Facilitated Communication (FC) is a technique that allegedly allows communication by those who were previously unable to communicate by speech or signs due to autism, mental retardation, brain damage, or such diseases as cerebral palsy. The technique involves a facilitator who places her hand over that of the patient's hand, arm or wrist, and guides a finger to letters, words, or pictures on a board or keyboard. The patient is allegedly able to communicate through his or her hand to the hand of the facilitator which then is guided to a letter, word, or picture, spelling out words or expressing complete thoughts. Through their facilitators, previously mute patients recite poems, carry on high level intellectual conversations, or simply communicate. Parents are grateful to discover that their child is not hopelessly retarded but is either normal or above normal in intelligence. FC allows their children to demonstrate their intelligence; it provides them with a vehicle heretofore denied them. But is it really their child who is communicating? Controlled tests demonstrate conclusively that the only one doing the communicating is the facilitator. Frontline (PBS) documentary highlighting Facilitated Communication (FC) [VIDEO]
Prisoners of Silence [1993]
[The following program contains explicit language. Viewer discretion is advised.] Original Air Date: October 19, 1993 |
Written, Produced and Directed by Jon Palfreman ANNOUNCER: These children cannot speak. No one knows what's going on inside their heads. They're autistic. Tonight on FRONTLINE, the explosive story of a revolutionary method of communication.
Dr. DOUGLAS BIKLEN, Director, Facilitated Communication Institute, Syracuse University: Here was a means of expression for people who lacked expression and here was a way that you could find out what people were feeling and what they were thinking.
ANNOUNCER: FRONTLINE investigates facilitated communication--the theory, the practice and the controversy.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight on FRONTLINE, "Prisoners of Silence."
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