Facilitated Communication and AAC for Individuals with Autism
Kayla’s Voice…empowering people with autism.
What is facilitated communication?
Facilitated communication is a technique that purports to allow people with autism who have severe language deficits to express themselves at near-normal and normal levels. It is based on the idea that the person is unable to communicate because of a movement disorder, not because of a lack of communication skills.
An Australian patient’s aid, named Rosemary Crossley, developed this system in the 1970s while trying to help a patient with cerebral palsy communicate.The technique involves a facilitator who places his or her hand over that of the patient’s hand, arm, or wrist, which is placed on a board or keyboard with letters, words, or pictures.
The facilitator provides only backward resistance to the disabled person’s hand. Using this technique, the patient is allegedly able to communicate through his or her hand to the hand of the facilitator, which then is guided to a letter, word, or picture, spelling out words or expressing complete thoughts.
Proponents of facilitated communication claim that with this technique, verbal and nonverbal individuals with autism can communicate at levels previously thought to be impossible. They insist that although physical assistance is necessary during the typing process, the facilitator does not influence the selection of letters.
Facilitated communication has been used with both children and adults with autism in a variety of contexts. It has been used during the administration of intelligence tests, and individuals who previously performed in the severe and profound range of mental retardation have been reclassified as having normal intelligence.
Based on the quality of facilitated output, children with autism and severe mental retardation are being placed in regular classrooms and are reported to be performing academic tasks at grade level. One can imagine the emotional effects on parents who previously thought their child was profoundly retarded or brain damaged and are now told that their child has a lively intellect and a rich “life of the mind.” Through their facilitators, previously mute patients recite poems, carry on high-level intellectual conversations, or simply communicate. Parents are grateful to discover that their child is not hopelessly retarded but is either normal or above normal in intelligence. Facilitated communication allows their children to demonstrate their intelligence; it provides them with a vehicle previously denied them. Facilitated communication may seem a godsend to desperate or forlorn parents.
Critics ask an important question: “Is it really their child who is communicating or is it the ideas or thoughts of the facilitator that are being communicated?”
Critics point out that, to date, no empirical database has proven that facilitated communication is that of the individual and not that of the facilitator. Facilitated communication has not been scientifically validated by any objective scientific group, and most skeptics believe that the only one doing the communication is the facilitator.
Indeed, it is a highly controversial technique with many opponents. Organizations such as the American Association of Mental Retardation and the
Facilitated communication may seem a godsend to desperate or forlorn parents.
Term:
Facilitated communication – A discredited therapeutic method that employs a person (the facilitator) and an assistive communication device to help autistic children to communicate and eventually overcome autistic behaviors. This theory lacks scientific support. Also known as facilitated communication training.
