Name: A Critique of Facilitated Communication
Start: 2025-11-06T12:15:00-0500
End: 2025-11-06T13:30:00-0500

Registration Overview

Act now! We reach capacity and sell out every year.
Registration closes Friday, October 24, 2025 — or sooner if capacity is reached.

Ticket Options

#TalkingAAC: Pre-Conference Workshop
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 | 12:00–4:00 PM
Kellogg Center, East Lansing, MI
- Choose one 4-hour workshop
- Cost: $100
- Full details: talkingaac.org/preconference.html
#TalkingAAC: Two-Day Conference
Thursday & Friday, November 6–7, 2025
- Build your schedule for this two-day event
- Cost: $275
- Price includes breakfast, lunch, & parking

NOTE: To attend all 3 days, you must purchase both a Pre-Conference Workshop ticket and a Two-Day Conference ticket.

Registration & Session Planning

All registration and session planning will be handled via Sched:

Click the green Log In or Sign Up button below to access Sched.
Then proceed to purchase your ticket(s).
After you’ve purchased your ticket(s), you can plan which sessions you’d like to attend.

Meals, Parking, & Lodging Meals (Included with Two-Day Conference)

Continental Breakfast – Thursday & Friday
Lunch & Drink – Thursday & Friday

Parking (Included)

Overnight Guests:
Get your parking pass at hotel check-in and display it on your dashboard.
Non-Overnight Guests:
- Register your vehicle on-site via QR code (posted near registration).
- Bring your license plate number.
- Do not register your vehicle more than once per day.

Note: Please consider carpooling to reduce on-campus traffic.

Lodging

View the 2025 Lodging Options for hotel blocks and discount codes.
Reminder: Pre-Conference Workshops begin at 12:00 PM on Nov. 5 to allow extra travel time.

Terms & Conditions

#TalkingAAC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established for continued education.

Refunds & Ticket Transfers

Refunds available up to 10 days before the event (Sched & Stripe fees are non-refundable).
Ticket transfers (e.g., to a coworker) may be approved before October 24, 2025.

Continuing Education

All attendees will receive a Certificate of Attendance.
Note for 2025: SCECH hours will not be offered this year.
ASHA CEUs are not provided. SLPs will receive a Verification of Attendance form to self-report professional learning hours to ASHA.

Networking & Swag

Networking Event – Details coming soon!
Merchandise – #TalkingAAC gear available for purchase on-site.

Stay Informed

Watch for updates from #TalkingAAC and Sched with session details and reminders as the event approaches.

Questions?

www.talkingaac.org
info@talkingaac.org

517-299-5200

Thursday November 6, 2025 12:15pm - 1:30pm EST

The purpose of this session is to bring attention to the problems of facilitated communication using video examples and scientific studies. Facilitated communication (FC) is a communication technique wherein an individual’s arm or hand is physically supported, they are prompted in other ways and/or a communication board is held by a facilitator. At the present time, there are numerous variations of FC. Two forms that are now common are Spelling to Communicate (S2C) and Rapid Prompting Method (RPM). These communication techniques, along with their numerous facilitator-reliant variants, are all based on the work of Douglas Biklen in the early 90s, which he imported from Australia. He established the Facilitated Communication Institute in about 1990.
By the mid-1990s, facilitated communication had been thoroughly discredited. On October 19, 1993, Prisoners of Silence was aired on PBS as a part of a series on FC. It was the first time that the technique became publicly known. In my opinion, the documentary was damning. It showed some of the problems with FC, such as non-speaking autistic individuals making criminal accusations against people which were later proven false. Numerous studies showed that the communication produced using FC was generated by the facilitator rather than the AAC users themselves. To this date, I am not aware of any controlled study which validates any form of FC.
There are many negative consequences of this technique, but the ones I am especially concerned about are prompt dependency and lost time and opportunities caused by wasting time on a discredited technique in lieu of evidence-based AAC interventions. In 1995, ASHA released a position statement recommending that its members not use facilitator-reliant communication techniques. It reaffirmed its position in 2018. There are many other organizations that similarly discourage the use of FC including:
•   American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP)
•   American Academy of Pediatrics
•   American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD)
•   American Psychological Association (APA)
•   Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI)
•   Arizona Comprehensive Medical and Dental Authorization Program Guideline
•   Association for Science in Autism Treatment
•   Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability (ASID)
•   Autism & Asperger Förbundet (Autism and Asperger Association, Sweden)
•   Autism New Jersey
•   Autism Speaks
•   Behavior Analysis Association of Michigan (BAAM)
•   Canadian Paediatric Society
•   Centre for Augmentative & Alternative Communication
•   Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Syracuse University
•   Heilpädagogische Forschung
•   Information Autism
•   International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC)
•   Irish Association of Speech & Language Therapists (IASLT)
•   National Autism Society (UK)

The fundamental reason I object to FC –other than the fact that there is no evidence that it produces independent communication—is that it denies non-speaking people the right to the best possible AAC system that they can use independently. I see FC as just another prison, although one could argue that it’s worse. If a person is denied communication outright, then nobody is under any illusion that they are in fact being silenced. When FC is used, non-speaking people are still being denied a voice, but nobody can see it for what it is.

Presenters

Lance McLemore

Ambassador, PRC-Saltillo

Lance McLemore has been using AAC for about 12 years. He got his first high tech communication aid whilst in university. Since getting access to AAC, his world has greatly expanded. His current language system is LAMP Words for Life on an Accent 1000, which he received in 2016. He... Read More →

Thursday November 6, 2025 12:15pm - 1:30pm EST

General Session

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#TalkingAAC 2025

Lance McLemore

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#TalkingAAC 2025

Lance McLemore

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