















 
campus
reaction
another
statement
FC
in 2010
Biklen
retires
in
2014; his
Institute
continues |
The
Problem with Biklen
Written October
26, 2005

Tammy S. Schlafer
Executive
Director, Annual Giving Programs
Syracuse University
820
Comstock Avenue
Syracuse,
NY 13244-5040
Dear Ms. Schlafer:
In
response to your recent letter, I regret that although I have given
several thousand dollars over the years to the Fund for Syracuse,
there will be no contribution this year.
This is in
response to the University's appointment of Dr. Douglas Biklen as the
Dean of the School of Education. Dr. Biklen's educational
credentials may qualify him for the post, but unfortunately he
continues to promote the practice of Facilitated Communication,
ignoring the evidence that it doesn't work.
I first
became aware of FC through a public television documentary [transcript, video]
twelve years ago. Afterwards, I described what I saw in a
letter to a friend, a medical doctor whose younger brother had been autistic:
Facilitators
earn their living by showing parents that if they hold their
autistic child's hand, the child's finger can be made to point to
letters that spell out meaningful words.
The
parents are thrilled to tears. They have always wanted to
believe that their child, this miniature of themselves, does think
and feel like any normal child but is unable to express those
thoughts due to something like insufficient muscle control. So
when they hold their child's hand and the child's finger spells out
"I love you, Mommy" or even writes a poem, nothing can
shake their belief that these thoughts do come from the youngster.
But in
reality, it's the "helper" whose eyes are on the
letter-board, while the autistic child looks blankly in another
direction. If different objects are shown to helper and child,
it's the name of the helper's object that the child's finger spells
out. As with a Ouija board, it appears that the helper is
guiding the pointer without even being aware of doing so.
The
documentary completely debunked FC, and I naïvely thought that
this idea would not be heard from again. But there are parents
and others who desperately want to believe in it. Dr. Biklen is
willing to take their money. He continues to promote FC, and
now I find that he even runs a Facilitated Communication Institute
under the auspices of Syracuse University.
When he
was appointed Dean this summer, the Commission for Scientific
Medicine and Mental Health reacted "with disappointment and
dismay." It called FC "a thoroughly discredited
technique that purportedly allows mute and otherwise linguistically
impaired children and adults with autism to communicate,"
listing eight other professional organizations that "have all
issued policy statements advising against the use of FC for autism."
The CSMMH
continued, in part, "By first raising and then dashing the hopes
of thousands of parents of children with autism, Dr. Biklen and other
proponents of FC may have done grave harm to mental health clients
and to the reputation of clinical practitioners. Along with
academic freedom comes the responsibility for scientific rigor.
Syracuse University is sending a clear signal that it is not firmly
committed to embracing evidence-based approaches to understanding and
treating cognitive and emotional disorders. Their appointment
of Dr. Biklen as Dean is a major step backward."
You claim
to be a "College with a Conscience." But, according
to a 2001 article
by Martin Gardner, "Through high-priced seminars and sales of
videotapes and literature, it is estimated that Biklen is bringing
millions of dollars annually to his university" under
false pretenses. As long as this continues, you don't need any
money from me.
Thomas B.
Thomas (M.S. 1970)
UPDATE:
FACILITATED COMMUNICATION WRECKS MICHIGAN FAMILY
Detroit
Free Press article,
January 12, 2001
More
than three years after police in West Bloomfield arrested a man and
accused him of raping his autistic daughter, the township's insurance
carrier has agreed to pay his family and attorney $1.8 million to
settle a wrongful-arrest suit.
Julian
Wendrow served 80 days in jail and faced life in prison; his wife,
Thal Wendrow, faced decades behind bars, accused of allowing assaults
to happen. Their 14-year-old daughter, who cannot speak, and
their son, 13, were in foster care.
The
evidence against them? A statement the girl, who functions as
a 2-year-old, reportedly typed with the help of a teacher's
aide. The statement claimed her father had raped her since age
7 as her mother stood by. A physical exam showed no evidence of abuse.
An
earlier story
explains how the Wendrows thought they could interact with their
daughter via Facilitated Communication, until the words the daughter
supposedly was typing led to the father's felony arrest. |
 |
|
2021
UPDATE:
PROBLEM REMOVED
A
note on the website of Syracuse University's Department of
Communication Sciences & Disorders states, The
Department of CSD does not offer, study or affiliate itself with
Facilitated Communication (FC) or Supported Typing (ST).
Elsewhere
in upstate New York, the Center for Inquiry (We Know
Nonsense) has linked to an independent organization's website
about FC. |
|