How Claire Stopped Believing ABA Was the Answer
In this episode, Angela speaks with Claire Samuels about entering the ABA field believing it was the gold standard for Autistic children — and what happened when that belief began to unravel.
In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Claire Samuels, a proud Autistic speech-language pathologist whose journey to self-recognition unfolded inside the very system she would later question.
Claire began her career as a Registered Behaviour Technician (RBT) in the ABA industry, believing what she was told: that ABA was the gold standard for Autistic children. She loved the kids she worked with and believed she was making a positive impact. But as she read autistic voices, learned about interoception, and began recognising her own sensory and regulatory differences, cracks in the framework began to show.
Together, Angela and Claire explore ABA, nuance, Autistic self-recognition, masking, sensory processing, burnout, and what it means to move from compliance-based therapy to connection-based communication.
This episode is about shifting lenses, from behaviour to nervous systems, from control to connection, and from moral judgment to regulation.
🎧 Listen to this episode:
🪑 Attendees
Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate
Guest: Claire Samuels — Autistic speech-language pathologist
You: The Listener!
🗒️ Meeting Agenda
Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Theatre kid, masking, and early sensory differences
Discussion: Entering ABA and believing the gold standard
Interoception, meltdown empathy, and late self-recognition
Leaving ABA and shifting from behaviour to environment
Becoming an SLP: AAC, connection, and child-led therapy
Key learnings
Club announcements
🧾 Minutes from the Meeting
1️⃣ Opening Remarks
Angela introduces Claire as a clinician whose story offers a rare inside perspective on ABA. Someone who entered the field with good intentions and left with a deeper understanding of Autistic nervous systems and lived experience.
2️⃣ Member Introduction: Claire’s Story
Claire describes herself as a “chameleon” in school, a theatre kid who learned to play the role of “normal” while privately embracing her oddities. She studied psychology to understand how people “people,” navigated burnout in college, and found improv as a regulatory outlet.
After serving in the Peace Corps in The Gambia, she returned to the USA, unsure of her path, but drawn to working with neurodivergent children. A friend introduced her to ABA, promising meaningful work, strong income potential, and the opportunity to work in the “gold standard” of Autism treatment.
3️⃣ Discussion Highlights
ABA immersion: 40-hour weeks for toddlers and gold-standard messaging
RBT reality: Minimal training, low pay, no autism coursework required
Demand maintenance: Repeating instructions during meltdowns until compliance
Interoception moment: Supervisor unfamiliar with the concept
Masking realisation: Social media and autistic adult narratives
Pendulum swing: From “gold standard” to “ABA is abuse” to nuance
SLP path: Language, connection, AAC, and feature matching
Child-led therapy: Slower but healthier device relationships
Self-accommodation: Headphones, fidgets, and nervous system resets
Autistic joy: Sesame Street, stimming, and public authenticity
4️⃣ Key Learnings
Behaviour is not the whole story
Good people can work inside broken systems
Language and connection are cyclical
Autistic regulation is not a moral failure
Self-accommodation changes relationships
Labels serve us — not the other way around
📌 Notice Board
📣 Club Announcements
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🎙️ Executive Producers
Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.
🎧 Producers
AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.