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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
Actually this is mostly about you—and (indirectly) about FC
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”
Announcing a new page at FacilitatedCommunication.org: Organizations Supporting FC
Announcing a second new page at FacilitatedCommunication.org: Evidence-Based Practitioners Using FC
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 Bernardi and Tuzzi’s 2011 Analysis of FC Prove…Anything?
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)?
Early works by Barry Prizant: Laying the groundwork for disbelief in 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
FC/S2C/RPM and False Allegations of Abuse
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
Has FC changed since the early 1990s? Part 2
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
In which Vikram Jaswal fails to establish the authenticity of S2C for non-speakers
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
News Roundup May 2022 to April 2024: uncritical reports of S2C and RPM
New takes on apraxia, miracles, presuming competence et al. from S2C proponents
“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
Reaction to a 1994 article I wrote about my experiences with FC
Recent findings about language comprehension in minimal speakers with autism
Response to Reader Question: Has FC changed since the early 1990s - Part I
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
Some possible revelations on what goes on in facilitators’ heads when they facilitate big projects
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 “evolution” of FC: Making FC look more convincing
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
Thoughts about a reader’s suggestion that I “Grow the (beep) up”
Thoughts about credulity, willful ignorance, science and pseudoscience in FC/S2C/RPM
Thoughts about “Tell Them You Love Me,” Anna Stubblefield, and FC/S2C/RPM
Thoughts about SLPs, AAC, and FC/S2C/RPM (but mostly AAC)
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
Unreliable speech? “So they tell me, and they certainly speak truth, for my Lady says the same”
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
Virtual facilitation: a means to independence or yet another high-tech distraction?
What Forbes Contributor Steven Aquino Forgot to Mention About the Spellers Method
What is Joint Attention and How Does it Relate to FC?
What isn’t new: Credulous reporters promoting FC/S2C/RPM
“What is Wrong with FC” NCSA Webinar
What Reporter Natalie Beneviat from Trib Live forgot to mention about RPM
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 FC proponents constantly invoke apraxia and how they’ve got it all wrong
Why no one can learn their first language without engaging joint attention
Why Non-Speaking Autism Probably Has Nothing to do with Motor Control Problems or Speech Apraxia
Why Won’t You Accept My Anecdotes as Proof of Independent Communication?
- Facilitated Communication
- Spelling to Communicate
- Rapid Prompting Method
- facilitator control
- facilitator cues
- FC in the media
- authorship
- ideomotor effect
- automatic writing
- Ouija board effect
- Clever Hans
- language comprehension
- facilitator behaviors
- language acquisition
- message-passing
- presume competence
- FC in the schools
- motor-planning
- Speech and Language
- unexpected literacy skills
- Syracuse University
- prompt dependency
- Douglas Biklen
- validation testing
- harms
- language and literacy skills
- Augmentative and Alternative Communication
- neuropsychology of autism
- scholarly article review
- critiques of pro-FC articles
- opposition statements
- FC as a belief system
- Prisoners of Silence
- joint attention
- book review
- Elizabeth Vosseller
- movie review
- linguistic skills
- controlled studies
- Soma Mukhopadhyay
- controlled testing
- autistic-specific language difficulties
- independent communication
- ethical issues
- social motivation
- Rosemary Crossley
- disability rights
- Vikram Jaswal
- fine and gross motor skills
- eye-tracking
- socio-cognitive disorder
- The Reason I Jump
- theory of mind
- informed consent
- eye gaze
- socio-communicative cues
- psychosocial awareness
- profound autism
- Spellers
- false allegations of abuse
- validation
- social engagement
- confirmation bias
- anecdotal reports
- echolalia
- apraxia of speech
- facilitator oversight
- empathy
- facial expression
- apraxia in autism
- JB Handley
- motivated reasoning
- history of FC
- ABA
- Supported Typing
- blind testing
- FC and the Legal System
- facilitator crimes
- false-belief tests
- applied behavior analysis
- telepathy
- Deej
- language patterns in autism
- human rights
- financial and opportunity costs
- Portia Iversen
- policymaking
- evidence-based methodology
- language development
- facilitator beliefs
- communication rights
- Strange Son
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- hidden intelligence
- communication and regulations partner
- critiques of FC
- Autism Is a World
- imitation skills
- college admission standards
- perspective-taking