Facilitated Communication

Facilitated communication (FC) is an augmentative communication method that purportedly allows persons with severe communication and other disabilities to demonstrate an unanticipated ability to communicate that significantly exceeds the boundaries of their potential abilities. Assisted by handover-hand support or other types of physical assistance from an individual without disabilities, individuals with disabilities thought to have limited communication and other abilities purportedly are able to type FC-enhanced thoughts and ideas that are extraordinary. After only minimal experience with FC, individuals with severe disabilities allegedly have communicated that they have normal intelligence and adept social skills and knowledge. Other individuals have revealed that through FC they are for the first time in their lives able to communicate. Others with severe disabilities have allegedly communicated that they are trapped within a body that prohibits them from competently communicating with others because of a condition known as global apraxia. Biklen (1992) stated that persons with global apraxia may have normal intelligence and language processing abilities, and when permitted to use FC, these individuals may, indeed, reveal their normal intelligence and good communication abilities.

Rosemary Crossley, an Australian, is acknowledged as the developer of FC. During the 1970s she worked at the St. Nicholas Institution in Melbourne with persons with multiple disabilities, most of whom were thought to have severe and profound retardation. At St. Nicholas, Crossley became acquainted with a young woman who had athetoid cerebral palsy. This individual was unable to effectively communicate, feed herself, or walk. Although the staff at the institution believed the young woman to have profound retardation, Crossley was convinced that she had more ability than she was given credit. Crossley also considered her capable of communication if given assistance.

By supporting the woman's index finger, Crossley found that she was able to identify many objects by pointing. Using a procedure similar to what is now known as facilitated communication, Crossley was able to assist this young woman to read and write by pointing to letters with facilitation. In 1979, when the woman was 18 years of age, she left the institution to live with Crossley. Crossley and the young woman were instrumental in closing the St. Nicholas institution, based on claims that the staff treated residents in an inhumane fashion.

In 1986 the Dignity through Education and Language Communication Centre (DEAL) opened in Victoria, Australia, to assist persons with severe communication disorders. Crossley introduced facilitated communication to DEAL, because of her belief that clients' physical problems did not permit them to readily use standard augmentative communication devices. Facilitated communication was determined to be an effective communication option for many of DEAL's clients, including those thought to have mental retardation and autism.

Douglas Biklen is given credit for introducing facilitated communication in the United States. He saw FC used at the DEAL Centre, during which individuals [Page 202]with severe disabilities revealed unexpected literacy and abilities. Biklen was impressed by the alleged desire of many of these students to be in normalized educational settings and to be able to use their purported FC-supported skills in general education classrooms. Upon his return to the United States, Biklen introduced FC to the Syracuse, New York, public school system. Based on the remarkable success he purportedly witnessed, Biklen (1990) wrote an article strongly supporting FC.

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