just learned about something called "facilitated communication" and it sounds horrible, I think more people should know about this...
There’s a lot of debate about what facilitated communication actually is.
Some people use “facilitated communication” to describe putting pressure on the underside of an AAC user’s wrist while the AAC user uses a letter board. That pressure can help people with apraxia control their bodies and feel grounded while moving their own hand to point to letters. With this use of the word, the AAC user is doing the communicating.
Some people use the word “facilitated communication” to means when the CRP (communication and regulation partner), is moving the AAC users hand, and making them point at the letters or symbols, instead of the AAC users doing it themself. With this use of the word, the AAC user is not doing the communicating.
However, there is a lot of nuance and debate about whether the second type of communication actually happens. A lot of times when the pressure type of “facilitated communication” is used, people will call it facilitated communication as a way to discredit the AAC user’s form of speaking. Most of the time these accusations arise when the speller or AAC user doesn’t look at their board. This is not a sign of them not communicating, it’s a sign of muscle memory.
The tests that have been conducted on facilitated communication are often small, and don’t have enough people to get a good picture of what’s happening. Studies will say all forms of facilitated communication are fake, but let’s be honest, what would you do if you were an autistic person being forced to prove that your communication method was valid. You’d probably be freaking out, your body may stop listening to you, or you might have pathological demand avoidance, and be forced to purposefully do poorly during the study.
All this considered, do be careful when reading around facilitated communication. People are so quick to discredit communication methods like spelling, so it’s best to give the AAC user’s the benefit of the doubt and presume competence.
