Supported communication

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Supported communication (sometimes also: supported writing ) is the German equivalent of the English technical term "Facilitated Communication" (short: FC ). A communication assistant, the so-called supporter, touches a person with impaired communication, also known as a writer or user. This physical assistance is intended to enable the person with impaired communication to use a communication aid. Supported communication is considered by many practitioners and some scientists as a method of supported communication - a subject that deals with alternative and complementary forms of communication for people who have no or only insufficient spoken language . Supported communication can be seen as a manifestation of the carpenter effect .

Development and technology

In its current form, Assisted Communication was developed in the late 1970s by the Australian Rosemary Crossley , who was looking for a way to communicate with a young cerebral palsy woman. Later the method was also used in people with autism and Down syndrome , nowadays generally in people with severe communication impairments regardless of the medical diagnosis.

In supported communication, the alternative form of communication is almost always written language ; in individual cases, alternative symbol systems are also used, for example pictograms. The respective symbols are either provided on a communication board or on a typewriter, a computer or a voice output device.

The special feature of the Facilitated Communication is that the symbols of the communication impaired person ( Schreiber or user called) with assistance of a second person, the so-called Stützers are driven. The supporter should make it easier for the writer to point to the letters or to type on the keyboard by touching the hand or another part of the body of the writer, exerting slight counterpressure, preventing the selection of obviously wrong keys and providing similar physical assistance. The principle of minimum support applies here. In order to enable independent communication, it is considered important to take the physical support from hand to shoulder further and further and ultimately even to fade it out completely.

Further components of the method are the accompanying emotional and verbal support. The writer is encouraged and valued, his statements are verbalized and thus fed back to him. However, these components are not specific to the FC method; rather, they are a feature of almost all supported communication methods.

Body contact per se is not specific to assisted communication either, but rather

  • that body contact is not completely faded out immediately after the initiation phase and
  • that the authorship is ascribed to the user even in the case of messages that arise in physical contact. The supporter sees itself merely as a catalyst in converting the writer's thoughts into typing movements; the support is regarded as a "physiotherapy aid".

According to the assumptions of the proponents of assisted communication, assisted communication brings to light previously undiscovered but already existing cognitive and communication skills. It is assumed that the only reason the scribes did not point to symbols unsupported was because the corresponding motor implementation would fail, i.e. an apraxia would exist. According to other authors, the brace does not compensate motor or neuromotor deficits, but rather those of attention control and social orientation. Both explanatory models have in common the assumption that the support compensates for performance problems with basically intact cognitive and linguistic competence.

Scientific status

Despite frequent use of the method in practice, supported communication is rejected in science and specialist circles as ineffective and in some cases even as harmful.

Numerous methodologically sound studies have shown that the assistant shows the FC user - unconsciously and unintentionally - which keys to press, so that the assistant is the author of the resulting text. In the experiment by Wheeler and colleagues (1993), the supporters and the supported were shown different images of objects that the supported were supposed to name. However, the assisted subjects never typed in the name of the object that they had seen themselves, but either other words or the name of the object that only the supporter had seen. In another experimental paradigm, FC clients were given information in the absence of the supporter. They were unable to convey this information through assisted communication.

Supported communication can be seen as a manifestation of the Kluger-Hans effect or the Carpenter effect , on which the spiritistic Ouija is based. Supported communication representatives admitted that some of the written results may be based on a “Ouija effect”, but claimed that this could be prevented by better training of the supporters .

Since the 1990s, the question of the authorship of the texts produced with assisted communication has been investigated by various research groups. According to a comparative study by Biermann (1999) on all 44 studies published up to that point, approx. 80% of the FC writers examined could not produce any authentic communication, whereas 77% of the writers examined could demonstrate the influence of supporters.

For the 20% of FC writers who produced at least one authentic communication, the level of FC communication then usually corresponded to that of communication without support. In some cases, the level was also lower, so that information could be transmitted with assisted communication, but without their help it is transmitted just as well or even better. The only study that confirmed an improvement in communication under controlled conditions of assisted communication can only be interpreted with reservations due to methodological deficiencies.

There are cases of harmful uses of the FC. In the USA, Assisted Communication has fallen into disrepute, among other things, because it has often led to false accusations of alleged sexual abuse of FC users by family members and carers.

