Facilitated communication first drew attention in Australia in 1977, when Rosemary Crossley, teacher at St. Nicholas Hospital, claimed to have produced communication
from 12 children diagnosed with cerebral palsy and other disabilities and argued that they possessed normal intelligence. These findings were disputed by the hospital and the Health Commission of Victoria; however, in 1979 one of Crossley's students, Anne McDonald, left the hospital after successfully fighting an action for Habeas Corpus in the Supreme Court of Victoria. After continuing controversy the Victorian Government closed the hospital in 1984-5 and rehoused all the residents in the community. Crossley and McDonald wrote a book about the experience called "Annie's Coming Out" in 1984.
Facilitated communication gained further exposure when Nobel laureate Arthur Schawlow used it with his autistic son in the early 1980s and felt that it was helpful. His experience and its effects on the disability community are described on the Stanford University website:
They became champions of the technique and were largely responsible for introducing it to the United States, where it remains controversial.
In 1989 Douglas Biklen, a sociologist and professor of special education at Syracuse University, investigated Rosemary Crossley's work in Australia. She was then Director of DEAL (Deal Communication Centre),Australia's first federally-funded centre for augmentative communication. Biklen helped popularize the method in the USA and created the Facilitated Communication Institute at Syracuse University.
After starting to use the method in Syracuse, Biklen reported startling results in which students with severe autism were said to be producing entire paragraphs of clarity and intellect. This produced an explosion of popularity; the method spread across the USA— especially due to its seeming success with people with autism. Facilitated communication was strongly embraced by many parents of children with disabilities, who hoped that their children were capable of more than had been thought. (Most of the foregoing discussion is referenced in Jacobson et al., 1995).
Nevertheless, serious questions regarding FC soon began to surface. For example, some autistic FC users appeared not to be looking at the keyboard while typing (which is contrary to training standards for FC). Still others used vocabulary that was apparently beyond their years and/or education, many producing poetry of varying complexity. A concern arose when some of the communications accused the parents of children with autism of severe sexual and/or physical abuse. Not all such allegations were proven true. However, some sexual abuse allegations made via FC have been found to be valid. In late 1993, a Frontline (PBS) documentary highlighting these concerns was televised; FC proponents responded with criticisms of negative bias.
Around the same time, controlled studies were done on the method, most of which reported that it was the facilitator who was unconsciously producing the communication. By the late 1990s, FC had been discredited in the eyes of most scientists and professional organizations, with some calling it pseudoscientific[citation needed]. FC retained acceptance in some treatment centers in North America, Europe and Australia.
Current position statements of certain professional and/or advocacy organizations do not support the use of Facilitated Communication due to their objections that it lacks scientific validity or reliability. These organizations include the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Association on Mental Retardation. ABAI calls FC a "discredited technique" and warns that "its use is unwarranted and unethical.
The Association for Science in Autism Treatment reviewed the research and position statements and concluded that the messages typed on the communication device were controlled by the facilitator, not the individual with autism, and FC did not improve their language skills. Therefore, FC was reported to be an "inappropriate intervention" for individuals with autism spectrum disorders.
TASH (2000) stated: "The question of authorship can become particularly controversial when the subject of what has been communicated concerns sensitive issues ... (TASH) encourages rigorous and ongoing training for people who decide to become facilitators; encourages careful, reflective use of facilitated communication; encourages facilitators to work in collaboration with individuals with severe disabilities to find ways of monitoring authorship when using facilitation.
