Newsgroups: bit.listserv.autism
Date:         Tue, 29 Sep 1992 14:52:23 EDT
              <AUTISM@SJUVM.BITNET>
From:         RJKOPP@SUVM.BITNET
Subject:      Re: Facilitated Communication Question

The one thing that proponents, such as the person John mentioned do not
want to break is the trust that exists between the child and the
facilitator.  This is thought to be a very strong point with many people.
It has been expressed through facilitation that these people type because
they trust the people they are typing with.

I believe you may soon see proponents beginning tests as you have requested.

The one thing that I think is always hard is that one can set the destination
for many tests by their pre-disposition.  I believe if the person conducting
the test wants it to fail, it ultimatly will.  If the person wants it to
succeed, it has a much better chance of succeeding.  If the trust really is
a big factor and I personally believe it could be that it depends on the
children in the experiment.

With past tests I often wonder how much of the test has been described to the
child.  I know in one case that it was described to the facilitator, who got
very upset about this surprise test.  I don't beleive the child was told.
Ultimatly during the test, the test failed.  When the child later saw the
facilitator again, the child gave her the right answer.  The child also became
agitated during the test.

I may be jumping to alot of conclusions here, and I hope someone who is
autistic or can verify this will jump in, but it seems autistics are very
aware of their surroundings.  I believe they also are very aware of the
happenings around them, even though they may not appear it.  Whether it is
ESP as some autistics have suggested themselves or what I don't know but
I do know my daughter can pick up on many things when we aren't aware of them
ourselves.  I firmly beleive if my daughter knew she was being tested she
would have a hard time and the test might fail.  We already had one instance
similar. We had a doctor that was very interested in Facilitation and came
to watch my daughter facilitate.  He tried to be non-intrusive.  My daughter
knew him, she had seen him in an evaluation shortly before then, although
the evaluation was not bad for her, not like others.  When it came time for
her to type, just like she had done weekly previous to that she couldn't.
We had told her he was going to come and that he just wanted to watch her
type.  She was quite nervous about it and we asked her why and she typed
that "it was important".  Whether you accept what she typed or not the fact
that she had become agitated is enough to know that something about it made
her uncomfortable.  I think it was her reaction to thinking that she was
going to be tested.

Another problem I see is that many researchers like to conduct tests like
this in clinical atmosphere's.  These atmospheres are not comfortable to
many people, say nothing about how it might affect autistics. I think there
are many factors that will have to be considered when people start making
these tests and this is probably where the proponents will say their tests
were valid because they took all this into consideration and the opponents
will probably say that if it can't be done in a clinical test it proves
it is not valid.  I say we both better realize both sides of it and not
ruin it for all those that beleive it does help.

Incidentally, the idea of facilitation is to withdraw the hand support
gradually.  Up till now I hadn't heard of anyone who was able to type
without any touch or support, but last month I heard that there is a girl
who now will type without any contact from a facilitator.  I don't have
all the details on this but it came from what I would consider a reliable
source.  Maybe now that person will be able to fill in some of the mystery.


Thanks,
Ray Kopp
Syracuse, New York
Internet:rjkopp@mailbox.syr.edu
Bitnet:RJKOPP@SUVM.BITNET
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