FACILITATED COMMUNICATION TRAINING:
AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHRIS BORTHWICK

Facilitated communication training (FCT) is a strategy for teaching individuals with severe communication impairments to use communication aids with their hands. In FCT a communication partner (facilitator) helps the communication aid user overcome physical problems and develop functional movement patterns. The immediate aim in FCT is to allow the aid user to make choices and to communicate in a way that has been impossible previously. Practice using a communication aid such as a picture board, speech synthesizer, or keyboard in a functional manner is encouraged, to increase the userâs physical skills and self-confidence and reduce dependency. As the studentâs skills and confidence increase the amount of facilitation is reduced. The ultimate goal is for students to be able to use the communication aid(s) of their choice independently.

Facilitated communication training was developed at DEAL Communication Centre in Melbourne, Australia. It is now used throughout North America and in several European countries with people with communication difficulties diagnosed as, for example, intellectually impaired, autistic, or cerebral palsied. It has already developed a lengthy list of relevant publication. These are, however, scattered across several continents and several fields of study, and are not always readily accessible. This bibliography attempts to give an brief account of each piece along with, for articles not readily available, a contact address where they may be obtained.

This bibliography does not cover material on autism, hyperlexia, or movement disorders unless they involve FCT.

The quotations selected for inclusion (and given in inset type) are not necessarily those covering the core message of the piece; they are, rather, passages that cover points not made elsewhere in the basic texts.

I have not myself sighted some references, and these are given in Bold Italics.