Facilitated communication: a failure to replicate the phenomenon.

Twenty-one subjects participated in a study of Biklen's and Crossley's hypothesis that persons with autism show unexpected literacy and improved communication ability through the process of facilitated communication (FC). Repeated measures of literacy were conducted at (a) a baseline test of communicative ability before FC; (b) a pretest with facilitation; and (c) a posttest with facilitation after 20 hours of training. At both the pretest and posttest, the facilitators were screened from hearing or seeing the questions or pictorial stimuli. Although some facilitators reported newfound communicative abilities during training sessions, no client showed unexpected literacy or communicative abilities when tested via the facilitator screening procedure, even after 20 hours of training. Separate analyses indicated that some facilitators influenced the communicative output of their clients.