Steve_colour-se7en Report post Posted March 14, 2006 New Degree Helps Tackle Needs of Children With Autism The first Masters degree in Ireland aimed at addressing the needs of children with autism has been launched at the University of Ulster. From September 2006 the University's School of Psychology at Coleraine will offer an MSc in Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). The course is aimed at education and health professionals who are working with children and adults with autism. It will also benefit people working with learning disabilities, general behaviour management, parent training, community development, adult mental health or gerontology. The new Masters programme was spearheaded by the community work of Dr Mickey Keenan, who set up the charity Parents' Education as Autism Therapists (PEAT). PEAT has been working alongside the School of Psychology to help plan the course. The charity has long been campaigning for autism intervention that is based upon sound scientific evidence. ABA is the only intervention and educational approach that has strong scientific evidence to support it. For the rest of this article please use the link http://www.ulster.ac.uk/news/releases/2006/2109.html Steve.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lucas Report post Posted March 15, 2006 *Vomits* The charity has long been campaigning for autism intervention that is based upon sound scientific evidence. ABA is the only intervention and educational approach that has strong scientific evidence to support it. Remove the word 'strong' from 'strong scientific evidence' and that would be correct. ABA does have science supporting it for use in Autism, but those who say it is strong know vastly more about ABA than they do about Autism(ie: all behaviourists). ABA only works if the 'Analysis' part is nearly always correct, this is hardly ever the case in Autism though, no doubt as further promotional material for this course will show. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zemanski Report post Posted March 15, 2006 I really don't like ABA there's some interesting discussion of it here Zemanski Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steve_colour-se7en Report post Posted March 15, 2006 Thank you Zemanski I was hoping for a response, because indeed like Lucas I am inclined to think that they will know less about Autism and more about the old behaviourist - approach I had not viewed the linked post before i found it most interesting. Thank you for your comments Lucas, personally the old behaviourists sought laws of behaviour that would enable accurate prediction of any response by any person with given conditions around the time they were doing this as I understand it. However at the same time Gordon Allport was suggesting that too much generalising was indeed being used in psychology.Therefore in order to predict behaviour thus, what we learn in general can help us understand an individual, what we learn from an individual can help us understand in general. Interesting to see if this would be used within the course ermmmmmmmmm! Steve.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mossgrove Report post Posted March 15, 2006 (edited) One the one hand we should erhaps be gals that the existence of sourses like this is helpingincrease awareness of Autism. On the other hand, I can't say I'm impressed by the "The Answer is ABA, now what's the question"approach. The furthest I would go is to say that ABA may be of value to some to some children with Autism, and there are other children with Autism for whom it is not suitable. That statement also applies to other interventions such as GF/CF diet, so I don't really accept the central premise upon which the course is founded. I suspect that central premise is related to how the course is being funded. Simon Edited March 15, 2006 by mossgrove Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
