Has anyone had any experiences with a communication technique known as FC or facilitated communication?

Question

What were your results or consequences?

Answer 1

The results of using FC with a disabled person can be good if, and only if, the facilitator knows what they are doing. The consequences of having a facilitator who does not know how to properly do FC is that the disabled person is wasting time because nothing is being accomplished, the disabled person can become 'lazy' with their work and communication since their facilitator is actually doing the work and communication, and a parent's hope is fraudulently raised by work and communication that is not a true indication of their child's capabilities.

There are just too many parents out there that 'want' to believe that their child can do more than they are capable of doing. When a facilitator conciously or subconciously does the child's work and communication for the child it can cause harm. All FC should be carefully monitored and tested. There should never just be one facilitator for a disabled person (lessens the chance of facilitator cheating as well as lessens the chance of the disabled person becoming attached to just one person acting as a facilitator).

Answer 2

I know that some who use it believe it is helpful - I have not ever seen any real independence in any of the cases I have experienced but rather the 'facilitator' is doing the work.  

As with many 'therapies' there may be specific people that something is effective with - but they'll sell it to anyone.

Answer 3

Back in the early 1990s, I was running a licensed community care home for adults with developmental disabilities.  Two of our residents attended an adult day program where the staff had become true believers in facilitated communication.  They called me with great enthusiasm to tell me what profound and touching thoughts "Tony" and "Debbie" (not their real names) were expressing through FC.

I was more than a bit skeptical, since neither Tony nor Debbie could point to individual letters or simple words when asked to do so, but with the help of "trained" facilitators, they were producing paragraphs of properly spelled words, with correct grammar and punctuation, and at an amazing level of sophistication.  But the day program staff wanted very badly to believe that Tony and Debbie were actually highly intelligent people "trapped" by their limited communication skills.  (Both of them have Down syndrome but have some verbal language and some sign language.)

The day program staff became almost religious in their belief that all the clients, previously regarded as significantly mentally retarded, could be helped to communicate their inner thoughts through the use of FC.  When I questioned how it was possible that Tony, who couldn't identify the letters of his own name, could now produce lofty philosophical essays, or why he needed someone to "support" his hand when he had good fine motor skills and full control of his movements, they were unable to answer.  But they insisted that "it really works."

Not too long afterward, the television show Frontline had an episode that demonstrated that the facilitators were clearly influencing the people they were facilitating for.  For example, if the client was shown a picture that the facilitator could also see, the client was able to accurately type out the answer, but if the facilitator could not see the picture, the client was unable to answer.

The facilitators were honestly unaware that they were projecting their thoughts and ideas into the answers of their clients.  They wanted so much to believe that they were helping these people express their innermost thoughts that they fooled themselves.

Shortly after, the day program that Tony and Debbie attended discontinued FC.  And in 1994, the American Psychological Association issued a statement that FC is "a controversial and unproved communicative procedure with no scientifically demonstrated support for its efficacy."

It is definitely true that there are some people, especially people with severe cerebral palsy, who have high intellectual abilities and have difficulty expressing themselves because of their speech and motor difficulties.  But there are devices that allow people to communicate on their own, without using a facilitator, even if they can only move one finger, or one foot, or their head, or use an eye gaze.  

So based on my own experiences, as well as most of the research that has been done, I believe that most cases of FC are rooted in the wishful thinking of the facilitator.