Is this or isn't it child abuse?

[Live and Learn]

Skin shocks used at Mass. school draw FDA look
Associated Press
By JENNIFER C. KERR and LAURAN NEERGAARD 2 hours ago

CANTON, Mass. (AP) — Some cut themselves. Others slam their heads against walls or desks — so hard that one girl detached both retinas and a young man triggered a stroke. Another pulled out all his teeth.

Self-injury is one of the most difficult behaviors associated with autism and other developmental or intellectual disabilities, and a private facility outside Boston that takes on some of the hardest-to-treat cases is embroiled in a major debate: Should it use electrical skin shocks to try to keep patients from harming themselves or others?

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to ban devices used by the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Massachusetts, the only place in the country known to use skin shocks as aversive conditioning for aggressive patients.

It's a rare move by the FDA, following years of complaints from disability rights' groups and even a U.N. report that the shocks are tantamount to torture.

http://news.yahoo.com/skin-shocks-used-mass-school-draw-fda-look-083032652.html

I don't think this is the answer but many parents and medical officials seem to differ.

[edgineered]

1. Some in authority say it is.

At least they say it is for the uninitiated.

Under Commissioner Elin Howe, the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services promulgated regulations last year prohibiting the use of the GED on any new students, but the GED is still legally allowed to be used on students admitted prior to their promulgation.

http://www.autistichoya.com/2013/01/judge-rotenberg-center-survivors-letter.html

[cali]

2. yes. there has to a better way. padded helmets and one on one for head slamming.

how the hell did a kid manage to pull out all his teeth? that's not an easy task.

[kcr]

3. I hope the FDA finally puts a stop to this.

Desperate parents are being conned into having their children tortured by these charlatans. It needed to stop a long time ago.

[treestar]

4. It sounds better than the self injury

I would suppose allowing that to go on would be considered abuse, too.

[cali]

6. there are other ways to prevent self-injury.

[aikoaiko]

5. Rotenberg recruited me to join them, but I just couldn't

Aversive stimuli is a complex issue in these cases. Aversive stimuli can produce short-term compliance, but long-term problems also not to mention the ethics of involved.

[treestar]

7. Sounds like a complex issue

Rushing to label it "child abuse" being drama.

[aikoaiko]

8. I don't think a lot of people have seen child tear its skin off with its teeth

Or hit their heads against brick walls so much their faces are deformed.

Even padding, protective shielding, and helmets doesn't help as much as one would think. The NFL uses the best helmets in the world and they still are still plagued with TBI problems.

I'm not saying that ALL those who oppose the technique are uninformed, but not using aversive stimuli has its problems too in that self-destructive behavior be slower to address.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. Thank you very much for this.

I don't have any experience with the devices described in the OP, but I think that redirecting autistic kids from the more destructive kinds of self stimulus is of tantamount importance.

The question is whether it works and is less damaging than the behavior it redirects.

[kcr]

9. Labeling the practice of shocking children as child abuse isn't drama.

It's stating fact.

[jwirr]

11. That sounds very much like the treatment that they used to give menally ill adults in the 50s. They

are giving it to students? I knew a woman who had this back then and she lost ALL of her memories for the full 6 months that she was treated. Don't think they are going to learn much. Forgot to call it what it was - shock treatment.