Remediation of communication problems through facilitated communication training: a case study

Facilitated communication training (FCT) is an educational technique intended to allow people who cannot speak or sign fluently to develop the hand skills necessary to use other non-speech communication strategies. It involves support to the arm, wrist or hand of the student, who is thus enabled to control his pointing, and has recently been the subject of considerable debate. Critics of the technique have cast doubt on the existence of any language problem remediable by touch. This study discusses the case of a person who had a language problem that did not appear to be connected with overt neuromotor impairment, was not accompanied by behavioural disturbance, and was remediable by touch alone. The case raises some interesting questions about the relation of physical prompts to language use.