Facilitated Communication

What types of instructional strategies do you use when it comes to working with children and adults with disabilities that are accompanied by extreme negative behaviors?  A special education teacher is required to understand a variety of tactics to teach children with disabilities, but rarely focuses on teaching different forms of communication to reduce adverse behavior.

Facilitated Communication (FC) uses a keyboard and a facilitator to support the individual to express their words through typing.  The facilitator provides physical and emotional encouragement.  Typically, the individual typing has a good rapport with the facilitator.  They trust their support and know them well.  The facilitator may start by providing support to the person’s wrist and gradually move the physical assistance back to the elbow, then the shoulder.  Just providing a gentle touch can encourage the individual to begin communicating through typing.

 

Facilitated Communication is a controversial topic where people tend to go to one extreme or the other.  Typically, there are those who adamantly refuse to use a method of communication that has not been extensively researched to date.  Others, who have used FC or have seen it in action, are quick to see if the method works for other individuals as well.

I have had opportunities to use FC with a variety of individuals who are unable to express their thoughts and feelings verbally.  These individuals had a difficult time interacting with people and events that went on around them.  They would essentially communicate their thoughts and fears through inappropriate behavior such as screaming or by being physically aggressive towards themselves or others.  This obviously causes issues for the individual with the disability and their circle of support.

Even though FC has not been proven reliable in the few controlled studies that have been attempted, this method of communication has given many people a voice that they have long been searching for.  As a result of this, their adverse behaviors have reduced or even gone away completely.  FC is clearly worth introducing if it means giving children the opportunity to eventually speak what they are feeling and learn with their peers.