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Blog posts reflect the opinions of the individual contributors and may not represent those of other contributors, founders of the website, or commenters. Views are subject to change as evidence becomes available. The comment section may contain misinformation regarding the current scientific status of FC/RPM/S2C. We urge readers to do their own research. Blog posts are meant for educational purposes only and are not intended to represent the diagnosis or treatment of individuals with profound communication difficulties.
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About this Website
A Reminder of What We Do and Why
Blog Posts
Actually there are published authorship results for S2C/RPM…and they aren’t good
A critique of United for Communication Choice’s “facts” page
A long history of derision and embarrassment for Syracuse University’s support of FC
A Magician Cannot Dispute FC…Or Can He?
A Message from a Japanese Mom/Blogger with a Child with Autism
An Alternative Interpretation of Unusual Communication? Part I
An Alternative Interpretation of Unusual Communication? Part II
An Extended Infomercial for Spelling to Communicate via Penn State and All of Our Tax Dollars
An inside look at S2C: “We actually discourage them from using their speech while they are spelling”
Another Problem for FC: Pseudoscientific Fallacies About Science
Another side effect of FC: Alternative Facts
An Unexpected Glimpse into the Minds of Facilitators: Review of “I Am In Here”
A Pioneer in Independent Communication for Non-Speakers
A psychologist overlooks the science and a journalist, the full story
Are autistic individuals really as socially motivated as the rest of us?
Are autistic individuals “tuning in” or “tuning out” during FC/S2C/RPM sessions?
Are individuals with profound autism “real?”: Bergmann’s “Influence”
Are people who question FC/S2C/RPM evil?
A Review of the Movie Spellers: a Documercial for Spelling to Communicate
A recent eye-tracking study fails to reveal agency in assisted autistic communication
At What Point was Anna Stubblefield Culpable for her Criminal Actions?
Autism and Theory of Mind: a critique of Gernsbacher & Frymiare
Autism, figurative language, empathy, and “autistic culture”
“Axel” Raises Questions About FC in the Classroom
Back to School Edition: At What Point Do Accommodations Start Resembling Facilitated Communication?
Behind the Glass with Nick and Soma
Can facilitator influence be reduced to co-construction of meaning?
Can facilitators NOT cue their clients, even if they wanted to? (Hint: It’s not likely)
Clever Han(d)s Skepticism and “Ido in Autismland”
Clever Hans: It’s Not About the Horse
Clever Stella (the Dog of Ms. Hunger)
Coping with RPM: Review of “Far From the Tree”
Critical Questions the CBS LA Reporters Apparently Forgot to Ask About FC
Deconstructing an Interview with Vikram Jaswal
DIRFloortime and RPM at What Cost?
Do Critics of FC “Presume Lack of Competence?” Part I: Calculator and Singer
Do Critics of FC “Presume Lack of Competence?” Part II: Green & Shane
Do Critics of FC “Presume Lack of Competence?” Part III: Jacobson, Mulick & Schwartz
Do Critics of FC “Presume Lack of Competence?” Part IV: Wheeler, Jacobson, Paglieri, and Schwartz
Do Critics of FC “Presume Lack of Competence?” Part V: Review of Broderick and Kasa-Hendrickson
Do Critics of FC “Presume Lack of Competence?” Part VI: In Sum, No.
Do facilitated individuals have motor difficulties that explain away our concerns about FC?
Do facilitated individuals have motor difficulties that explain away our concerns about FC? Part 2
Does “Inside the Edge” Live up to its Claims that FC Leads to Independence?
Does Vermont DAIL’s FC Website Rely Exclusively on Pro-FC Organizations for Guidance?
Do Facilitators Cast Multiple Votes on Election Day?
Do FCed individuals have Telepathic Superpowers?
Do Motor Difficulties Really Explain Speech/Language Difficulties in Autism?
Do “Problematic Behaviors” Vanish with Facilitated Communication?
