Facilitated Communication Training

Facilitated communication training is a method which allows people with severe communication impairment to communicate with others. This book describes the methodology in step-by-step detail, examines its possibilities and discusses some of its limitations and problems.

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Countless people throughout the world are not able to communicate adequately in speech. They may have cerebral palsy, head injury, or Down Syndrome, or may have been diagnosed as having intellectual disability or autism. Intelligence tests based on expressive language underestimate their capacities, and because they cannot express their language they are often thought not to possess it. Their thoughts, ideas, needs and desires go unspoken. They are trapped in a wordless prison. In "Facilitated Communication Training", Rosemary Crossley describes a method which allows people with severe communication impairment to communicate with others. In facilitated communication training, communication partners provide these people with physical support to help them overcome their neuromotor problems and develop functional movement patterns that will allow them to use communication aids. Using these techniques, thousands of people have been enabled to demonstrate unsuspected language skills and to enter the world of free communication. "Facilitated Communication Training" covers all aspects of the technique. Crossley describes the methodology in step-by-step detail.
The book explores the possibilities of this new and evolving field, and discusses some of its limitations and the problems that it faces. This book provides a solid background to assist the many thousands of people experimenting with this method around the world.