Griffin Promise Autism Clinic Giving Nonverbal People A Voice

Green Country autism clinic Griffin Promise is giving people who can’t talk a voice by using a method called “Spelling to Communicate,” or S2C. News On 6's Meredith McCown shared how it's changed the life of Jacob Wright.

[@jeremymoses5758]

Spelling to communicate is a variation on Facilitated Communication (FC), a method by which the "facilitator" holds a non-verbal individual's wrist or arm and provides gentle backwards pressure which supposedly allows the individual to type their thoughts. However FC has repeatedly been scientifically tested and shown to be fake, as the messages being typed are unwittingly typed by the facilitator. Proponents of FC simply respond by saying that testing traumatizes the individual by "questioning their competence" which renders them unable to type, and therefore any and all testing is fake. The above example appears more convincing on the face of it, since the assistant is holding the letter board while the individual points at it. But it is bizarre and suspect that this method apparently only works when someone else holds a letter board in the air, even though he can supposedly type independently.

[@dawnjennings-os4ho]

Your statement is actually incorrect, in s2c there is no physical contact between the facilitator and the speller. Also, many advanced spellers are using a keyboard in a cradle, it just takes a lot of motor control to get to that point. There are dozens of spellers attending top universities all around the country who use letterboards and keyboards as their mode of communication. There are also studies showing that when spelling, the speller's eyes track to the next letter faster than anyone would be able to prompt them.

[@SuperFosterMom]

Why not just type I don’t understand

[@dawnjennings-os4ho]

They don't have the motor control because they have apraxia.

[@vanessaleetroy7306]

This is facilitated communication, and it is a cruel hoax