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Draw a wordless image in 3:2 orientation that captures the essence of this critique: Autism Answers Back Home | About | Start Here | Blog | Contact When “Modern ABA” Just Means Better Branding Aug 01, 2025 Autism Parenting Magazine wants you to know that you’ve misunderstood ABA. According to their article, “ABA Therapy: Common Misconceptions,” Applied Behavior Analysis isn’t abusive. It doesn’t erase personality. It’s not just about compliance. You’ve just been listening to outdated critiques, they say — and if you understood what ABA really looks like today, you’d be reassured. Let’s pause right there. Because what’s being offered here isn’t a new practice. It’s a new PR strategy — one that sanitizes control by rebranding it as care. The article insists that “modern ABA” is kinder, gentler, more individualized. That therapists now focus on communication, independence and life skills — not rigid compliance. That critics are simply stuck in the past. But what it never does is ask the question autistic people have been asking for decades: Independence on whose terms? Communication measured by whose comfort? And what is being lost when difference is treated as a problem to solve? Same goals, softer language ABA, even in its updated forms, still operates on the same behavioral assumptions: that autistic behavior is wrong, that neurotypical behavior is the goal and that external rewards can be used to reshape a child into something more acceptable. The article doesn’t challenge See more