A Chicago couple with an adult son with autism has been fighting for years to continue using electro-shock, as a means of behavioral modification. The parents, Fran and Robert Bernstein, claimed that a jolt from a cattle prod applied to their son has a calming effect. The Hot Shot Power Mite is capable of delivering 4500 volts of electricity. Electric shocks of much lesser intensity can have severe physical and emotional effects and can be fatal. I know that this couple believes they know what they are doing and it is for their son's best interests, but the reality is that severe injury or death could result, albeit accidentally.
This story brings into focus the fact that it is only in recent times that use of shocks has become illegal, for instance in Illinois. This story raises some fundamental issues:
- the use of shock therapy is only contemplated for very vulnerable populations such as people with disabilities or mental illness. If this "treatment" was so effective and relatively painless then why not use it as a means of discipline for non-disabled children in school. The answer is that there would be riot at the school house door at such a cruel an absurd suggestion;
- these parents were raising their son in an era not that long ago (one generation past) where positive behavioral support was not a widely accepted concept. Viewed as a historical fact, this story, in part, explains why schools and other systems are so slow to embrace positive means of addressing behavior, even though the vast majority do not use shock treatments; the concept of positive behavioral interventions is not deeply rooted. Schools are slow to change, and slow to adopt new and more proactive means of behavioral support;
- parents and schools want behavioral situations to stop immediately. Use of a cattle prod will do that, but it does not teach anything other than pain avoidance. Behavioral planning and implementation takes time to do, implement and to be effective. It does not have the immediacy that parents and schools want, but if done right it is long-lasting, educational and humane.
- Viewed from the perspective of IDEA 2004 which mandates that methods be peer-reviewed and research based, we need to inquire as to the research basis for shock as a means of behavioral modification, other than the obvious that people will avoid painful stimulus.
We need to insist on positive means of behavioral support, resist any temptation to think that there are immediate answers, and insist on good research before we accept interventions. Use of aversives whether shock or other painful means is an ongoing issue. Pain should never be a substitute for sound educational and remedial measures.
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