Facilitated Communication for Children with Autism: An Examination of Face Validity

Although there has been ample controversy about the need for validation studies of facilitated communication (FC), FC proponents have outlined minimum guidelines for increasing the naturalistic manner in which FC is examined. In this investigation, the face validity of FC was examined with attention to these guidelines. Three children with autism who used FC to communicate participated in the study. Sentence completion statements in which the correct responses were alternately known or unknown to the facilitator were presented using a variation of a multiple-treatment design. Special consideration was given to previous criticisms of controlled investigations of FC in the development of the method. A total of 240 responses were evaluated in relation to form accuracy (spelling) and content accuracy (correct or incorrect answer) using a 10-point rating scale. The data from this study strongly suggest that the content of the responses was influenced systematically by facilitators.