Announcing a second new page at FacilitatedCommunication.org: Evidence-Based Practioners Using FC.
In my last post, I wrote about one of the new pages we’ve recently added to the website. the Organizations Supporting FC page. Today, I’ll be talking about the other new page, Evidence-Based Practioners Using FC.
This page provides lists U.S.-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs), occupational therapists (OTs), and Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) who
provide facilitated communication services, mostly Spelling to Communicate (S2C) and Spellers Method services and
list their SLP, OT, or BCBA credentials as implicit qualifications for providing those non-evidence-based services.
In so doing, these individuals not only lend a veneer of authenticity to their FC/S2C/Spellers Method services, but also flout some of the professional guidelines that underpin their credentials.
Speech-language pathologists
The premier professional organization for U.S.-based SLPs is the American Speech Language Hearing Association. ASHA grants the CCC-SLP, or Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech Language Pathology, which is a nationally recognized professional credential for SLPs. In addition to its position statements against facilitated communication (FC) and RPM (Rapid Prompting Method)/S2C (Spelling to Communicate) (see Opposition Statements), ASHA has guidelines for SLPs that, among other things, inform SLPs of their responsibility to warn people who are considering RPM that there is no evidence that RPM is valid and that:
there is emerging scientific evidence that messages produced using RPM reflect the communication of the instructor and not of the person with disability.
While only RPM is mentioned in the above statement, ASHA’s discussion of its position statement against RPM, which precedes these guidelines on the same page, notes that S2C is “procedurally similar” to RPM, and that the position statement is “applicable regardless of the name used for the technique.”
Despite this warning, a number of SLPs, most of whom list their credentials as ASHA-certified CCC-SLPs, appear on public sites as S2C, RPM, and Spellers Method practitioners, with their SLP credentials prominently displayed. According to a search we conducted on 9/10/2024, there are 9 such SLPs dispersed across the country, from California to Illinois, Northern Virginia, and Atlanta.
Occupational therapists
The premier professional organization for U.S.-based O.T.s, the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), does not make specific mention of FC and its variants. Its most recent (2021) Standards of Practice for Occupational Therapy, however, does call on OTs to use
best available evidence” when implementing interventions, and to be “knowledgeable about evidence-informed practice and appl[y] it ethically and appropriately to provide occupational therapy services consistent with best practice approaches.
Nonetheless, a number of OTs appear on public sites as S2C and Spellers Method practitioners, with their OT credentials prominently displayed. According to a search we conducted on 9/10/2024, there are 12 such OTs, located from the Midwest (Minnesota and Ohio) to multiple locations in the South (Tennessee, Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Central Florida) to Red Bank, New Jersey.
Board Certified Behavior Analysts
While the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts does not make specific mention of FC and its variants, it does call for evidence-based practices in 6 of its standards: codes 2.01, 2.13, 2.14, 3.12, 4.06 and 4.08. In addition, a recent paper (Quigley et al. 2024) expresses clear recommendations to BCBAs against using S2C, given its resemblance to FC. According to a search we conducted on9/14/2024, there are three such BCBAs who violate this code by providing S2C services, with their BCBA credentials displayed as implicit credentials: one in Hawaii, and two in Pennsylvania.
Might there be an SLP, OT, or BCBA practicing FC/RPM/S2C near you? If you come across SLPs, OTs or BCBAs in their area who are providing FC/S2C/RPM services, we encourage you to report those individuals to their state or national organizations. You can also report them to us and we’ll add them to this list.
REFERENCE:
Quigley, S.P., Haag, M., Bly, L. et al. Ethics Dialogue: Spelling to Communicate as a Treatment Recommendation. Behav Analysis Practice (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-024-01001-4
