The
American Psychological Association has issued a
position paper on FC, stating that
"Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that facilitated communication is not a
scientifically valid technique for individuals with autism or mental retardation" and
describing FC as "a controversial and unproved communicative procedure with no
scientifically demonstrated support for its efficacy."
Here is the video about Facilitated Communication (FC). If you have something to do with FC, I think you should watch it.
Parents are grateful to discover that
their child is not hopelessly retarded but is either normal or above normal in
intelligence. FC allows their children to demonstrate their intelligence; it provides them
with a vehicle heretofore denied them.
Facilitated Communication therapy began in Australia with Rosemary Crossley. The center
for FC in the United States is Syracuse University, which houses the Facilitated Communication Institute (FCI)
in their School of Education.
A very damaging, detailed criticism was
presented on PBS's "Frontline", October 19, 1993. The program was repeated
December 17, 1996, and added that since the first showing, Syracuse University has claimed
to have done three studies which verify the reality and effectiveness of FC, while thirty
other studies done elsewhere have concluded just the opposite.
Furthermore, FC clients
routinely use a flat board or keyboard, over which the facilitator holds their pointing
finger. Even the most expert typist could not routinely hit correct letters without some
reference as a starting point.
Facilitators routinely look at
the keyboard; clients do not. The messages' basic coherence indicates that they most
probably are produced by someone who is looking at the keyboard.
Anyone familiar with Helen Keller,
Stephen Hawking or Christy Brown knows that blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, multiple
sclerosis, amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS), or physical or neurological disorders, do not necessarily
affect the intellect. There is no necessary connection between a physical handicap and a
mental handicap. We also know that such people often require an assistant to facilitate
their communication. But what facilitators do to help the likes of a Hawking or a Brown is
a far cry from what those in the facilitated communication business are doing.
But
the vast majority of FC clients apparently are mentally retarded or autistic. Their facilitators appear to be reporting their own thoughts, not their
patient's thoughts. Interestingly, the facilitators are genuinely shocked when they
discover that they are not really communicating their patient's thoughts. Their reaction
is similar to that of dowsers and others with "special
powers" who, when tested under controlled conditions, find they don't have any
special powers at all.
It is interesting that the parents and other loved ones who have been bonding
with the patient for years are unable to be facilitators with their own children.
And when the kind strangers and their patients are put to the
test, they generally fail. We are told that is because the conditions made them nervous.
These ad hoc excuses sound familiar; they sound like the
complaints of parapsychologists.
Skeptics think the evidence is in and FC is a delusion for the most part. It is also a dangerous
delusion. Critics have noted a similarity between FC therapy and
repressed memory therapy: patients are accusing their parents and others of having
sexually abused them. Facilitators are taught that something like 13% of their clients
have been sexually abused. This information may unconsciously influence their work.
You find here a very about Important Video about Facilitated Communication (FC).
The American Psychological Association has issued a position paper on FC, stating that "Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that facilitated communication is not a scientifically valid technique for individuals with autism or mental retardation" and describing FC as "a controversial and unproved communicative procedure with no scientifically demonstrated support for its efficacy."