Reactions to the "Ashley Treatment"

Submitted by Shelley Joyce on Mon, 02/12/2007 - 10:02pm.

The “Ashley treatment” is a controversial intervention, called growth–attenuation therapy, which was used on a little girl, Ashley, who experiences profound and multiple impairments.

The interventions, started when she was 6, was used for the purpose of keeping her physically small to enable her parents to continue to care for their daughter in their home as she got older.

The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities board of directors has issued a response, “Unjustifiable Non-therapy, A response…to the issue of growth attenuation for young people on the basis of disability”. Click here to read the response.

Other sites:

Click here to view Ashley's parents’ blog that explains their position.

Click here to view the site for the disability community’s response to Ashley’s treatment, including links to a statement against the treatment which you can sign and the medical journal article Ashley's doctors wrote about their experience with growth attenuation therapy.

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