O. Ivar Lovaas Argumentative Essay

The articles I am using for this assignment appear more into the middle of the argument for or against ABA, instead of strongly on either side. O. Ivar Lovaas was one of the most prominent early practitioners of ABA. He used many different methods and claimed that if he had gotten a hold of Hitler when Hitler was young, he could have changed Hitler to be kind. Some of Lovaa’s more controversial methods in terms of today was his use of electric shock and other kinds of physical punishment to keep a behavior from being repeated. People back in Lovaas’ times thought that Autistic individuals and other people with varying problems could not be helped. Lovaas proved through his methods that these types of individuals, or at least some of them, could be helped through his treatment plan. The ABA today does not use the physical punishment or electric shocks that Lovaas did in that era of history. And, Lovaas’ claim that around 47 percent of the people treated could then move on with their lives and flourish has never been …show more content…
He recognizes some of the horrible actions done to advance ABA, but takes it within contexts of different eras. Also, he mentions that although ABA has not been proven to have a high success rate, it does have some success. The author seems to think the topic mainly needs more research. Basically, ABA, in all the listed descriptions the author has, is supposed to provide artificial environments that train a child to do or refrain from a certain behavior. It is important to the author that the child is able to receive more positive and negative reinforcement, rather than punishment. He believes that punishment does not do well without something to replace it. At least, this is what he has stated. This is why I think that this particular article sees both the benefits and the limits or negatives to ABA ("023. Behaviorism, Part 3: O. Ivar Lovaas and ABA",