ABA Therapy Exposed: Marcus Autism Center

Marcus Autism Center

The company here has a logo, below:

{ID: White background with two blue crescents facing to the side, diagonally top-down, the outer being lighter in color than the inner. The black text reads: "Marcus Autism Center" with blue text below it that reads: "NIH Autism Center of Excellence"}

This company is based in Atlanta, GA and is considered a nonprofit. 

Marcus Autism Center (MAC) are "providing direct services to children and adolescents with developmental disabilities and support services for their families and people who live and work with them," (source). Now they state they are "maximizing the potential of children with autism today and transforming the nature of autism for future generations," (source).

They first started off as the Marcus Developmental Resource Center at Emory University in 1990. This was in part due to a donation to the Children’s Research Center in the Department of Pediatrics by Bernie and Billi Marcus. The institution and company have provided services to more than 10,000 people since 1990. In 2022, MAC is still currently an affiliate of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. They merged as an affiliate in the year 1998, after Marcus donated $45,000,000. The Home Depot in GreenbergFarrow donated a new playground in 2003 to the MAC. 

Bernie Marcus had donated $25,000,000 for the launch of Autism Speaks. He is the co-founder of Home Depot, and is on Autism Speaks' board, as well as the board for the Marcus Center, and the Marcus Institution as founders of both. Marcus is also a well-known Trump supporter, and donated money while Trump was running in the 2020 election.

Recently this year, "advocates" reported to the Health and Human Services on testimony for listening sessions, and one of them was Farah A. Chapes, who is MAC's Government Affairs Director, as well as for the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. This is what she said:

“I would estimate there were 150 people who attended. We arrived very early and were first for comments, which I think was a good thing because the panel was alert and engaged. Getting there early also gave us the opportunity to ‘chat’ with panel members. “There was a huge mix of advocates, providers and lobbyists from what I could tell,” (source).

Marcus Autism Center offers several services, one of them being ABA Services. The others are:

{Source here. {ID: "Services offered: Care and Services, Assessment and Diagnosis, Language and Learning Program, Family Support and Care Coordination, ABA Therapy Program, Severe Behavior Program, Preschool Program, Therapeutic Services, Appointments and Referrals, Multidisciplinary Feeding Program, and Medical Services" all in the white text in the blue background}

This is what they describe for these services:

"At Marcus Autism Center, we are dedicated to providing state-of-the-art clinical services to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our intensive Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy Services Program provides individualized treatment focused on improving core deficits associated with ASD—social communication and play. While our approach to treatment is heavily rooted in the science of ABA, we utilize developmental and play-based strategies to help make sure children are motivated and engaged while working on treatment goals that are most critical for their continued development," (source).

We all know that Applied Behavioral Analysis is not scientific, and is not evidence-based in practice, nor in therapy. 

But, since their founder is on the board of Autism Speaks, which was founded by two anti-vaxxers who are also Trump supporters, they have an agenda-driven, quack pseudo mission on spreading misinformation to as many parents, new or not, as they can. So their mission is to spread quackery. Trump, as we all know, was and still is a danger to the US.

For MAC's ABA support, this includes having ABA therapists on their staff that agree with their mission, as well as goals. Autism Speaks are a cure-focused company, and MAC has a BCBA on their board as well. His name is Nathan Call, PhD, BCBA-D, and he has his Ph.D. in the quack therapy known as ABA. Nathan is an Associate professor in their Department of Pediatrics at Emory University.

"Dr. Call has an active research agenda that includes publishing in and serving on the editorial board for several journals, including as an associate editor for Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice. Dr. Call’s current research interests include the assessment and treatment of severe behavior disorders. He is a strong proponent of disseminating behavioral treatments to broader audiences, which has led him to serve as principal investigator on several federally funded randomized clinical trials. Dr. Call has also conducted translational research in behavioral economics and measure development," (source).

Firstly, the word severe is ableist. Non-speakers are not "severe". They may have high, middle, or low levels of support needs, but it is not linear, nor is a monolith. 

There is a concern because Nathan will use language like "regression" "challenging" behaviors, just like any ABA therapist is trained to. Autism does not regress. You cannot teach the autism out of someone, and that is what this company's focus is on, autistic masking. He talks a lot about aggression, and autistic behaviors, as if autistic behavior itself is solely "aggressive". These ABA therapists are trained to assume natural consequences are ABA, which is false information, and quackery. This can lead to child abuse and complex trauma for autistic children in the therapeutic space, and can foster it. 

Yet, autism is stereotypically seen in such an aggressive light, and self injurious behaviors happen oftentimes due to environmental stimuli being too overwhelming, not because they choose to. Meltdowns cannot be prevented once they occur. NT kids can and do sometimes act more aggressively towards themselves and others, so this is not nuanced, and then have violent meltdowns, and don't get punished in the same ways that these Neurodivergent children do. Yes, we should redirect SIBs, and aggression towards others, but ABA therapists will typically use the reward system for that, whereas we autistics don't. Harm done back to a child does not teach that child anything, and studies have shown this. He also has done zoom talks on Behavior management, and has encouraged different ABA techniques in those videos here.

Autism is not and never will be a monolith. I will update this blog post later on as needed.