There Is Little Empirical Basis to Suggest That PBS Is Effective

Overall, there is insufficient high-quality empirical evidence to suggest that PBS is effective at: enhancing quality of life, teaching adaptive skills, or reducing the use of restrictive practices.

The majority of the studies (73.33%) were assessed to be of ‘low’ quality based on a score of <50% on the QATSDD. Whilst there is some ‘high’ quality evidence to suggest that PBS is effective at improving challenging behaviour up to 6-months follow-up, there is little empirical basis to suggest that PBS is effective at improving challenging behaviour beyond this.

An investigation into positive behavioural support and quality of life -ORCA

Here’s another study stating ABAUltimately behaviorism provides a simplistic lens that can’t see beyond itself.Why is the doctrine of behaviorism still being used, at all?How can ABA be the gold-standard for autism when it... More/PBS has a weak evidence base. Their claims to be evidence-basedEvidence-based practice is the process of identifying the best available evidence to make decisions about practices that should be deployed to support individuals in a given population (McKibbon, 1998, see Vivanti,... More are used to dismiss autisticAutistic ways of being are human neurological variants that can not be understood without the social model of disability.If you are wondering whether you are Autistic, spend time amongst Autistic people, online and offline.  If... More people and the neurodiversityNeurodiversity is the diversity of human minds, the infinite variation in neurocognitive functioning within our species.NEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS Neurodiversity is a biological fact. It’s not a perspective, an approach, a... More movement. That’s so frustrating, but at least we have this study in our advocacy toolbox now.

Previously on ABA/PBS:

• The Meaninglessness of “Evidence-based”
• Drop the B from PBS
• Interrogating Normal: Autism Social Skills Training at the Margins of a Social Fiction
• Behaviorist Ed-tech — Ed-tech from the 1940s
• Persuasion and Operant Conditioning: The Influence of B. F. Skinner in Big Tech and Ed-tech
• Lost In Translation: Ways in Which Neurodivergent and Neurotypical Social Languages Differ