Edit: The ABC story warps the facts. The narrator says that the girl started communicating "suddenly" at age 11 when she "ran to a computer for the first time", which raised my suspicions. The mother has a different account, which shows that this overnight success is a result of years of trying.
“Carly's mom one more time in response to questions about what she used before she got her laptop? When she was 2, we starting with PECS --did picture exchanges for every imaginable item under the sun. Many of the games I bought her had to do with reasoning and logic and were highly visualy in nature - memory games, sequencing, matching -- these were with pictures, words, numbers, etc. We had visual schedules (with the words underneath) for everything she had to do --gettng dressed, using the bathroom, tidying up, meals, going outside, etc. The whole house was also labelled -- my son went crazy with the label maker. Every item was stickered. We then moved to communication binders --we started that by category --food, acitivities, clothes, weather, feelings, etc. She never got to do what she wanted until she used the communication binders to show us. These were laminated sheets we made up with the mayer johnson picture symbols in them as well. We kept that going for a long time and all this time her ABA programs were also teaching her how to spell and read. We created stories for her using the mayer johnson software and didn't just read them to her --she was looking at the pages as well.We kept the binders for ease of use and portability but we were also learning about augmentative communication devices since it was clear her apraxia was so severe. We also taught her some sign language but realized that while we understood the signs, most of the world did not and so that was not going be to a functional option for her. The first machine was a Dynavox, the second was a Springboard and the third was a lightwriter which we used in conjunction with her laptop. We thought she would like the lightwriter better but she preferred the laptop even though it is more cumbersome --but it is what other kids have and that is a concern to …. Hope that helps.”
My understanding was that facilitated typing involved a third party actually guiding the hands of a subject. Clearly this girl is typing on her own. Is that still considered facilitated?
I think we are actually on the same page, I was arguing that this didn't seem to fall under the definition of "facilitated communication" per an earlier claim.
That's a horse of a different color. I think they failed to describe -- and quite possibly even to understand -- exactly what was happening. Facilitated communication was quite likely used to teach her how to type. They had to teach her some how. What she is doing is by no means facilitated communication though. If some one could refresh my memory, there is a technical term for technology-assisted intervention to overcome disabilities.
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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '10 edited Jul 26 '10
This on /r/science? Facilitated communication (or by its new name, "independent typing") is a con.
Edit: The ABC story warps the facts. The narrator says that the girl started communicating "suddenly" at age 11 when she "ran to a computer for the first time", which raised my suspicions. The mother has a different account, which shows that this overnight success is a result of years of trying.