SchaferAutismReport: Shock Tactics

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TREATMENT

Shock Tactics

By Ed Pilkington, smh.com.au xrl.in/8vkp

Both the students and staff

are

monitored 24 hours a day. Photo: www.judgerc.org

It sounds barbaric, but some argue that

inflicting electric shocks on autistic children may dramatically

improve their quality of life.

The entrance to the Judge Rotenberg

Centre near Boston is a riot of bright colours and surreal designs. The

receptionist greets visitors from a deep purple chair in front of

yellow and pink neon panels. Corridors are lit by chandeliers and lined

with huge models of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. There is a meeting

space, called the Whimsy Room, that has a purple shagpile carpet, and

pink, mauve and lime-green walls hung with carnival masks.

But the decor isn't the most unusual

aspect of this establishment. It is the only school in the US, perhaps

the world, that uses pain to treat children and adults with severe

autism or emotional problems.

School residents, who along with the

staff are monitored around the clock, carry rucksacks with trailing

wires that lead to electrodes attached to their skin. Each rucksack has

a box, operated via remote control. When a button on the controller is

pressed, the box delivers an electric shock to the skin. The teachers

regularly shock students, some as young as eight, zapping them for up

to two seconds on their legs, arms or stomach.

Since it was founded 40 years ago, the

school has been the subject of fierce controversy. Critics say

inflicting pain on society's most vulnerable members is a disgrace that

should not be tolerated. But its supporters, including several parents,

say its "aversive therapy" has improved lives, and in some cases saved

their children from self-induced injury or even death.

The school's founder, Israel, is

as unconventional as his creation. A short, quietly spoken man with

tightly curled hair, he came across the study of punishment and reward

as an undergraduate psychology student at Harvard in the 1950s. He took

a course by the famous behaviourist B.F.Skinner, who taught that just

as pigeons or rats could be trained to change their habits, so could

human beings.

Skinner had written a novel called

Walden Two about a fictitious community of 1000 people engineered to

produce the happiest and most efficient society. Every activity is

shared, from child rearing to manual labour. Positive emotions are

rewarded and negative ones discouraged; meanwhile, children are given

rigorous ethical training.

Israel was hooked. "Skinner believed you

could use intelligent planning to make people healthy, happy and

creative. He argued that it should be possible to develop a scientific

approach to behaviour. That was very captivating to me." After

completing a doctorate in psychology at Harvard, Israel decided to make

Skinner's imagined world a reality. He set up his own communes in the

1960s along the lines of Walden Two. "They didn't work well," he says.

"People had different ideas." But it got him thinking about children.

There was a three-year-old girl at one commune who was spoiled and

demanding. He found that, by using what he calls "mild punishments",

she could be transformed

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TREATMENT

Shock Tactics

RESEARCH

Half of All Children With Autism Wander and Bolt from Safe Places,

Study Shows

Refractory Seizures Common in Autism

Prenatal Pesticide Exposure Tied to Lower IQ in Children, Study Finds

PUBLIC HEALTH

USA Today: Most Parents Vaccinate Kids, Trust Docs' Advice On Shots

PEOPLE

NYT: The Crash and Burn of an Autism Guru

Missing Toronto Boy, 11, Makes It Home With Help From Stranger

Bronx Mom Speaks From Experience: City Has No Business Handcuffing

7-Year-Old Children

COMMENTARY

PBS Autism Series Under Attack by Ari Ne'eman IACC Member: Contact PBS

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