What is facilitated communication, really?
FC is one approach under the broader Assisted Communication (AC) umbrella — with a long, contested history. This page is about FC specifically: what it actually was, what changed, and why conflating every AC approach with 1990s FC is the central error of the older critique.
On this site we use Assisted Communication (AC) as the umbrella term for supported, neuromotor-informed practices — S2C, RPM, the Spellers Method, FC and Supported Typing. They are distinct approaches and should be discussed on their own terms. (See the terminology rationale for why.)
What has changed
In the debates surrounding Facilitated Communication (FC) over the last 30 years, little attention has been paid to the role of training in the use of FC. There is limited reference to training in the research on the method. The overall impression given in the discussion of the results of studies is that all facilitation is basically the same and that negative influence will occur. There is little weight given to the training and the skills of the facilitators participating in the research when those factors might have had an impact on the performance of the participants.
This may be due in part to the fact that in the 1990s, when facilitated communication was first being introduced, there was no real systematic process for training people to become facilitators. People learned how to use the method in workshops but there were few opportunities to receive ongoing training and support. Since then, FC practitioners have developed a model for training facilitators and coaches that includes several phases: background information on the method, in-person coaching from trainers, and ongoing coaching to support the continued development of the skills of facilitators and communicators. The development of websites, webinars, and Zoom calls — none of which existed in the 90s — makes follow-up training and coaching much more accessible.
— adapted from an essay by Pascal Cheng, FC trainer.
Facilitated means supported
Bicycles, rehab, ASL interpreters, stroke recovery — humans learn movement with support all the time. The word only became suspicious in one narrow corner.
Read →A short, honest history
From Rosemary Crossley in the 1970s through the controversies of the 1990s to today's neuromotor-informed practices — the full arc, including the parts that went wrong.
Read →Shared principles across methods
Presumed competence, communication access, motor differences, accommodations and support, and autonomy — the common ground across FC, S2C, RPM, the Spellers Method, and supported typing.
Read →Responses to common claims
Authorship, message-passing studies, false-allegations claims, 'pseudoscience,' and 'just FC repackaged' — calmly answered.
Read →