS RUSH TO HOLD BACK THE BOULDER AND PREVENT THEIR CHILD FROM BEING INJURED, THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SUCCEED. THE ONE-TON BOULDER IS TOO OVERWHELMING. AND THE PARENTS ARE NOT TO BLAME FOR BEING UNABLE TO HOLD BACK THE BOULDER. INSTEAD, THEY ARE VICTIMS OF THIS ENVIRONMENTAL EVENT, JUST AS THEIR CHILD IS. 

AND I THINK THE IRRESISTABLE, OVERWHELMING BEHAVIORAL CONTINGENCIES THAT COME TO RULE THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE CHILD AND THE PARENTS CONSTITUTE AN IRRESISTABLE, OVERWHELMING ONE-TON BOULDER. AND I DON’T THINK IT WOULD BE MUCH DIFFERENT, EVEN IF BOTH PARENTS WERE PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR-ANALYTIC AUTISM EXPERTS. 

It's just that in situations such as ours, I really don't get how our  behaviour could have precipitated, or even contributed to, a regression.  Even if it could have, could it have been so different to our behaviour with Simon's brother and sister to have accounted for their dramatically different developmental paths (e.g. Oliver and Lucy both have reading ages 3-4 years above their actual ages while Simon is functioning at around age 3)?

I THINK YOUR RESERVATIONS ARE WELL STATED. AND I CERTAINLY HAVE NO PAT ANSWER. THAT'S WHY I THINK WE BEHAVIOR ANALYSTS NEED TO WORK WITH A LARGE POOL OF PARENTS TO DO MICROSCOPIC ANALYSES OF THE CONTINGENCIES AND INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CHILDREN AND PARENTS AND TO CORRELATE THOSE CONTINGENCIES AND INTERACTIONS WITH THE REPERTOIRE ACQUISITION OF BOTH THE CHILDREN AND THE PARENTS. IN OTHER WORDS, I THINK IT WILL TAKE A LOT OF CAREFUL WORK, BEFORE WE CAN SEE HOW CHILDREN WHO SEEM TO BE EXPOSED TO THE SAME CHILD REARING ENVIRONMENTS CAN END UP ACQUIRING RADICALLY DIFFERENT BEHAVIORAL REPERTOIRES AND REINFORCER/AVERSIVE VALUES. BUT, AGAIN, IF THAT WORK EVER GETS ACCOMPLISHED, I’M SURE IT WILL NOT SUPPORT THE POINTING AN ACCUSATORY OR A LAUDATORY FINGER AT THE PARENTS.

Like many commentators, I think there are many possible etiologies to the path that leads to a variable collection of behaviours labelled  autism, and I am genuinely open to the possibility that parental/ carer behaviours contribute.  My own observations suggest to me that a causal relationship is likely only in a very few families at most  and that in many of them, the impact of parental behaviours is probably modulated in a negative direction by the child's admittedly unknown neuropathology.

WELL, I’LL HAVE TO CONFESS THAT YOU’VE PROBABLY HAD MORE OPPORTUNITY TO OBSERVE MORE CHILD-PARENT INTERACTIONS IN MORE FAMILIES THAN I HAVE.

I am sure that Drash and Tudor do not intend to resurrect the refrigerator-mother hypothesis in behavioural form. 

I AM SURE YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.

But I have  encountered it in humanistic psychological form (not a pretty sight) and I think there is a danger of such a thing happening. 

YES, IT IS VERY HARD TO PREVENT VICTIM BLAMING, INCLUDING PARENT BLAMING; AND WE MUST ALL BE VIGILANT AGAINST THAT SORT OF SIMPLISITIC ANALYSIS.

If it ever turns out that we have a convincing theory of autism as contingency-shaped and an effective means of undoing the damage based on that theory, well, that will be a different matter.

Tony Balazs, BCBA

______________________________________________________________

Hi, Dick - you wrote that article as a class assignment in LeBlanc's class? Wow, you sure like to keep active.

WELL, IT'S THE ONLY WAY I WOULD GET MYSELF TO READ THE LITERATURE ON AUTISM. AND ALSO LEBLANC GIVES GREAT LECTURES.

I know the thrill of being a student again because I attended classes the past two summers in the area of psychopharmacology - I attended with my youngest son - we went to class together, studied together and took the exams together. That was really a peak experience for me to do that with my son.

FRANKLY, THAT'S MUCH MORE IMPRESSIVE THAN WHAT I'M DOING. I'M READING, ATTENDING, AND TAKING NOTES, BUT NOT STUDYING FOR THE EXAMS, WHICH IS WHAT YOU REALLY NEED TO DO, IF YOU'RE GOING TO GET ANYTHING LIKE FLUENT IN AN AREA. INSTEAD OF TAKING THE EXAMS, I WROTE THIS LITTLE ESSAY.

You certainly have a great writing style. You have a way of writing complex sentences which state the point succinctly and brilliantly...and you do it over and over again.

WELL, THAT'S MORE THAN KIND OF YOU TO SAY.

I remember that you like to write,

YES, I REALLY DO LIKE TO WRITE, BUT IT'S VERY HARD FOR ME TO GET MYSELF TO DO THE WRITING. I HAVE DONE ESSENTIALLY NO WRITING FOR SEVERAL MONTHS. I ALWAYS NEED SOME SORT OF DEADLINE, PLUS PERFORMANCE-MANAGEMENT CONTINGENCIES, TO GET MYSELF TO ACTUALLY PUT FINGERS TO THE KEYBOARD.

but do you find that your writing comes 'naturally' and easily? Or, do you edit and re-edit in several drafts of the paper before you are finished. I'm sure it depends on the paper. (I remember Skinner saying that he wrote "Walden II" in a relatively short mount of time, but he had been thinking about it for a long time. On the other hand, when he was writing "Beyond Freedom and Dignity," I recall that he said that he had several boxes of drafts of the book before he finished.)

I THINK YOU AND SKINNER HAVE PRETTY MUCH NAILED IT. SOMETHING LIKE THIS LITTLE AUTISM ESSAY/RANT IS FAIRLY EASY TO WRITE, THOUGH I DO EDIT IT A FEW TIMES. OTHER PIECES THAT ARE MORE COMPLEX TAKE MUCH LONGER. ALSO WRITING OUR BOOK, PRINCIPLES OF BEHAVIOR, HAS TAKEN YEARS, AS WE NOT ONLY GO THROUGH DRAFTS BUT ALSO EDITIONS (NOW INTO OUR 5TH EDITION). IT ALSO TAKES LONGER TO WRITE TEXT BOOK MATERIAL, BECAUSE I WORK MUCH HARDER AT MAKING THE COMPLEX CONCEPTS AS CLEAR AND AS ENTERTAINING AS POSSIBLE, MUCH HARDER THAN WRITING THESE LITTLE ESSAYS FOR COLLEAGUES.

I don't have critical feedback to give you on the contents of your paper - just to informally tell you that I wish I could write as you do.

YOU ARE MORE THAN GENEROUS, YOSH. THANKS FOR YOUR KIND WORDS. 
HOPE TO SEE YOU AT CAL/ABA 2005.

Yosh Kawahara