Documentation

  • My language of thought. People who cannot speak find words . Documentary on aided communication by Pascale Gmür and Otmar Schmid, Switzerland 2005 (57 min.).

See also

literature

  • Biermann, Adrienne: Supported communication in conflict. Berlin: Edition Marhold 1999.
  • Biklen, Douglas: Communication Unbound: How Facilitated Communication is Challenging Traditional Views of Autism and Ability / Disability. New York: Teachers College Press 1993, ISBN 0-8077-3221-4
  • Bundschuh, Konrad / Basler-Eggen, Andrea: Supported communication (FC) for people with severe communication impairments. Munich: Ludwig Maximilians University 2000. (PDF)
  • Crossley, Rosemary: Assisted Communication: A Training Program. Weinheim, Basel: Beltz 1997.
  • Dillon, Kathleen M .: Facilitated Communication, Autism, and Ouija , in: Skeptical Inquirer 17 (3) 1993, pp. 281-287; German: Ouija , in: Randow, Gero von (ed.): The stranger in the glass and other reasons for skepticism, discovered in the “Skeptical Inquirer” , Reinbek: Rowohlt 1996, pp. 107–121
  • Donnellan, Anne M./Leary, Martha R .: Movement Differences and Diversity in Autism / Mental Retardation . Madison (WI): DRI Press 1997
  • Eichel, Elisabeth: Supported communication in people with autistic disorder. Dortmund: Projekt-Verlag 1996.
  • Lang, Monika: Supported communication - attempt to determine the current position. In: Geistige Behavior 2/2003, pp. 139–147.
  • Klauß, Theo, Janz, F. & Hör, Christiane (2009): What happens in 'Facilitated Communication'? Investigation of a controversial interaction process in special needs education 54, 72–95
  • Nußbeck, Susanne: Supported Communication: A means of expression for people with intellectual disabilities? Göttingen: Hogrefe 2000.
  • Probst, Paul: Assisted Communication: An Unfulfillable Promise in Autism No. 56/2003 (PDF; 72 kB)
  • Probst, Paul: "Communication unbound - or unfound"? - An integrative literature review on the effectiveness of "Facilitated Communication" in non-speaking autistic and mentally impaired people. In: Journal for Clinical Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy 53, 2005, pp. 93–128 (PDF; 3.6 MB)
  • Spitz, Herman H .: Nonconscious Movements. From Mystical Messages To Facilitated Communication. Mahwah (NJ): Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 1997, ISBN 0-8058-2563-0
  • Zöller, Dietmar: Supported Communication (FC): Pros and Cons. Berlin: Weidler 2002.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs: Supported Communication (PDF) ( Memento from March 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ See Bundschuh 1998.
  3. ↑ See Klauß, Janz & Hör 2009.
  4. ↑ Overview in: DM Wegner, VA Fuller and B. Sparrow (2003). Clever hands: Uncontrolled intelligence in facilitated communication . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, pp. 5–19 (PDF; 135 kB) ( Memento from April 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ DL Wheeler, JW Jacobson, RA Paglieri and AA Schwartz (1993). An experimental assessment of facilitated communication . Mental Retardation, 31, pp. 49-59
  6. ↑ z. B. Cabay, M. (1994). A controlled evaluation of facilitated communication using open-ended and fill-in questions . Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 24, pp. 517-527
  7. ↑ s. Dillon 1993; Spitz 1997
  8. ↑ s. Donnellan / Leary 1997; Biklen 1993
  9. ^ MJ Weiss, SH Wagner, ML Bauman: A validated case study of facilitated communication. In: Mental retardation. Volume 34, Number 4, August 1996, pp. 220-230. PMID 8828341 .
  10. ↑ cf. z. B. Mostert, Mark P. (2010). "Facilitated Communication and Its Legitimacy - Twenty-first Century Developments". Exceptionality. 18 (1): 31-41. doi: 10.1080 / 09362830903462524 .
  11. ↑ Lucius Flury: Film review: "Meine Denksprache" - Documentary by Pascale Gmür and Otmar Schmid. People who cannot speak find words . ( Memento of the original from December 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Curaviva . No. 10/2005, p. 13. Accessed August 15, 2016 (PDF). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fc-zentrum.ch