"Brown learned to spell words on a letter board from a woman named Soma Mukhopadhyay, who developed Rapid Prompting in the 1990s. The New Jersey case involved an earlier incarnation of the same approach, called Facilitated Communication, that works by having someone type into a keyboard, or point to letters on a board, with a helper at their side who grasps their hand or holds their arm. Upon its arrival in the United States, “FC” was celebrated as a means of liberation for nonspeaking autistic kids, whose hidden skills and inner life were suddenly revealed ... Clinicians quickly came to understand that the method was susceptible to a very powerful “Ouija-board effect”: A facilitator could unwittingly deliver subtle and subconscious prompts—gentle pressure on a person’s wrist, perhaps—that shaped the outcome of the process. When the typers were subjected to formal “message-passing tests,” in which they would be asked to name an object or a picture that they’d seen while their helper wasn’t in the room, they almost always failed. Even kids who had produced fluid written work seemed incapable, under those conditions, of saying anything at all."
Prisoners of Silence is a PBS Frontline piece from the 90s about facilitated communication and a school starting to use it and then stopping, it’s obviously an older doc but it’s really striking
And she is so clearly completely deluded. Watching her talk, seeing her facial expressions and the way she just radiates when she talks about herself and FC, it's almost frightening how deeply she is sold on her own propaganda. Probably because breaking the delusion now would mean admitting to herself that she raped a very vulnerable challenged individual, and that's probably just too much to process for someone who thinks of themselves as an extremely upright, moral, kind, charitable person.
But that's what she did. She raped that poor boy, and like, violently. The descriptions his family gave of fucking rug burns on his body... like seriously, what the fuck.
I had to turn that documentary off halfway through because I found her response and demeanor to be completely inappropriate and bizarre. I don’t think she truly believes she harmed someone, much like you said.
The problem with all of that is that it is gatekept and interpreted by a non-disabled person. Who claims to be an expert acting according to high professional standards, but may not be that at all.
Besides being probably fake, one reason why this is so weird is that it feels like it’s trying to be a magic cure to a disability rather than an actual accommodation. Like someone trying to find a way that a non-verbal autistic person will fit into a neurotypical box.
Yes, so much of it is inherently ableist. Wanting to see all non-speaking autistic people as hidden geniuses with extraordinary gifts that just need to be “unlocked.” Of course there are autistic folks that are brilliant, but there are also plenty of autistic people with completely ordinary likes/desires/opinions/interests, and some who are also intellectually disabled — AND THAT’S OK. I’ve yet to see any advocate of S2C/FC be able to successfully explain why these individuals can’t learn to use a high-tech, comprehensive AAC system, many of which allow for spelling as a modality of communication! I’m an SLP and this whole movement is so infuriating, and the NYT article coming out really worries me because it’s giving legitimacy to a practice that’s not only bogus but also potentially very harmful.
And the Telepathy Tapes is one of the top podcasts in the world. We are exposed to a constant stream of misinformation re: facilitated communication and autism in general. Most people seem to accept it on face value. Concerning to think about what this indicates more broadly about scientific literacy/susceptibility to misinformation/critical thinking
The Guardian's coverage of disability and medical issues always deserves side-eye. It's a known editorial bias of theirs. Either very alarmist, or very saccharine feel-good, unified by a very patronizing tone toward subject and audience.
Unfortunately, I’m not. Most news and media outlets are pretty lousy at science and medical reporting. Plus anyone who expressed skepticism about these kinds of stories is going to risk backlash. Like, how DARE this ableist author insinuate that an autistic man isn’t capable of writing a book!
But if nothing else, news and media outlets don’t want to be late to the hot stories. Even if it’s something that’s extremely questionable, they’re losing clicks and views if they don’t get the story out quickly.
This is one of those things where I despairingly go “Why doesn’t someone DO something?”
Facilitated Communication/Rapid Prompting Method/Spelling 2 Communicate is a hoax, and a dangerous one. The first iteration of it only fell apart in the ‘90s after dozens of people had been falsely accused of sex abuse and non-verbal children sometimes taken away from their families and put into foster care. FC was how the “Tell Them You Love Me” case happened. It’s simply inevitable that more disabled autistic people and their families will be hurt unless these false communication methods are debunked again, and stopped.