The Autism National Committee (AutCom) in 2008 issued a position paper in favor of FC, stating: "Autcom criticizes attempts to dismiss FC on the basis of flawed studies that are poorly designed and/or whose results are incorrectly extrapolated to the entire population of FC users. In particular, we reject over-generalized claims that allege or imply that merely because FC is not valid for some people under some circumstances, FC is not valid for any person under any circumstances." Autcom also acknowledges that facilitator influence is real, and argues that while every effort should be made to avoid it, it is possible for both facilitator influence and genuine, FC-user-authored communication to occur in a given conversation.
from 12 children diagnosed with cerebral palsy and other disabilities and argued that they possessed normal intelligence. These findings were disputed by the hospital and the Health Commission of Victoria; however, in 1979 one of Crossley's students, Anne McDonald, left the hospital after successfully fighting an action for Habeas Corpus in the Supreme Court of Victoria. After continuing controversy the Victorian Government closed the hospital in 1984-5 and rehoused all the residents in the community. Crossley and McDonald wrote a book about the experience called "Annie's Coming Out" in 1984.
Facilitated communication gained further exposure when Nobel laureate Arthur Schawlow used it with his autistic son in the early 1980s and felt that it was helpful. His experience and its effects on the disability community are described on the Stanford University website:
They became champions of the technique and were largely responsible for introducing it to the United States, where it remains controversial.
In 1989 Douglas Biklen, a sociologist and professor of special education at Syracuse University, investigated Rosemary Crossley's work in Australia. She was then Director of DEAL (Deal Communication Centre),Australia's first federally-funded centre for augmentative communication. Biklen helped popularize the method in the USA and created the Facilitated Communication Institute at Syracuse University.
After starting to use the method in Syracuse, Biklen reported startling results in which students with severe autism were said to be producing entire paragraphs of clarity and intellect. This produced an explosion of popularity; the method spread across the USA— especially due to its seeming success with people with autism. Facilitated communication was strongly embraced by many parents of children with disabilities, who hoped that their children were capable of more than had been thought. (Most of the foregoing discussion is referenced in Jacobson et al., 1995).
Nevertheless, serious questions regarding FC soon began to surface. For example, some autistic FC users appeared not to be looking at the keyboard while typing (which is contrary to training standards for FC). Still others used vocabulary that was apparently beyond their years and/or education, many producing poetry of varying complexity. A concern arose when some of the communications accused the parents of children with autism of severe sexual and/or physical abuse. Not all such allegations were proven true. However, some sexual abuse allegations made via FC have been found to be valid. In late 1993, a Frontline (PBS) documentary highlighting these concerns was televised; FC proponents responded with criticisms of negative bias.
Around the same time, controlled studies were done on the method, most of which reported that it was the facilitator who was unconsciously producing the communication. By the late 1990s, FC had been discredited in the eyes of most scientists and professional organizations, with some calling it pseudoscientific[citation needed]. FC retained acceptance in some treatment centers in North America, Europe and Australia.
Current position statements of certain professional and/or advocacy organizations do not support the use of Facilitated Communication due to their objections that it lacks scientific validity or reliability. These organizations include the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Association on Mental Retardation. ABAI calls FC a "discredited technique" and warns that "its use is unwarranted and unethical.
The Association for Science in Autism Treatment reviewed the research and position statements and concluded that the messages typed on the communication device were controlled by the facilitator, not the individual with autism, and FC did not improve their language skills. Therefore, FC was reported to be an "inappropriate intervention" for individuals with autism spectrum disorders.
TASH (2000) stated: "The question of authorship can become particularly controversial when the subject of what has been communicated concerns sensitive issues ... (TASH) encourages rigorous and ongoing training for people who decide to become facilitators; encourages careful, reflective use of facilitated communication; encourages facilitators to work in collaboration with individuals with severe disabilities to find ways of monitoring authorship when using facilitation.
The Autism National Committee (AutCom) in 2008 issued a position paper in favor of FC, stating: "Autcom criticizes attempts to dismiss FC on the basis of flawed studies that are poorly designed and/or whose results are incorrectly extrapolated to the entire population of FC users. In particular, we reject over-generalized claims that allege or imply that merely because FC is not valid for some people under some circumstances, FC is not valid for any person under any circumstances." Autcom also acknowledges that facilitator influence is real, and argues that while every effort should be made to avoid it, it is possible for both facilitator influence and genuine, FC-user-authored communication to occur in a given conversation.
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