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 communication (FC) for autism as a recent case example, we provide evidence to the contrary. Although FC was scientifically discredited by the mid-to-late 1990s, data we review demonstrate that it is still frequently administered in clinical and educational settings. We examine evidence for FC’s (a) continued use as an intervention for autism, (b) persistence in academic and institutional settings, (c) popularity in online and print sources, (d) promotion in the media, and (e) ongoing risk to caregivers accused of sexual abuse. We analyze the sources of these troubling developments, explore their ethical implications, and offer recommendations for addressing the spread of FC and other fad interventions.
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Notes
1 The formal term for autism in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association, Citation2013) is now autism spectrum disorder. Nevertheless, because most of the literature on FC antedated DSM–5, we use the terms “autism” and “autism spectrum disorder” interchangeably in this manuscript.
2 After declining to follow suit for two decades, The International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication issued a policy statement criticizing FC in 2014 (International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Citationin press).
3 These articles include Ashby (Citation2011); Ashby and Causton-Theoharis (Citation2009, Citation2011); Bernardi and Tuzzi (Citation2011); Bigozzi et al. (Citation2012); Biklen (Citation2005, 2007); Biklen and Burke (Citation2006); Biklen and Kliewer (Citation2006); Block, Shuttleworth, Pratt, Block, and Rammler (Citation2012); Broderick (Citation2009); Broderick and Kasa-Hendrickson (Citation2006); Causton-Theoharis, Ashby, and Cozier (Citation2009); Emerson and Dearden (Citation2013); Grayson, Emerson, Howard-Jones, and O’Neil (Citation2012); Kasa-Hendricksen (Citation2006); Kasa-Hendrickson, Broderick, and Hanson (Citation2009); Kasnitz and Block (Citation2012); Kliewer et al. (Citation2005); Mirenda (Citation2008); Rossetti, Ashby, Arndt, Chadwick, and Kasahara (Citation2008); Orlievsky and Cukier (Citation2013); Robledo and Donnellan (Citation2008); Rubin and Rubin (Citation2005); Savarese and Zunshine (Citation2014); Sipilä and Määttä (Citation2011); Sipilä, Uusiautti, and Määttä (Citation2013); Stubblefield (Citation2011); and Wilson, de Jonge, deSouza, and Carlson, (Citation2014).
4 4A recent tragic case also involves allegations of sexual abuse reported obtained using FC.
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