“To finally be in the room where learning was happening, I felt like I was in heaven.”
Does this sound remotely like what someone in this situation would say, or does it sound like the facilitators fondest dream of what they would say? I'm reminded of an infamous criminal case involving a New Jersey college professor who supposedly used facilitated communication with a nonverbal and pretty severely autistic man and found that, oddly enough, he liked red wine and classical music and was a vegetarian, just like her.
That not a single teenager has used their first message to spell out “show me boobs” or something makes me suspicious off the bat. Every single one of these people is a hyper-erudite poet and scholar?
As far as I know not a single autistic person has ever used FC to infodump about Sonic the Hedgehog or name all 1000+ Pokemon either. The method doesn’t hold up to the simplest scientific testing, but even leaving that aside the supposed communication is always so painfully and obviously coming from a neurotypical adult.
There’s a nonspeaking autistic first grader at the school I work at. I think she’s probably got at least average intelligence for her age - she’s super fast at the little matching tasks they have her do, can match the word “octopus” to a picture of an octopus, stuff like that. She’s extremely sensitive to her environment and transitions, and rarely even makes sound unless she’s upset. So I think she’s someone where the barrier to communication might mostly be a motor and sensory thing, not necessarily a lack of understanding of language.
She can type some words, but she’s obsessed with Garfield. So like…can’t talk but knows how to look for Garfield videos on YouTube.
If she ever starts typing in sentences…if she starts infodumping about Garfield, it’s real. If it’s fake flowery bullshit like that, it’s not. 😅
Do you think they’re writing articles about the teenagers that write about being a typical horny teenager? I think facilitated communication is BS, but if a nonverbal person gets assistance that allows them to communicate like an average, mediocre person they’re not going to get much media attention.
It already happened, though. Plenty of non-verbal children have AAC devices (basically an iPad that speaks a word out loud when they press the corresponding button) and they don’t get news stories on them because their communication level is either on par or below their age level.
I'm a speech therapist and I am HORRIFIED by Facilitated Communication, Spelling to Communicate, Letterboarding, RPM, and all their ilk. It's so insane to me that their premise is that the facilitator is necessary to produce the output but also that none of the output is produced by the facilitator. These methods have never been able to be proven by any sort of testing where the facilitator does not know the message (e.g. when the communicator sees an image and the facilitator does not). Not only does the use of these methods supplant more traditional therapies and take away opportunities for individuals to learn independent communication methods, it turns them into puppets for the abled "saviors" who are actually producing these messages (even if they don't realize they are).
It really shows a deeply ableist view where we are not able to accept an individual's limits, and that we as a society are enamored with the idea that they're cognitively typical.
I guess it’s kind of an issue with mental health overall, that people have a harder time accepting that there are issues with it than they are with physical health issues. I think that maybe it’s harder for people to comprehend. Like, I can more easily imagine not being able to walk than I can not being able to think like I already do.
And yeah, it does come off as ableist. Like these parents can’t accept that their child isn’t what they wanted them to be.
Perfect explanation of the issue with this type of therapy. It’s trying to force an individual into a more typical narrative, instead of recognizing and honoring their limitations.
The Times article, which was very complimentary, describes him as watching Thomas the Tank Engine constantly. I think the mom can’t accept that that’s where he’s at; she wants him to be an Ivy League graduate and novelist, so she made it happen.
Exactly, I wish more people could recognize how inherently ableist all of it is (I’m also a horrified SLP who wishes this was all a fever dream). I remember learning about FC in grad school 17 years ago during my AAC course and how it’s been debunked numerous times, so when this stuff started being talked about again in the public sphere it really concerned me. And now it’s just snowballing so quickly. I hate that this aspect of our field is quickly becoming a casualty of the anti-science movement.
>ASHA has described Rapid Prompting and Spelling to Communicate as bearing “considerable similarity” to FC and thus as “pseudoscience.” But a formal disavowal by experts simply isn’t what it used to be. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has declared himself a fan of these methods: Doubters are delusional, he said in 2021; they remind him of doctors who still deny the harms of childhood vaccines.
LOL at RFK Jr comparing Rapid Prompting to "harms of childhood vaccines." That's all I needed to read to be convinced that Rapid Prompting is not a trustworthy means of communication.
