Facilitated Communication—what harm it can do: Confessions of a former facilitator

This article is a response to the most recent media coverage of sexual abuse allegations against parents obtained through Facilitated Communication (FC). Some parents, caregivers, educators, and researchers continue to use FC, despite overwhelming evidence within the scientific community that messages obtained through FC are facilitator-authored. In 1992, I was the facilitator in the Wheaton case and, through the guise of FC, brought sexual abuse allegations against the family of the autistic child, Betsy, with whom I worked. Authorship of the messages were challenged through scientific testing. The results of the testing concluded beyond doubt that I, not the child, authored the messages. Despite my reticence to give up my belief in FC, I could no longer ignore the scientific studies that replicated my own personal experiences with the purported technique. What follows is an overview of how I became involved with FC, how the sexual abuse allegations surfaced, and what happened when my belief in FC was challenged through scientific testing. Source of funding: No source of funding reported.