Profound Autism Is Difficult Enough Without This Debunked Method

Dr. Lutz is a historian of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

As the mother of a profoundly autistic son, now 27, I have wished for so many miracles over the years: that Jonah was not really as cognitively impaired as he appeared; that one of the countless treatments we tried would be transformative; that he would one day go to college, pursue a meaningful career and do everything parents want their children to do. So I understand the allure of facilitated communication and similar methods, which promise to grant those wishes with a simple letter board or keyboard.

Facilitated Communication, or F.C., is an intervention in which profoundly autistic individuals spell messages with the physical support of a nondisabled facilitator, who generally provides direct touch to the speller’s hand, wrist, elbow or shoulder. There are variants of F.C., such as Spelling to Communicate and the Rapid Prompting........

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