The Role of Touch in Facilitated Communication

@article{Kezuka1997TheRO,
  title={The Role of Touch in Facilitated Communication},
  author={Emiko Kezuka},
  journal={Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders},
  year={1997},
  volume={27},
  pages={571-593}
}
  • E. Kezuka
  • Published 1 October 1997
  • Psychology
  • Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Imagine that one day a nonverbal autistic child suddenly starts to type messages, such as “I am not retarded,” using a computer keyboard while being touched by an assistant. Facilitated communication (FC) appears to create this miracle around the world. To understand how this works, experiments were conducted involving a “telepathy game” using a rod with an attached strain gauge. A force from the assistant, which controlled what was spelled through physical support, was measured. It was thus… 
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21 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
7
Methods Citations
1

21 Citations

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A 17-year-old boy diagnosed with congenital deafness, ASD, and developmental delay, and his facilitator, were equipped with small accelerometers fixed on their index finger, aimed at transforming index acceleration along the three spatial axes into electric signals.
Picture Exchange Communication System and Facilitated Communication: Contrasting an Evidence-Based Practice with a Discredited Method
Abstract Learners with autism require specialized education and supports to ensure acquisition and mastery of various communication skills. This is particularly true for individuals whose disability…
Facilitated Communication and Authorship: A Systematic Review
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A synthesis of the extant peer-reviewed literature on the question of authorship in Facilitated Communication indicated unequivocal evidence for facilitator control: messages generated through FC are authored by the facilitators rather than the individuals with disabilities.
Semefulness: a social semiotics of touch
This paper explores the multiple significances (semefulness) of touch, as experienced by us as embodied subjects. Prompted by the development of a range of touch-based technologies, I consider the…
Views of Facilitated Communication: What's the Point?
  • J. Duchan
  • Psychology
    Language, speech, and hearing services in schools
  • 1999
TLDR
Views of FC are outlined and a way out of the dilemma is suggested through the development of clinical practice guidelines that include protections of both clients and clinicians.
The moral obligation to be empirical: Comments on Boynton's “Facilitated Communication—what harm it can do: Confessions of a former facilitator”
Janyce Boynton (2012) does a great service by explaining how she came to author false accusations of sexual abuse against an innocent family using “facilitated communication” (FC). FC involves a…
Facilitated Communication and Its Legitimacy—Twenty-First Century Developments
By 2001, Facilitated Communication (FC) had largely been empirically discredited as an effective intervention for previously uncommunicative persons with disabilities, especially those with autism…
The persistence of fad interventions in the face of negative scientific evidence: Facilitated communication for autism as a case example
Abstract Communication disorder and mental health professionals may assume that once novel clinical techniques have been refuted by research, they will be promptly abandoned. Using facilitated…
Facilitated Communication Since 1995: A Review of Published Studies
  • M. Mostert
  • Psychology
    Journal of autism and developmental disorders
  • 2001
TLDR
This review examines published FC studies since the previous major reviews and critiques and discounts the claims of two studies purporting to offer empirical evidence of FC efficacy using control procedures.
A recent eye-tracking study fails to reveal agency in assisted autistic communication
In May 2020, Scientific Reports published a paper entitled “Eye-tracking Reveals Agency in Assisted Autistic Communication” (Jaswal et al., 2020). This paper has attracted widespread attention amon...
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