Also kudos to the author for this: "a formal disavowal by experts simply isn't what it used to be." Nice restraint, while still getting the point across.
Yes, I was relieved to see RFK, Jr. is a fan, because with the NYT and Guardian reporting uncritically on this, I was expecting it to become a mandatory belief on the left. Once that happens, there's no arguing with people about it--they'll just decide you can't be trusted anymore.
>“I want mostly for neurotypical people to see that we have inner lives so they are more inclined to treat us like human beings,” Brown spelled
Reminds me of this other FC mom:
>"the presumption of intelligence brings respect, and respect brings dignity"
https://youtu.be/tjc2rRsORHk
I feel bad for the children of these moms. They only get to experience value and worth, if their secret inner intelligence is revealed. (See: Lutz, "Chasing The Intact Mind")
It's lucky those academic moms landed themselves literary genius disabled kids, not the undignified kind who are empty inside.
You know that’s a great point. It really does. I am friends with a blind man and we talk about disability a lot. some people think that being blind must mean he has superpowered hearing or superpowered sense of smell. No, he just has less information than sighted people. He doesn’t “make up for” that fact with his other senses.
Please show me the kid who has a breakthrough in communicating by telling us I HATE TO BRUSH MY TEETH or I AM ITCHY IN THIS SWEATER rather than discoursing like Frasier Crane at a faculty wine mixer and this might have some credibility. Responding to someone saying they like your tee shirt with a lengthy reply on Japanese trains hence it’s a Murukami reference doesn’t pass any smell test. And sadly I think it’s a bit of torture to poor Woody to drag him out for this. It’s not harmless.
And said kid cannot bear out the results of this communication method through testing because they find that experience to be too intimidating, yet they are on track to get a master's degree
Yes, and did I read right that he is often watching Thomas the Tank cartoons while being interviewed? And not actually looking at the letter board while "writing" with it.
One reason why this story has gotten so much uncritical coverage is that Woody’s parents aren’t random laypeople. His dad is an executive at Paramount and his mother worked as a script analyst in Hollywood. Awfully convenient that he’s displayed talents in the same field.
There's another Facilitated Communication parent who has a film industry background. I think it's the 10 year old essayist who writes about "dimensions of allyship".
The father in Makayla's Voice is a music producer. Jenny McCarthy helped make Spellers. There's been a dozen or more documentaries promoting people using it over the years.
Hollywood can't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
It's become a folie-à-millions, with a sad MLM scheme of victim-perpetrators. Fed by these promotional films, and a social media echo chamber of political posturing about disability.
Can’t decide if it’s better or worse that they have functionally unlimited resources to help their son but choose to exploit him instead. I was hoping (for lack of a better word) that mom was doing this because the disability services for average people in this country are so abysmal. When the medical system is for profit and care is so expensive, the most charitable read I could come up with was that the family needed money for Woody’s care. Actually, I think it is worse.
I’m glad the NYT piece was removed from this sub when it was posted a couple weeks ago, but I did appreciate the discussion that stemmed from it. Thank you for posting this so it can continue. I honestly felt sick to my stomach for days after learning about Woody’s story. It really disturbed me. I felt like the reporter just waxed poetic about a potentially abusive situation and left a vulnerable person behind after they were able to exploit him further. I can only hope that mom put on a show for the day but otherwise treats Woody well when they’re alone. But the fact that mom doesn’t seem to want to actually help him communicate with PROFESSIONAL interventions doesn’t give me much confidence. :(
"Brown also spoke about his mother in the interview; you can see it for yourself on YouTube. He jabs his finger at the letter board. Mary speaks the words.
Glad there is finally an article about this situation that doesn't take the claims at face value. The NYT article was infuriating - almost like satire.
I work in special education and we use symbol boards. The problem is even with symbol boards the kids struggle to articulate what they're after, and our symbol boards cover everything in their school life. I had a dysregulated boy a few days ago request water play time repeatedly, and I gave him water play time, but that didn't regulate him at all. So I think it's a bit of a stretch to think profoundly learning disabled people can write whole books with aac, sorry to say.
