Customer Reviews

Contested Words, Contested Science: Unraveling the Facilitated Communication Controversy (Special Education Series)

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Contested Words, Contested Science presents useful, reasonable evidence of the validity of Facilitated Communication, which serves to highlight the absurdity of the arguments that claim there is no such evidence. The most definitive evidence may be the growing number of individuals who are demonstrating that through FC training they are eventually able to accomplish independent typing. Nonetheless, there are ways of looking at the method that show that those who continue to need support are able to express their own thoughts when facilitated properly.
This book is a must read for anyone who is willing to look carefully and thoughtfully at the possibilities that Facilitated Communication offers those individuals who do not speak or have very limited speech. While, to my knowledge, no one is claiming that FC is the answer for every such person, this book shows that FC can provide many with the ability to express themselves fully, opening up innumerable possibilities for a more satisfying life.

Since Douglas Biklen is one of the foremost and most vocal proponents of FC, and since none of the essays in the book are written by the many scientists, researchers, parents and people with autism who have criticised FC, I wonder whether this book is really the best place to start for anyone genuinely interested in "unravelling the facilitated communication controversy".