5X5 Episode 111
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This episode needs: transcription, proof-reading, categories, categorized redirect. | How to Contribute |
| 5X5 Episode 111 | |
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| Facilitated Communication | |
| 25 April 2012 | |
| 5X5 110 | 5X5 112 |
| Skeptical Rogues | |
| S: Steven Novella | |
| R: Rebecca Watson | |
| B: Bob Novella | |
| J: Jay Novella | |
| E: Evan Bernstein | |
| Links | |
| Download Podcast | |
| Show Notes | |
| Forum Topic | |
Facilitated Communication
Voice-over: You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide 5x5, five minutes with five skeptics, with Steve, Jay, Rebecca, Bob and Evan.
S: This is the SGU 5x5 and tonight we're talking about facilitated communication. This is a technique in which a facilitator physically helps a client to communicate, either by holding their arm while they point at letters on a letter board or type on a keyboard or perhaps point to pictures on a picture board. This technique has actually been quite controversial since its inception in the late 1970s in Australia, when Rosemary Crossley, a teacher at St. Nicholas Hospital used this technique to communicate with children who were diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The technique was later introduced in the United States mainly through Syracuse University and a practitioner, Douglas Biklen. And here is where the use of the technique became very problematic, because Biklen claimed that he was able to use this technique in order to communicate with children who had cognitive impairment and were uncommunicative or nonverbal, such as for example severely autistic children. The controversy stems from the question of whether or not the client or the child is the actual author of the communication or if its the facilitator themselves. The technique became extremely popular among speech and language therapists and was widely used until the late 1980s and early 1990s, when scientific research demonstrated that in most cases the facilitator is the one doing the actual communication, not the client.
R: So, it's important to differentiate between facilitated communication we're going to be talking about on this show, and facilitators who aid people in communicating, people who have severe physical limitations, but who are not necessarily severely cognitively impaired, that can be people with ALS, cerebral palsy, locked-in syndrome, things like that. These people are perfectly intelligent, however are unable to communicate their thoughts due to their physical limitations, and often times they will require assistance to aid in their communication. There's a huge difference though between the people who are helping the physically impaired and those who are claiming to help those who are cognitively impaired.
S: SGU 5x5 is a companion podcast to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, a weekly science podcast brought to you by the New England Skeptical Society in association with skepchick.org. For more information on this and other episodes, visit our website at www.theskepticsguide.org. Music is provided by Jake Wilson.
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