I was with someone using an AAC tablet, and they told me:
"Cold"
I thought they were cold, and asked if they wanted a sweater. They indictated No. They repeated, then deleted "Cold". Hesitating, trying to figure out what they were trying to say. They were stimming, scanning the buttons...
Eventually, though:
"Cool Down"
"Ooh! You were saying you want cold, not are cold. I get it. My bad, lol. Let's go cool down, then."
I was so much more impressed with that communication effort, than all the fake poetry a ouija board can muster.
I’m reminded of an essay about the Telepathy Tapes which quoted someone pointing out that to choose facilitated communication is to reject the free choices the person is making (for instance, to watch Thomas the Tank Engine as a real expression of preference, vs. To have Murakami imposed on you). Essentially, they reject the disabled kid they have for the neurotypical kid they want.
I thought this video was interesting. The creator gives a brief history of facilitated communication, and actually tries to do a good faith interpretation of what Woody Brown spells: https://youtu.be/wwofBlN9PDs
Thanks for sharing, I first heard the alarm through Jill Bearup when her video popped up on my YT algorithm (“Is the New York Times Punking Us?”) As a low-support-needs autistic person, I’ve been trying to read more about the experiences of autistic people with higher needs/ are nonverbal and this book seemed to fit the bill at first.
I had previously read the book’s review on The Guardian and added it to my To Read list, it sounded like what I was looking for. The book’s review itself made no mention of his mother’s physical involvement in the whole process or FC, though it did “quote” Brown about what the book meant to him/what he wanted readers to take away.
I walked away from the review assuming that he used a keyboard to communicate alone (either with text-to-speech or just typing out his answers to questions). Only after watching Bearup’s video did I find the first article explaining the whole “system” in place.
[OP] Gladyskravitz99 | a day ago
"Brown learned to spell words on a letter board from a woman named Soma Mukhopadhyay, who developed Rapid Prompting in the 1990s. The New Jersey case involved an earlier incarnation of the same approach, called Facilitated Communication, that works by having someone type into a keyboard, or point to letters on a board, with a helper at their side who grasps their hand or holds their arm. Upon its arrival in the United States, “FC” was celebrated as a means of liberation for nonspeaking autistic kids, whose hidden skills and inner life were suddenly revealed ... Clinicians quickly came to understand that the method was susceptible to a very powerful “Ouija-board effect”: A facilitator could unwittingly deliver subtle and subconscious prompts—gentle pressure on a person’s wrist, perhaps—that shaped the outcome of the process. When the typers were subjected to formal “message-passing tests,” in which they would be asked to name an object or a picture that they’d seen while their helper wasn’t in the room, they almost always failed. Even kids who had produced fluid written work seemed incapable, under those conditions, of saying anything at all."
claradox | a day ago
I don’t trust Facilitated Communication nor Rapid Prompting, and this documentary about this disturbing case is why: https://boxd.it/IASU
Full disclosure: I am autistic.
JaunteeChapeau | a day ago
Prisoners of Silence is a PBS Frontline piece from the 90s about facilitated communication and a school starting to use it and then stopping, it’s obviously an older doc but it’s really striking
PartyPorpoise | a day ago
That movie was so fucked up. That woman is a monster. I’m glad her victim has supportive family members.
canfullofworms | a day ago
This was disturbing
claradox | a day ago
Watching it is even worse. I can’t even describe it. She violated him in every way, with no credentials to help him in any way.
atomicsnark | a day ago
And she is so clearly completely deluded. Watching her talk, seeing her facial expressions and the way she just radiates when she talks about herself and FC, it's almost frightening how deeply she is sold on her own propaganda. Probably because breaking the delusion now would mean admitting to herself that she raped a very vulnerable challenged individual, and that's probably just too much to process for someone who thinks of themselves as an extremely upright, moral, kind, charitable person.
But that's what she did. She raped that poor boy, and like, violently. The descriptions his family gave of fucking rug burns on his body... like seriously, what the fuck.