Do proponents really mean “Ask Me Anything” about spelling (aka FC)?
Facilitated Communication: Holding onto (False) Hope
Facilitated Communication, Neurodiversity, and Human Rights
Facilitation: In a Completely Different Zone
Falling for Happiness Falls: Is it too much to ask we overcome our skepticism and just believe?
FC and the Practice of Internal Medicine. How Would That Work Exactly?
FC - Behind the Glass - In No Way Am I Being Cued
FC - Behind the Glass - Session 1
FC-friendly trends in autism diagnoses
FC in the Context of Psychotherapy
FC propaganda and censorship on WHYY TV
FC’s Damage to the Reputations of Institutions
FC/S2C/RPM: Selling the Illusion
Flaws in the Informed Consent Process for FC in VT’s Designated Agency System
Floor Time embraces Facilitated Communication
Four in the Bedroom: Lamentations or Exploitation of Non-Speaking Individuals?
From Eye Tracking to EEGs-anything but a simple message passing test
Haskew and Donnellan’s bizarre take on FC
How a critique of FC replaced a critique of ABA in a journal dedicated to free speech
How Effectively does the Ideomotor Response Explain Cueing in Facilitated Communication? Part 1
How Effectively does the Ideomotor Response Explain Cueing in Facilitated Communication? Part 2
How might touch reduce the cognitive load of FCed typers?
How Missed Cues and Wishful Thinking Led Me Astray
How Motivated Reasoning Enables Support for Facilitated Communication
Identifying “Who is Doing the Pointing” is Not Enough
I Have Been Buried Under Years of Autism Miracle Stories
Illusions of literacy in nonspeaking autistic people: a response to Jaswal et al. 2024
Informed Consent for a Discredited Technique?
In support of OTs against FC/S2C/RPM
Is Anything Real in Cujec and Goddard’s book “REAL?”
Is Diminished Joint Attention Really Not a Problem for Word Learning in Autism?
Is Eye Contact Really Overrated?
Is S2C Really a (Christmas) Miracle?
Is there a (socio) pragmatic language impairment in autism, or only a core language impairment?
Is there really no Theory of Mind deficit in autism? Part I: is it all about language instead?
Is there really no Theory of Mind deficit in autism? Part VI: problematic references
Is there really nothing inherently atypical about language development in autism?
J.B. Handley and the ever-changing cure for autism
March 4 & 5, 2021 Power-Up SLP Conference
Mechanical Hand Support and FC
Might non-speaking individuals with autism be brilliant?
Mysterious disappearances in the world of FC: What does it take to sustain the illusion?
Myths about myths, validity, and natural message passing tests, Part 1
Myths about myths, validity, and natural message passing tests, Part 2
“New” Vermont Facilitated Communication Guidelines. Really?
No Need for FC: Bissonette’s Artwork Stands on its Own
NSW Teachers and FC - Too much of a helping hand?
One Big Thought Experiment: Review of “The Reason I Jump”
Peripheral Vision: Perfect for Detecting Facilitator Cues
Putting FC/S2C/RPM to the Test
Questions About “Wretches and Jabberers”
Questions to ask yourself and facilitators while observing FC/S2C/RPM sessions
Rationalizations Abound: Stopping Just Shy of Knowing
Review of A Passion to Believe: Autism and the Facilitated Communication Phenomenon
Review of J.B. Handley’s Underestimated: an Autism Miracle
Review of We Walk: Life with Severe Autism
Science prevails in another victory for a Pennsylvania school district
“She understands everything you say”-a myth that promotes FC
Social Motivation in Autism: A Critique of Jaswal & Akhtar (2019)
Some Clarifications About Message Passing Research for FC and Its Variants
Spellers but not Readers? Do facilitated individuals ever read books?
