FC Validation

Is Facilitated Communication Real?: Arthur L. Schawlow

To give just one instance, David Eastham in Canada wrote a book of poetry which was published and translated into French. He graduated from junior college before his untimely death, and his mother Margaret Eastham has detailed his accomplishments in the biography Silent Words. read more...

Facilitated Communication and Black Box Psychology: Wade Hitzing

Imagine, if you can, the following situation. You and I are two brown-eyed people, arguing about whether blue-eyed people can fly. I say that they can, at least some of them... you argue strongly that they can't. Suddenly, in the middle of our debate, a blue-eyed person flies through the open window. The argument, as currently constructed, is over. read more...

The Communication Portfolio: Chris Kliewer

At the 1993 TASH conference, Doug Biklen, Nina Saha and I reported on our investigation of how teachers confirm for themselves that their students are the authors of the words typed with facilitation. From conversations with teachers, we concluded that individual authorship could be identified through portfolios of students' typing and through examination of their speech and of their physical style of pointing. The following is a brief guide to developing such portfolios. read more...

Facilitated Communication: The Queensland Approach: Jane Remington-Gurney

There has been considerable debate concerning the validity of Facilitated Communication (FC) as an augmentative communication strategy for people with a severe communication impairment. Debate has centered primarily around issues concerning the unexpected literacy skills shown by people who have received little or no formal schooling. [...] In 1992 a reference group comprising senior speech/language pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists and management staff commenced a program to investigate the implications of facilitated communication with a group of 24 consumers. read more...

Research Brief: Preliminary Results of a Validation Study Regarding Facilitated Communication: Donald Cardinal & Darlene Hanson

The validation study presented here has been developed over the past 15 months. The purpose of the study was to learn more about why FC speakers were having difficulty passing messages to "blind" facilitators as was reported in several published studies. read more...

Passing the Test: Rosemary Crossley

Over the last few years, a number of papers have been published which contain examples of people typing with facilitation failing to communicate novel information to their facilitators when requested to do so by test givers. These papers have stimulated further research into the factors that may affect test success for people using facilitation. Issues that are being examined include the nature of the tasks set, the training of facilitators and aid users, and the experience of aid users and facilitators in undertaking tests [...]. While much of this research is still in progress, some results are available; these are summarized below. read more...

Facilitated Communication Validity: Alternative Explorations: Cynthia M. Sheehan

I read with great interest Doug Biklen's "Notes on Validation Studies of Facilitated Communication" (Facilitated Communication Digest, February, 1993). I too have been struggling with the validity issue and have been disappointed with the quality of the studies coming to light. During the 2 1/2 years I have been facilitating, several significant incidents have served to focus my attention on the importance and yet the complexity of the validity issue. As a psychologist who uses facilitated communication, I have the opportunity to provide evaluations to many children and adults who can now display knowledge that had previously been untapped. read more...

Research Brief: An Investigation of the Validity of Facilitated Communication Through the Disclosure of Unknown Information: Cynthia M. Sheehan & Robert Mattuozi

The disclosure of information was attained from three participants ages 8, 10 and 24 years. The format was a variation of the original Victorian government's Intellectual Disability Review Panel study (IDRP, 1989) which utilized a message-passing procedure and found valid facilitated communication from three disabled people. Unlike the single trial approach, the present study had the facilitated communication users participate in four to six sessions where a range of information could be analyzed for validity, consistency, language difficulties, behavioral compliance, and style of facilitation. read more...