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Facilitated Communication (FC), or supported typing, is a technique used by some caregivers and educators in an attempt to assist people with severe educational and communication disabilities. The technique involves providing an alphabet board, or keyboard. The facilitator holds or gently touches the disabled person's arm or hand during this process and attempts to help them move their hand and amplify their gestures. In addition to providing physical support needed for typing or pointing, the facilitator provides verbal prompts and moral support. In addition to human touch assistance, the facilitator's belief in their communication partner's ability to communicate seems to be a key component of the technique. There is widespread agreement within the scientific community and multiple disability advocacy organizations that facilitators, not the person with the communication disability, are the source of all or most messages obtained through FC, by forcing the arm of the patient towards answers they expect to see or that form intelligible language. Studies asking about things the facilitator cannot know (for example showing the patient but not the facilitator an object) have confirmed this, showing that a facilitator is generally unable to ‘help’ the patient sign out the answer to a question where they do not know what the answer should be. In addition, several extremely dubious cases have been reported by investigators in which disabled persons are claimed to be signing a coherent message while their eyes are closed, or they are looking away from or showing no particular interest in the letter board. Some facilitators have countered that FC cannot be clearly disproven by this method, since a testing environment might feel confrontational and alienating to the subject.〔 Some persons formerly treated using FC have moved to typing without help.〔 Most experts in disability studies consider FC to be a pseudoscience that causes great risk and emotional distress to people with communication disabilities, their families and their caregivers. In 2015, Sweden banned the use of FC in special needs schools. ==Overview== Facilitated Communication is promoted as a means to assist people with severe communication disabilities in pointing to letters on an alphabet board, keyboard or other device so that they can communicate independently. It also appears in the literature as "supported typing", "progressive kinesthetic feedback",〔 and "written output communication enhancement",〔 and is linked closely with the unproven "rapid prompting method" (RPM) or "informative pointing".〔 The person with disabilities, who is often not able to rely on speech to communicate, is referred to as the ''communication partner''. The caregiver, educator or other provider offering physical support to the person with disabilities is called the ''facilitator''. The facilitator holds or gently touches the communication partner's elbow, wrist, hand, sleeve or other parts of the body while the communication partner points to letters of the alphabet printed on a piece of paper or laminated cardboard, letters on an alphabet board, laptop, keyboard or mobile communication device such as an iPad.〔 The Canon Communicator, a small, portable, lightweight device that printed a tape of letters when activated, was popular with early FC users. However, two companies, Crestwood Co. of Glendale, Wisconsin and Abovo Co. of Chicopee, Massachusetts, would later be charged by the Federal Trade Commission for making "false and unsubstantiated claims" that the device could enable people with autism and other disabilities to communicate using FC. The companies settled and stopped mentioning FC in their advertising campaigns. Proponents of FC claim that motor issues (e.g., the neurological condition of apraxia) prevent people with autism from communicating effectively. Although this claim is unsubstantiated (many people with autism have no difficulty pointing to or picking up objects independently, but do exhibit severe communication difficulties characteristic of the disorder),〔 proponents argue that physical support and touch are necessary components of communicating through FC. Candidates for FC, presumably, "lack confidence in their abilities"〔〔 and physical support, purportedly, helps them overcome this obstacle to communication. The role of the facilitator is depicted in newspaper articles, journal articles, and training manuals as integral to helping the person with disabilities point to letters (by holding his or her finger or hand), reducing or eliminating uncontrollable arm movements (shaking or flapping), avoiding mistakes in typing, controlling the initiation of movement,〔 and speaking words aloud.〔 As well as physical support in typing, the facilitator provides verbal prompts and moral support. Along with human touch, the facilitator's belief in their communication partner's ability to communicate is seen to be a key component of the technique. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Facilitated communication」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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