What Is Facilitated Communication, And Will It Help My Child With Autism?

February 2, 2009

What Is Facilitated Communication, And Will It Help My Child With

Autism?

Lori Warner, Ph.D., Director, HOPE Center for Autism, Beaumont

Hospital's Center for Human Development

Oct. 23, 2008

Question: What is facilitated communication, and will it help my

child with autism?

Answer: Facilitated communication, or FC, is one of the most

controversial alternative treatments for autism. FC involves the use

of a keyboard to help a non-vocal person communicate. The facilitator

stands behind the person supporting their arm and hand as they

communicate with the keyboard. The belief is that the person is

cognitively competent, but that due to their physical limitations

they're unable to speak or to type independently.

But with the use of the facilitator, many complex messages were then

produced -- messages that were thought to be trapped inside this

wordless person.

It's certainly understandable that FC became so popular as it raised

families hopes to unlock hidden abilities in their children and to

finally communicate with their non-vocal children. The problem is

that when FC was looked at carefully in controlled studies, it was

found that there was no evidence for its reliability or its validity.

The communicators were actually the facilitators, not the children.

And so it's a very sad story because FC really caused a lot of harm

because families were pursuing FC interventions when they could have

been pursuing effective treatment.

This is not to say that the use of keyboards could not be used to

help facilitate communication with autism, provided that the support

and prompting and physical help is faded over time so that the

individual is actually typing independently.

At this stage, many national task forces have issued statements

stating that FC is not supported as a treatment for autism, and that

it's use is prohibited except in the use of research protocols.

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