Powerful-Patient-765 | a day ago
I watch practically every true crime documentary, but after watching the trailer for this one, I knew I couldn’t watch it. Highly disturbing!
helloyesthisisasock | 23 hours ago
I had to turn that documentary off halfway through because I found her response and demeanor to be completely inappropriate and bizarre. I don’t think she truly believes she harmed someone, much like you said.
canfullofworms | a day ago
Right, she was basically talking to herself and using his body
Snoo_33033 | a day ago
The problem with all of that is that it is gatekept and interpreted by a non-disabled person. Who claims to be an expert acting according to high professional standards, but may not be that at all.
questionsaboutrel521 | a day ago
Besides being probably fake, one reason why this is so weird is that it feels like it’s trying to be a magic cure to a disability rather than an actual accommodation. Like someone trying to find a way that a non-verbal autistic person will fit into a neurotypical box.
linzamaphone | 6 hours ago
Yes, so much of it is inherently ableist. Wanting to see all non-speaking autistic people as hidden geniuses with extraordinary gifts that just need to be “unlocked.” Of course there are autistic folks that are brilliant, but there are also plenty of autistic people with completely ordinary likes/desires/opinions/interests, and some who are also intellectually disabled — AND THAT’S OK. I’ve yet to see any advocate of S2C/FC be able to successfully explain why these individuals can’t learn to use a high-tech, comprehensive AAC system, many of which allow for spelling as a modality of communication! I’m an SLP and this whole movement is so infuriating, and the NYT article coming out really worries me because it’s giving legitimacy to a practice that’s not only bogus but also potentially very harmful.
silliestjupiter | a day ago
I'm still shocked at the fully uncritical pieces in the Times, The Guardian, and Good Morning America.
demi-paradise | a day ago
And the Telepathy Tapes is one of the top podcasts in the world. We are exposed to a constant stream of misinformation re: facilitated communication and autism in general. Most people seem to accept it on face value. Concerning to think about what this indicates more broadly about scientific literacy/susceptibility to misinformation/critical thinking
Fearless-Feature-830 | a day ago
It’s straight up child abuse in my eyes
demi-paradise | a day ago
It is, objectively.
Fearless-Feature-830 | a day ago
I’ve been banned from all the telepathy tapes subreddits for saying so, haha
cambriansplooge | a day ago
The Guardian's coverage of disability and medical issues always deserves side-eye. It's a known editorial bias of theirs. Either very alarmist, or very saccharine feel-good, unified by a very patronizing tone toward subject and audience.
PartyPorpoise | a day ago
In general most news outlets are pretty bad at science and medical reporting.
PartyPorpoise | a day ago
Unfortunately, I’m not. Most news and media outlets are pretty lousy at science and medical reporting. Plus anyone who expressed skepticism about these kinds of stories is going to risk backlash. Like, how DARE this ableist author insinuate that an autistic man isn’t capable of writing a book!
But if nothing else, news and media outlets don’t want to be late to the hot stories. Even if it’s something that’s extremely questionable, they’re losing clicks and views if they don’t get the story out quickly.
Archarchery | 19 hours ago
This is one of those things where I despairingly go “Why doesn’t someone DO something?”
Facilitated Communication/Rapid Prompting Method/Spelling 2 Communicate is a hoax, and a dangerous one. The first iteration of it only fell apart in the ‘90s after dozens of people had been falsely accused of sex abuse and non-verbal children sometimes taken away from their families and put into foster care. FC was how the “Tell Them You Love Me” case happened. It’s simply inevitable that more disabled autistic people and their families will be hurt unless these false communication methods are debunked again, and stopped.
malektewaus | a day ago
“To finally be in the room where learning was happening, I felt like I was in heaven.”
Does this sound remotely like what someone in this situation would say, or does it sound like the facilitators fondest dream of what they would say? I'm reminded of an infamous criminal case involving a New Jersey college professor who supposedly used facilitated communication with a nonverbal and pretty severely autistic man and found that, oddly enough, he liked red wine and classical music and was a vegetarian, just like her.
JaunteeChapeau | a day ago
That not a single teenager has used their first message to spell out “show me boobs” or something makes me suspicious off the bat. Every single one of these people is a hyper-erudite poet and scholar?
bicyclecat | a day ago
As far as I know not a single autistic person has ever used FC to infodump about Sonic the Hedgehog or name all 1000+ Pokemon either. The method doesn’t hold up to the simplest scientific testing, but even leaving that aside the supposed communication is always so painfully and obviously coming from a neurotypical adult.
