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3:21am June 3, 2014

patternsmaybe:

karalianne:

patternsmaybe:

chavisory:

patternsmaybe:

chavisory replied to your post“I really want to read the RPM books. Because it seems like she’s…”
I think it CAN be used in ways that are deeply sketchy. But yeah, it seems like she understands how prompting works. And I know a girl who’s able to communicate, like, at all, because of it.
Yes, it definitely seems like there are really, really good things about RPM.
Something I can’t quite put my finger on disturbs me, though. And, in any case, I want to learn more.

I mean, I know it would never have worked well for me and would probably have made me want to hit people….

There does seem to be a true believer vibe to it? Like this is The thing that works for ~real autistics~?

There’s a lot of repetition to it, and she’s mostly using it for teaching. So it’s like “which one of these words is the capital of Canada?” fifty times. I don’t know as much about it as I do about FC (I actually did some training for that, many moons ago) but yes there is something about RPM that has always rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t know if it’s partly because it came into vogue right around the time I was getting as far away from ABA as I possibly could, though.

EDIT: Oh, just remembered. Also, the emphasis is on speed and fluency. So it is about saying things quickly. That could be the thing that’s bothering you. Sometimes words need time.

All of that, but not just that. There’s something else I’m having trouble putting my finger on.

It might be the over the top glowing testimonials from people taught using RPM. It’s always a red flag for me when extremely vulnerable people lavish praise on something. No one should have to be grateful for being taught, or for having communication, or for people listening to then. They should be able to take that for granted, *particularly* over time. 

Or how Soma trademarked her own name and there’s this weird… idea that she has some sort of specialness that allows her to unlock autism or something, rather than being a person who developed a skill that other people can learn and use too. When I first heard of it, I assumed it was a new thing - then found out she’s been doing this for 17 years. And, in 17 years, she hasn’t managed to train a single student who she regards as having advanced the field beyond replicating Soma’s work? That is a red flag.

I feel like it might be something else, too. I’m not sure what.

It’s maybe just… if you know someone is very promptable and you’re intentionally using that as an educational and communication technique, it gives you *really* intimate power over someone, far beyond what would be considered an acceptable level of intimacy for a student without a disability. And I’m not so sure they acknowledge that. (I’ve seen emphasis on how there ~isn’t any physical contact~ in a way that strikes me as intentionally downplaying this).

I own one of her books, and they don’t really acknowledge that.

They also don’t really acknowledge that her initial teaching of her son (although now, at least, she says this is a bad idea) involved her hitting him really hard any time he looked away from the paper.  That’s by his description.  Unfortunately, when people complain about it, he says he’s “proud of his culture where parents hit their children” and that he’s proud of each time she hit him.  Which… culture is not the point when people complain about someone hitting an autistic kid in order to train them, and to act like it is, really pisses me off.