Then I invited Professor Biklen to lecture in Italy. The following year Donna Williams came with all her material, and my initial overheads became more and more professionally organized into a method. Parents could not be left alone. They needed constant support and monitoring. Schools and teachers were not prepared for this new approach to autism, related disabilities and communication impairments.
Teachers often feel helpless when faced with a person with a communication impairment.
My position within the Autism Society gave me the advantage of an official label. Two years after the famous letter with which I had introduced FC to the world of autism, it was clear to me that I could not continue to tour up and down Italy, and that all the situations I had created needed local support and supervision. Professor Biklen came back to Italy last September to supervise the work of these supervisors. The good results which timidly came out of this controlled expansion of Facilitated Communication were appearing in specialized papers and on television. A letter with our credentials has been sent out to all the involved Local Directors of Education, to the faculties of Educational Sciences, and to public officials.