OcieDeeznuts | 19 hours ago
There’s a nonspeaking autistic first grader at the school I work at. I think she’s probably got at least average intelligence for her age - she’s super fast at the little matching tasks they have her do, can match the word “octopus” to a picture of an octopus, stuff like that. She’s extremely sensitive to her environment and transitions, and rarely even makes sound unless she’s upset. So I think she’s someone where the barrier to communication might mostly be a motor and sensory thing, not necessarily a lack of understanding of language.
She can type some words, but she’s obsessed with Garfield. So like…can’t talk but knows how to look for Garfield videos on YouTube.
If she ever starts typing in sentences…if she starts infodumping about Garfield, it’s real. If it’s fake flowery bullshit like that, it’s not. 😅
whyamionthishellsite | a day ago
Do you think they’re writing articles about the teenagers that write about being a typical horny teenager? I think facilitated communication is BS, but if a nonverbal person gets assistance that allows them to communicate like an average, mediocre person they’re not going to get much media attention.
PartyPorpoise | a day ago
I mean, that would still be really impressive.
whyamionthishellsite | a day ago
It already happened, though. Plenty of non-verbal children have AAC devices (basically an iPad that speaks a word out loud when they press the corresponding button) and they don’t get news stories on them because their communication level is either on par or below their age level.
PartyPorpoise | 18 hours ago
Fair enough. I saw a doc about such a person myself and I was hella impressed. No surprise the media just wants the savants.
mudpupster | a day ago
That case is referenced in this piece, because this is the author that wrote extensively about it.
TheLittlestChocobo | a day ago
I'm a speech therapist and I am HORRIFIED by Facilitated Communication, Spelling to Communicate, Letterboarding, RPM, and all their ilk. It's so insane to me that their premise is that the facilitator is necessary to produce the output but also that none of the output is produced by the facilitator. These methods have never been able to be proven by any sort of testing where the facilitator does not know the message (e.g. when the communicator sees an image and the facilitator does not). Not only does the use of these methods supplant more traditional therapies and take away opportunities for individuals to learn independent communication methods, it turns them into puppets for the abled "saviors" who are actually producing these messages (even if they don't realize they are).
It really shows a deeply ableist view where we are not able to accept an individual's limits, and that we as a society are enamored with the idea that they're cognitively typical.
PartyPorpoise | a day ago
I guess it’s kind of an issue with mental health overall, that people have a harder time accepting that there are issues with it than they are with physical health issues. I think that maybe it’s harder for people to comprehend. Like, I can more easily imagine not being able to walk than I can not being able to think like I already do.
And yeah, it does come off as ableist. Like these parents can’t accept that their child isn’t what they wanted them to be.
Glass-Indication-276 | 23 hours ago
Perfect explanation of the issue with this type of therapy. It’s trying to force an individual into a more typical narrative, instead of recognizing and honoring their limitations.
The Times article, which was very complimentary, describes him as watching Thomas the Tank Engine constantly. I think the mom can’t accept that that’s where he’s at; she wants him to be an Ivy League graduate and novelist, so she made it happen.
linzamaphone | 6 hours ago
Exactly, I wish more people could recognize how inherently ableist all of it is (I’m also a horrified SLP who wishes this was all a fever dream). I remember learning about FC in grad school 17 years ago during my AAC course and how it’s been debunked numerous times, so when this stuff started being talked about again in the public sphere it really concerned me. And now it’s just snowballing so quickly. I hate that this aspect of our field is quickly becoming a casualty of the anti-science movement.
No-Stress-7034 | a day ago
>ASHA has described Rapid Prompting and Spelling to Communicate as bearing “considerable similarity” to FC and thus as “pseudoscience.” But a formal disavowal by experts simply isn’t what it used to be. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has declared himself a fan of these methods: Doubters are delusional, he said in 2021; they remind him of doctors who still deny the harms of childhood vaccines.
LOL at RFK Jr comparing Rapid Prompting to "harms of childhood vaccines." That's all I needed to read to be convinced that Rapid Prompting is not a trustworthy means of communication.
Also kudos to the author for this: "a formal disavowal by experts simply isn't what it used to be." Nice restraint, while still getting the point across.
