Chicago Personal Injury Attorney

Facilitated Communication (FC) is a widely discredited technique that has been used by some practitioners since the late 1980's.  The technique involves a facilitator using his hand to guide the hand of an autistic or brain damaged child on a keyboard or with a pen on paper.  According to practitioners of this technique, the autistic child simply needs the assistance of the facilitator to unlock the ability to communicate.  Unfortunately, there is absolutely no scientific basis for this technique and it has the potential to do great harm to the child.  While there are some ways autistic or brain damaged children can learn to communicate,  FC is not one of them.  Frontline did a very complete story exposing the unscientific nature of FC in 1993.  Here are just a few of the many sources that have demonstrated that FC is not based on science:

1st STUDY: The results of this case study demonstrate quite clearly that the subject was not able to communicate using the facilitated communication techniques. [Hudson, et al., "Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders," March 1993.]

2nd STUDY: No client showed unexpected literacy or communicative abilities when tested via the facilitator screening procedure, even after 20 hours of training. [Eberlin, et al, "Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders," September, 1993.]

3rd STUDY: Considerable evidence was found of the facilitators influencing the attempts at communication. [Moore, et al, "Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders," September, 1993.]

4th STUDY: None of the 23 participants demonstrated authorship. There has been no instance in which a participant has successfully identified an object through F/C. [Szempruch/Jacobson, "Research on Developmental Disabilities," July/August, 1993.]

5th STUDY: These results suggest that the communications previously reported from individuals with autism may have been influenced by facilitator co-activity. [Smith/Belcher, "Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders," March 1993.]

If you know someone that has been treated with this discredited technique then in all likelihood that person has not had access to the therapies that are scientifically recognized to help the mentally disabled.  You may want to call Hurley McKenna & Metz, P.C. at 312-553-4900 to discuss your rights.