Facilitated communication: Better education through applied ideology

Facilitated communication (FC), or the provision of graduated assistance by staff in the selection of keys on a communication device by people with developmental disabilities, has become a widely used training technique. Although widespread anecdotal accounts of substantial training benefits and unanticipated communicative competence have been reported, controlled experimental and single subject studies have disclosed little evidence of unexpected competencies. We review research on FC, identify cognitive factors that may stimulate acceptance of this as a training method, and suggest procedures to be employed in individual validation situations when critical communications occur.