Understanding facilitated communication: Lessons from a former facilitator—Comments on Boynton, 2012

Abstract

The discussion about facilitated communication is mainly about the origin of the messages produced—that is, whether they originated in the disabled person or the facilitator. The article by Boynton (2012) directs the focus of this discussion from the disabled person to the facilitator. She tells her own story as a facilitator, including how accusations were made about sexual abuse through the process of facilitation, and raises the question of how this could happen. The present article discusses the nature of the facilitation process and why accusation of sexual and other forms of abuse have been so frequent. Facilitated communication may be conceived as a form of automatic writing, and studies of facilitated communication represent evidence concerning human consciousness and how the mind works.

Source of funding: No source of funding reported.

Keywords:

• Facilitated communication
• Consciousness
• Evidence
• Method

Acknowledgments

Declaration of interest: The author has no conflicts of interest and are solely responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Notes

Notes

1. http://soe.syr.edu/centers_institutes/institute_communication_inclusion/what_is_supported_typing/default.aspx

2. http://iod.unh.edu/Services/eventdetail/12–01–26/14th_Annual_Autism_Summer_Institute.aspx