AutismFalse Words and False Hope
Autism is a childhood disease where the child is in a private world of their own. A description of an autistic child by her mother is: We start with an image—a tiny, golden child on hands and knees, circling round and round a spot on the floor in mysterious self-
absorbed delight. She does not look up, though she is smiling and laughing; she does not call our attention to the mysterious object of her pleasure. She does not see us at all. She and the spot are all there is, and though she is eighteen months old, an age for touching, tasting, pointing, pushing, exploring, she is doing none of these. (Groden 2) This is the most important trait in an autistic child: They don’t interact or socialize with other people. Other characteristics in autistic children are language retardation and ritualistic or compulsive behaviors. It used to be thought that children became autistic because of poor parenting and that the only solution was that the parents should be removed from the child (Baron-Cohen 26). Now it is known that autism is caused by biological factors due to: neurological symptoms, mental handicap, genetic causes, infections, and even
difficulties in pregnancy.
Even though autism is thought of as a disease or disorder, autistic children can demonstrate special skills. These skills are referred to as isolated islets of intelligence (Baron-Cohen 53). Some examples of these are found in an autistic child’s ability to draw, play music, or recall a certain date. Nadia, an autistic child, has the ability to draw in an almost photographic way (Baron-Cohen 54). Autistic children can also play instruments, accurately sing songs, recognize structures of music, etc. A problem that arises when autistic children are going through therapy is that they start to lose their remarkable skills. For parents to find out that their child is autistic can be very
shocking. They go from having a bouncy, livey baby to a having a total stranger
as their child. Many therapies have been devised to help autistic children.
Some of these therapies are: behavior therapy, speech and language therapy,
holding therapy, music therapy, and the newest one, facilitation therapy.
Since most autistic children are different and their behaviors are different, one
therapy may be more effective than another one. Facilitation therapy is catching
on, but is already becoming a controversy. Although facilitation therapy is one
of the most popular used methods in communicating with autistic children, it is
being downgraded because of the controversies where the children are being
manipulated by the facilitators.
A child with autism can be detected by the age of three. If treament is
started right away, the child may gain their normal functioning. This is a critical
factor in reversing the disorder (McEachin 105). Other elements in autistic
therapy that are important factors in helping with the child are observations,
establishing relationships, and changing behaviors (Simons 27). Once autistic
children have made a relationship, they are brought closer to the outside world.
That is why facilitation therapy is so popular. This kind of therapy helps the
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outside world to communicate with the lost child. The autistic child is supported
by a facilitator who holds the arm, the wrist, or the hand. This support helps the
child to control his/her movements in order for the child to point to words,
pictures, etc. In this way autistic children can express feelings or thoughts that
no one thought they had.
So why is there controversy over facilitation therapy ? The autistic child
is being observed, a relationship is formed between the child and the facilitator,
and the gap is being closed. The problem with facilitation therapy is expressed
by Dr. Green from the New York Times, Facilitated communication seems
tantamount to a miracle, but it’s more like a self-fulfulling prophecy – you see
what you want to see (C11). There is always the chance that the child is not the
one expressing the thoughts. Scientists in the New York Times are likening it
to a Ouija board (C1), because as people subconsciously move the message
indicator to get an answer to their question, facilitators can move the autistic
child’s hand to what they want. Another argument against facilitation therapy
was in an article, the Harvard Educational Review, where three concerns were
mentioned: 1) facilitated communication manipulated the handicapped, 2)
facilitation has never been proven valid, and 3) facilitation contradicts 50 years
of research in autism and developmental disabilities (Biklen 110). It seems
impossible that an autistic child who can not speak can suddenly communicate
with words. The autistic child can answer questions when asked by a facilitator,
but normally would just ignore a person that asked a question. Even though
facilitation therapy is a gateway into the autistic child’s mind, it causes much
skepticism.
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One of the greatest barriers to success with facilitation is the tendency to
underestimate people’s abilities based on prevailing paradigms or definitions of
disability (Biklen 193). When assumptions are made about people with a
handicap, others don’t put too much faith in their ability to spell, write, or
communicate. People that are retarded are assumed that they have no
intelligence, so others do everything for them. Another example is that people
talk loud around the elderly because they are assumed to have lost their
hearing. Many assumptions related to autism are: receptive problems,
processing problems, global cognitive failure, specific cognitive failure, levels of
deficit, and the inability to use pronouns, verb tenses, and other forms of
language (Biklen 193). These assumptions would lead a facilitator to think that
an autistic child, who has always had to depend on others, would have no skill of
their own. Biklen suggests instead of facilitators making wrong assumptions
about the child’s ability, that they should encourage the child in a natural
manner, and treat the person being facilitated as competent (193). This would
be hard to do knowing the limitations of the person. It is also hard to think of
someone as being competent when that person starts to scream or starts hitting
themselves.