Strange Science in Iversen’s book “Strange Son”
Supplement to the “Anatomy of Facilitated Communication” SkeptiCal Talk
Supplement to the “Neurodiversity and the Legal System” Conference
Taking Shortcuts. A Review of “Contested Words, Contested Science”
The Case of the Disappearing Opposition Statement
The Consequences of “Circling the Wagons”
The NIH falls for FC: How did this happen and is it reversible?
The Reason I Jump: self promotion trumps intellectual honesty, part 1
The Reason I Jump: self promotion trumps intellectual honesty, part 2
The Tragic Story of Gigi Jordan, her son, and FC
The Under-Appreciated Power of Involuntary Muscle Movements-A Review of Herman Spitz
The Unusual and Excessive Hype of FC
The Washington Post chooses a “feel good” story over science
The Washington Post disappoints again
Truth Will Out: Review of Portia Iversen’s “Strange Son”
Uniquely Human: Laying the Groundwork for Belief in FC
Upcoming virtual conference on the use of facilitated communication in individuals with autism!
UPenn and Harvard Extension School Apparently Fooled by FC
Unintended Consequences of No Test Enrollment: FC in College Classrooms
Using FC to Dispel Autism Superstitions?
Vermont DAIL’s Commitment to a Discredited Technique
Vermont Allows Abuse Allegation Disclosures and Interviews Using a Discredited Technique
What is Joint Attention and How Does it Relate to FC?
“What is Wrong with FC” NCSA Webinar
What Schools Can Learn about S2C from the Lower Merion School District
Where does all that synesthesia and thinking in pictures come from?
Who’s Behind “Who Decides the Autism Science Agenda?”
Whose Voice is Being Represented? A Review of an FCed Session
Why do some autism experts fall for facilitated communication?
Why does Joint Attention look Atypical in Autism—and does it matter?
Why no one can learn their first language without engaging going attention
Why Non-Speaking Autism Probably Has Nothing to do with Motor Control Problems or Speech Apraxia
- Facilitated Communication
- Spelling to Communicate
- Rapid Prompting Method
- facilitator control
- facilitator cues
- FC in the media
- ideomotor effect
- authorship
- automatic writing
- Ouija board effect
- Clever Hans
- language comprehension
- language acquisition
- Speech and Language
- unexpected literacy skills
- motor-planning
- FC in the schools
- harms
- prompt dependency
- presume competence
- neuropsychology of autism
- Augmentative and Alternative Communication
- language and literacy skills
- Syracuse University
- Douglas Biklen
- validation testing
- facilitator behaviors
- message-passing
- FC as a belief system
- scholarly article review
- critiques of pro-FC articles
- opposition statements
- movie review
- book review
- linguistic skills
- joint attention
- social motivation
- ethical issues
- independent communication
- controlled studies
- controlled testing
- socio-cognitive disorder
- autistic-specific language difficulties
- disability rights
- fine and gross motor skills
- Soma Mukhopadhyay
- Elizabeth Vosseller
- socio-communicative cues
- theory of mind
- profound autism
- Vikram Jaswal
- informed consent
- eye gaze
- eye-tracking
- psychosocial awareness
- Rosemary Crossley
- validation
- confirmation bias
- social engagement
- facilitator oversight
- Prisoners of Silence
- empathy
- anecdotal reports
- motivated reasoning
- The Reason I Jump
- apraxia of speech
- ABA
- Supported Typing
- blind testing
- facial expression
- JB Handley
- echolalia
- financial and opportunity costs
- false-belief tests
- Spellers
- policymaking
- evidence-based methodology
- applied behavior analysis
- language development
- language patterns in autism
- apraxia in autism
- human rights
- FC and the Legal System
- communication rights
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- hidden intelligence
- critiques of FC
- imitation skills
- college admission standards
- perspective-taking
- psychic abilities
- telepathy
- Deej
- Vermont DAIL
- emotional understanding
- social-emotional response
- facilitator crimes
- social reasoning skills
- Strange Son
- hand-over-hand