Further negative findings on facilitated communication

To date, most studies of the efficacy of Facilitated Communication (FC) have been hampered by small samples, limited experience of the subjects with the FC, and diagnostically narrow samples. The present study has a comparatively large sample, and the subjects each had a minimum of one year's experience using FC. Diagnoses of the subjects were also arrayed across a broad spectrum. Pictorial stimuli that had been used as classroom teaching materials were presented to each subject and facilitator under three different conditions of five trials each. Responses were rated by independent judges who were not aware of the stimuli. Support for the communicative value of FC was not found.