Old ABA vs New ABA: How Modern ABA Therapy Supports Real Social-Emotional Development

Why “Old-School” ABA Felt Harmful—and What newer ABA models are Actually Meant to Do

ABA has become a controversial topic, and honestly, it makes sense why. For a long time, the “old-school” version of ABA focused heavily on training children to perform tasks or say the “right” things on command. And while teaching step-by-step skills like brushing teeth can be helpful, things become problematic when a child is trained to recite social responses rather than to understand social communication.

When that happens, children may end up responding like an anxious “programmed” child. They’re already working overtime to understand the world around them and constantly trying to figure out what they’re “supposed” to say or do next. That level of stress will increase if they are given more rules to follow. Subsequently, their sympathetic nervous system is triggered even more. Their restricted or repetitive behaviors are heightened, because those behaviors often serve as coping mechanisms or response to the stressors of not understanding social emotional communication.

What should ABA be focusing on?

It Starts With Social-Emotional Development

Before children learn to speak, they learn to communicate. They smile, coo, take turns babbling, laugh to get attention, play peekaboo, and engage in early back-and-forth games. These early interactions help babies learn to:

Read facial expressions
Understand emotions
Follow nonverbal cues
Share attention
Enjoy reciprocal connection

This is the foundation for all later communication. It’s our universal language.

But for many autistic children, pieces of this social-emotional development didn’t develop in the expected time frame. So, then then are expected to communicate without having this solid foundation of our universal language. They have to rely on their intellectual capacity to pattern the word out around them. It’s not a matter of being unable to learn; it’s simply that certain early developmental steps didn’t click in the same way and they have to learn differently.

That’s where the newer style of ABA comes in.

New ABA = Teaching, Not Training

Modern ABA approaches like NET (Natural Environment Teaching) and NDBI (Natural Developmental Behavioral Interventions) focus on helping children develop the social-emotional skills they missed, in the same way a parent naturally teaches these things.

Think about how parents talk to babies:

“I’m so happy!”
“Yay, you did it!”
“Was that a good choice?”

We assume babies understand the facial expressions and emotions behind those words. But if a child didn’t naturally connect those pieces, they’re missing a key part of communication.

New ABA focuses on filling those gaps gently in a fun, play based natural manner, not forcing scripted behaviors.

Just like physical therapy wouldn’t make a child ride a bike before they can walk, developmental teaching doesn’t jump ahead. It goes step-by-step:

Determine where the child is on their social emotional developmental mile track.
Teach core social communication skills.
Teach core social communication skills.
Support emotional awareness.

This approach lowers the child’s sympathetic nervous system activation—the constant internal “stress mode” that so many autistic kids feel when trying to navigate social situations without the developmental foundation to support them.