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Nicole Lynne de Picciotto's avatar

Thanks for this! We found exposure therapy to by wholly unhelpful for our autistic, presumed-PDA child, but not because he feared any consequences for his behavior. He simply hated being bored or frustrated at school for any length of time. It turned out that there just wasn't a small enough exposure that was tolerable enough, and also the full school experience was so activating to his nervous system, I couldn't imagine a path in which he would gradually get accustomed to it.

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Hannah Markos Williams's avatar

I really enjoyed this post (and, as somebody who is a cadaver dog handler outside of teaching, I appreciated your comment about the relatedness of mammalian learning processes). One thing that has been a helpful and quick test for me whenever I'm considering using or recommending a practice that might inspire differing opinions is to ask myself a) will this help this child achieve a goal that they themselves have freely chosen, rather than a goal that those in positions of relative power have chosen for them? and/or b) will this reduce stress/anxiety around, or otherwise make easier, something that this child will have to encounter even if it's not freely chosen (for example, necessary medical testing). If one of those answers is yes, that's really clarifying. Thanks for sharing!

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