Many parents doubt the effectiveness of facilitation therapy with their
child. How can their brain damaged child know anything? Dr. Schneiderman, a
pediatrician at the State University of New York Health Sciences Center in
Syracuse, uses facilitation therapy with his autistic son, David. In a New York
Times article he exclaims his concern over whether or not he is the one cuing
the responses, I worry a lot about whether what I’m doing is real when I
facilitate. If I’m doing this unconsciously, I’m unconsciously producing an autistic
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personality (C11). Another father expressed his doubts about facilitation
therapy over his daughter:
My child is severly handicapped. This breaks my heart; but I have
learned to live with that and make it part of my joy. I cannot in
good conscience allow that to be erased by the denial of other;
that [she] . . . is reading and comprehending . . . is incredibly
ludicrous, not to mention serious fabrication . . . . The onus of
responsibility to prove whether or not this so-called method is
effective should rest on the practitioner. (Biklen 119)
The father had also done facilitated communication with his daughter and
nothing happened. If encouragement, love, and support is given by the
facilitator to the autistic child, and these elements are supposed to help the child
communicate, then a parent should be able to get a response from their child.
Facilitation therapy is controversial in that manipulation is thought to be
involved. Biklen uses an argument by Cummins and Priors:
The success of assisted communications has very little to do with
emotional support, . . . and very much to do with physical control
by the assistant; either in the form of overt control of the client’s
movement’s or by supplying covert cues which are used by the
client to control his or her movements. (112).
Biklen noticed in his first studies of facilitation, an autistic child would only
communicate with one facilitator, and could not independently communicate
even though he wrote, Let me show them what I can really do (112). Physical
manipulation is also evident if the child being facilitated is not old enough to
spell, but is communicating on the keyboard. Other signs of physical
manipulation are: if the child types without any problems of pronoun reversals,
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incorrect verb tenses, not normal autistic language, and if the child says things
that others would not want to know or that aren’t true about family and friends
(Biklen 128).
The most recent controversial subject with facilitation therapy is the
reports of sexual abuse to the autistic child. Dr. Bernard Rimland, director of the
Autism Research Institute in San Diego, states, I know of about 25 cases
through facilitated communication of sexually abusing their kids (Goleman C11).
The result of the cases is that the facilitator was sexually abused and expresses
the event through the autistic child. When these cases go through the court it is
up to the judge to determine the reliability of the facilitator (Lambert B10). It’s
sad to think that facilitators would use the autistic child in revealing their sexual
abuse.
Facilitation is not the only answer in helping with autism. Behavior
therapy is making progress with its effects in treating autism. In the New York
Times, it explains how a team of psychologists have reported that the progress
of 19 children with autism who at age 2 or 3 had recieved 40 hours a week of
behavioral treatment . . . By age 11 . . . nine of those autistic children were going
to regular schools (C10) This kind of therapy is used to award good behavior
and discourage bad behavior. It is less controversial and seems to working
more than facilitated communication. Also with behavioral therapy, it not only
communicates with the child, but obviously can bring some children back into the
real world. Facilitation therapy only helps the child to talk, if it is even the child
speaking.
Another treatment for autism is an effective medication called
clomipramine. It was reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry that it
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reduced a range of symptoms in three-quarters of autistic children tested
(Goleman C11). The improvements in the children were that they were able to
make eye contact and begin interactions. Also compulsive behaviors were
reduced. In facilitation therapy many of the compulsive behaviors are still
observed, plus when the child is given medication there is no doubt that it is the
autistic child doing the communicating.
For some autistic children facilitation therapy may be the key to reaching
out. For the majority of autistic people, to close the gap between the real world
and the world they live in, takes intensive therapy. It takes more then a hand
supporting a wrist or an arm to communicate. Facilitation therapy is proving to be
too controversial to really know if it’s the autistic person’s own thoughts. Yes,
there is a hidden person inside that mute creature. Hopefully with love and
support from family and other outside contacts, that unique individual will
emerge.
Psychology
