Event Description
This two-part conference will address the resurgence of new variants of facilitated communication (FC) that have appeared across the country, including in the Philadelphia area. A school in Newtown Square uses a variant of FC called “The Rapid Prompting Method” (RPM); an FC clinic in Springfield provides training in a variant of FC called “Spelling to Communicate” (S2C); a charter school in Philadelphia has a student, featured on WHYY TV, using S2C. The Lower Merion School District has been sued by parents for refusing to let their son use S2C in school. Conference speakers will discuss the problems with FC and its variants, why it nonetheless appeals to so many people, and what the evidence-based alternatives are in terms of authentic augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools, research-informed routes to language learning, and reasonable educational accommodations.
SESSIONS Thursday, February 2nd at 7:00-8:30 pm ET
Introduction to FC—What’s wrong with it and why it still appeals to people - James Todd: "FC, Rapid Prompting Method, and Spelling to Communicate--cuing, authorship, court cases"
- Janyce Boynton: "Personal experience as a facilitator and where the evidence led me"
- Amy Lutz "The appeal of FC/S2C/RPM to the non-speaking communication"
- Panel Q&A: James Todd, Janyce Boynton, Amy Lutz
Functional communication vs. evidence-based communication alternatives, routes to language learning, and educational accommodations
- Howard Shane: "FC vs. augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)"
- Katharine Beals: "What we know about language and literacy acquisition in autism"
- Elizabeth Serpentine: "Facilitated Communication, reasonable accommodations, and the IDEA"
- Panel Q&A: Howard Shane, Katharine Beals, Elizabeth Serpentine
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