Odd-Age-1126 | a day ago
That is some excellent shade from the article’s author. Isn’t what it used to be, indeed.
TheLittlestChocobo | a day ago
I am a speech therapist and I also have a master's in public health. This comment from him is going to make me cry.
EdenSouthworth | 5 hours ago
Yes, I was relieved to see RFK, Jr. is a fan, because with the NYT and Guardian reporting uncritically on this, I was expecting it to become a mandatory belief on the left. Once that happens, there's no arguing with people about it--they'll just decide you can't be trusted anymore.
Schmidtvegas | a day ago
Copying what I wrote from another sub:
>“I want mostly for neurotypical people to see that we have inner lives so they are more inclined to treat us like human beings,” Brown spelled
Reminds me of this other FC mom:
>"the presumption of intelligence brings respect, and respect brings dignity"
https://youtu.be/tjc2rRsORHk
I feel bad for the children of these moms. They only get to experience value and worth, if their secret inner intelligence is revealed. (See: Lutz, "Chasing The Intact Mind")
It's lucky those academic moms landed themselves literary genius disabled kids, not the undignified kind who are empty inside.
Fearless-Feature-830 | a day ago
It reminds me of munchausen by proxy
Powerful-Patient-765 | a day ago
You know that’s a great point. It really does. I am friends with a blind man and we talk about disability a lot. some people think that being blind must mean he has superpowered hearing or superpowered sense of smell. No, he just has less information than sighted people. He doesn’t “make up for” that fact with his other senses.
Numerous-Fee5981 | a day ago
Please show me the kid who has a breakthrough in communicating by telling us I HATE TO BRUSH MY TEETH or I AM ITCHY IN THIS SWEATER rather than discoursing like Frasier Crane at a faculty wine mixer and this might have some credibility. Responding to someone saying they like your tee shirt with a lengthy reply on Japanese trains hence it’s a Murukami reference doesn’t pass any smell test. And sadly I think it’s a bit of torture to poor Woody to drag him out for this. It’s not harmless.
Comfortable-Jelly-20 | 20 hours ago
And said kid cannot bear out the results of this communication method through testing because they find that experience to be too intimidating, yet they are on track to get a master's degree
EdenSouthworth | 5 hours ago
Yes, and did I read right that he is often watching Thomas the Tank cartoons while being interviewed? And not actually looking at the letter board while "writing" with it.
weebgothgf | a day ago
One reason why this story has gotten so much uncritical coverage is that Woody’s parents aren’t random laypeople. His dad is an executive at Paramount and his mother worked as a script analyst in Hollywood. Awfully convenient that he’s displayed talents in the same field.
silliestjupiter | a day ago
Suddenly this whole campaign makes much more sense.
Sullyville | a day ago
Yes, this book's movie rights have probably already been sold with Timothee Chalamet attached likely.
Schmidtvegas | a day ago
There's another Facilitated Communication parent who has a film industry background. I think it's the 10 year old essayist who writes about "dimensions of allyship".
The father in Makayla's Voice is a music producer. Jenny McCarthy helped make Spellers. There's been a dozen or more documentaries promoting people using it over the years.
Hollywood can't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
It's become a folie-à-millions, with a sad MLM scheme of victim-perpetrators. Fed by these promotional films, and a social media echo chamber of political posturing about disability.
https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/tell-them-its-not-hate-speech-fc-facilitator-crimes-and-the-ethically-compromised-world-of-disability-studies
https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/the-gentrification-of-disability
https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/whose-voice-facilitated-letters-to-the-world
https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/groundhog-day-fc-style-a-perspective-from-a-former-facilitator
readingwritingreefer | a day ago
Can’t decide if it’s better or worse that they have functionally unlimited resources to help their son but choose to exploit him instead. I was hoping (for lack of a better word) that mom was doing this because the disability services for average people in this country are so abysmal. When the medical system is for profit and care is so expensive, the most charitable read I could come up with was that the family needed money for Woody’s care. Actually, I think it is worse.
readingwritingreefer | a day ago
I’m glad the NYT piece was removed from this sub when it was posted a couple weeks ago, but I did appreciate the discussion that stemmed from it. Thank you for posting this so it can continue. I honestly felt sick to my stomach for days after learning about Woody’s story. It really disturbed me. I felt like the reporter just waxed poetic about a potentially abusive situation and left a vulnerable person behind after they were able to exploit him further. I can only hope that mom put on a show for the day but otherwise treats Woody well when they’re alone. But the fact that mom doesn’t seem to want to actually help him communicate with PROFESSIONAL interventions doesn’t give me much confidence. :(
celtic_quake | a day ago
Oofffff, that stinger:
"Brown also spoke about his mother in the interview; you can see it for yourself on YouTube. He jabs his finger at the letter board. Mary speaks the words.
