Time magazine reporter tries her hand at FC
May 11, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Claudia Wallis, who wrote the Time magazine article about two New Jersey autism schools, has written an article about Facilitated Communication (FC), “Helping” Autistic People to Speak, in which she helps to hold an autistic man’s wrist as he types.
I held Thresher’s wrist as he typed answers to my questions. I found that I had to constantly pull his hand back away from the keyboard with a steady pressure. At no point did I feel that I was leading him toward the keys, nor did I know the answers to the questions I was asking him. He answered some clearly, and others less coherently.
I can imagine that facilitators with a close, loving relationship to the person using FC might inadvertently lead them by the hand and, in this sense, put words in their mouths. But at Syracuse, I became convinced that at least some FC is for real, and for someone with no other form of communication, it can be life-altering.
I much appreciate Ms. Wallis’ personal account of being a facilitator but object to her use of the word “mystery”: “Why autistic children struggle to speak is something of a mystery,” she writes. Why Charlie struggles to talk is no mystery to us–it is due to the way his brain is differently wired.
FC may be controversial but giving Charlie another means to communicate is most certainly not.
Penn Jillette did a great radio show on FC earlier this week. If anyone wants to listen to it, go to http://www.pennradio.com and scroll down to featured audio. The FC show was on May 10.
Unfortunately, about ten years ago, 1994-1996, when facilited communication first arrived in America from Australia, it was repeatedly tested under neutral scientific environments where facilitaters didn’t know what the autistic kids were shown or heard. The results were nothing greater than chance. it was only when the facilitator knew/knows what the autistic or mentally retarded child sees or hears that correct typing answers or replies occur.
Once again, anecdotal reports of wonderful cures require testing in neutral test conditions to meet a standard of reliability and be seen as true. We wish the untested reports were true, but unfortunately in this case it’s a sham.
Rmember. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Time magazine should be ashamed of itself.