“Without … her … there … is … no … me.”"
ThrowRA9892 | a day ago
He pointed at maybe 10 letters in the time it took her to say that.
Later in that video she says neurotypical when he maybe pointed at 3 letters.
Appropriate-Train281 | a day ago
Glad there is finally an article about this situation that doesn't take the claims at face value. The NYT article was infuriating - almost like satire.
SeahorseRevolution | a day ago
Facilitated communication (FC) is 100% pseudoscience.
69Whomst | a day ago
I work in special education and we use symbol boards. The problem is even with symbol boards the kids struggle to articulate what they're after, and our symbol boards cover everything in their school life. I had a dysregulated boy a few days ago request water play time repeatedly, and I gave him water play time, but that didn't regulate him at all. So I think it's a bit of a stretch to think profoundly learning disabled people can write whole books with aac, sorry to say.
Schmidtvegas | a day ago
I was with someone using an AAC tablet, and they told me:
"Cold"
I thought they were cold, and asked if they wanted a sweater. They indictated No. They repeated, then deleted "Cold". Hesitating, trying to figure out what they were trying to say. They were stimming, scanning the buttons...
Eventually, though:
"Cool Down"
"Ooh! You were saying you want cold, not are cold. I get it. My bad, lol. Let's go cool down, then."
I was so much more impressed with that communication effort, than all the fake poetry a ouija board can muster.
Pawneewafflesarelife | a day ago
Was he thirsty?
bookish-malarkey | a day ago
Thanks for posting, and kudos to Daniel Engber (who extensively covered Anna Stubblefield's case, as well as the Telepathy Tapes podcast) for staying on this beat.
AllegedlyLiterate | a day ago
I’m reminded of an essay about the Telepathy Tapes which quoted someone pointing out that to choose facilitated communication is to reject the free choices the person is making (for instance, to watch Thomas the Tank Engine as a real expression of preference, vs. To have Murakami imposed on you). Essentially, they reject the disabled kid they have for the neurotypical kid they want.
Fearless-Feature-830 | a day ago
I knew it was bullshit. That stuff is straight pseudoscience
djcamic | a day ago
I thought this video was interesting. The creator gives a brief history of facilitated communication, and actually tries to do a good faith interpretation of what Woody Brown spells: https://youtu.be/wwofBlN9PDs
Schmidtvegas | a day ago
Here's another video:
https://youtu.be/Fbw4Z0HWmRU
And prior article:
https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/critical-questions-the-cbs-la-reporters-apparently-forgot-to-ask-about-fc
manolosandmartinis44 | a day ago
https://archive.is/sepme if anyone (else) is caught by the paywall.
[OP] Gladyskravitz99 | a day ago
I thought I posted a free gift article. Is it not working that way?
DiverAcrobatic5794 | a day ago
Did for me, thank you very much
Mandsee | a day ago
thank you!!
asparasaurologus | 12 hours ago
Thanks for sharing, I first heard the alarm through Jill Bearup when her video popped up on my YT algorithm (“Is the New York Times Punking Us?”) As a low-support-needs autistic person, I’ve been trying to read more about the experiences of autistic people with higher needs/ are nonverbal and this book seemed to fit the bill at first.
I had previously read the book’s review on The Guardian and added it to my To Read list, it sounded like what I was looking for. The book’s review itself made no mention of his mother’s physical involvement in the whole process or FC, though it did “quote” Brown about what the book meant to him/what he wanted readers to take away. I walked away from the review assuming that he used a keyboard to communicate alone (either with text-to-speech or just typing out his answers to questions). Only after watching Bearup’s video did I find the first article explaining the whole “system” in place.