Essay/Term paper: Autism: false words and false hope

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Science Reports

Autism: False Words and False Hope


Steven Hajducko
Prof. Sims
MWF 10:00-11:00 29
November 1995

Autism is a childhood disease where the child is in a private world of
their own. A description of an autistic child by her mother is:

We start with an image---a tiny, golden child on hands and knees,
circling round and round a spot on the floor in mysterious self-
absorbed delight. She does not look up, though she is smiling and
laughing; she does not call our attention to the mysterious
object of her pleasure. She does not see us at all. She and the spot
are all there is, and though she is eighteen months old, an age
for touching, tasting, pointing, pushing, exploring, she is doing
none of these. (Groden 2)

This is the most important trait in an autistic child: They don't interact or
socialize with other people. Other characteristics in autistic children are
language retardation and ritualistic or compulsive behaviors. It used to be
thought that children became autistic because of "poor parenting" and that the
only solution was that the parents should be removed from the child (Baron-Cohen
26). Now it is known that autism is caused by biological factors due to:
neurological symptoms, mental handicap, genetic causes, infections, and even
difficulties in pregnancy.
Even though autism is thought of as a disease or disorder, autistic
children can demonstrate special skills. These skills are referred to as
"isolated islets of intelligence" (Baron-Cohen 53). Some examples of these are
found in an autistic child's ability to draw, play music, or recall a certain
date. Nadia, an autistic child, has the ability to draw in an "almost
photographic way" (Baron-Cohen 54). Autistic children can also play instruments,
accurately sing songs, recognize structures of music, etc. A problem that
arises when autistic children are going through therapy is that they start to
lose their remarkable skills.
For parents to find out that their child is autistic can be very shocking.
They go from having a bouncy, livey baby to a having a total stranger as their
child. Many therapies have been devised to help autistic children. Some of
these therapies are: behavior therapy, speech and language therapy, holding
therapy, music therapy, and the newest one, facilitation therapy. Since most
autistic children are different and their behaviors are different, one therapy
may be more effective than another one. Facilitation therapy is catching on,
but is already becoming a controversy. Although facilitation therapy is one of
the most popular used methods in communicating with autistic children, it is
being downgraded because of the controversies where the children are being
manipulated by the facilitators.
A child with autism can be detected by the age of three. "If treament is
started right away, the child may gain their normal functioning. This is a
critical factor in reversing the disorder" (McEachin 105). Other elements in
autistic therapy that are important factors in helping with the child are
"observations, establishing relationships, and changing behaviors" (Simons 27).
Once autistic children have made a relationship, they are brought closer to the
outside world. That is why facilitation therapy is so popular. This kind of
therapy helps the outside world to communicate with the lost child. The
autistic child is supported by a facilitator who holds the arm, the wrist, or
the hand. This support helps the child to control his/her movements in order
for the child to point to words, pictures, etc. In this way autistic children
can express feelings or thoughts that no one thought they had.
So why is there controversy over facilitation therapy ? The autistic
child is being observed, a relationship is formed between the child and the
facilitator, and the gap is being closed. The problem with facilitation therapy
is expressed by Dr. Green from the New York Times, "Facilitated communication
seems tantamount to a miracle, but it's more like a self-fulfulling prophecy -
you see what you want to see" (C11). There is always the chance that the child
is not the one expressing the thoughts. Scientists in the New York Times "are
likening it to a Ouija board" (C1), because as people subconsciously move the
message indicator to get an answer to their question, facilitators can move the
autistic child's hand to what they want. Another argument against facilitation
therapy was in an article, the "Harvard Educational Review," where three
concerns were mentioned: 1) facilitated communication manipulated the
handicapped, 2) facilitation has never been proven valid, and 3) facilitation
contradicts "50 years of research in autism and developmental disabilities"
(Biklen 110). It seems impossible that an autistic child who can not speak can
suddenly communicate with words. The autistic child can answer questions when
asked by a facilitator, but normally would just ignore a person that asked a
question. Even though facilitation therapy is a gateway into the autistic
child's mind, it causes much skepticism.
"One of the greatest barriers to success with facilitation is the
tendency to underestimate people's abilities based on prevailing paradigms or
definitions of disability" (Biklen 193). When assumptions are made about people
with a handicap, others don't put too much faith in their ability to spell,
write, or communicate. People that are retarded are assumed that they have no
intelligence, so others do everything for them. Another example is that people
talk loud around the elderly because they are assumed to have lost their hearing.
Many assumptions related to autism are: "receptive problems, processing
problems, global cognitive failure, specific cognitive failure, levels of
deficit, and the inability to use pronouns, verb tenses, and other forms of
language" (Biklen 193). These assumptions would lead a facilitator to think
that an autistic child, who has always had to depend on others, would have no
skill of their own. Biklen suggests instead of facilitators making wrong
assumptions about the child's ability, that they should encourage the child in a
"natural manner," and "treat the person being facilitated as competent" (193).
This would be hard to do knowing the limitations of the person. It is also hard
to think of someone as being competent when that person starts to scream or
starts hitting themselves.
Many parents doubt the effectiveness of facilitation therapy with their
child. How can their brain damaged child know anything? Dr. Schneiderman, a
pediatrician at the State University of New York Health Sciences Center in
Syracuse, uses facilitation therapy with his autistic son, David. In a New York
Times article he exclaims his concern over whether or not he is the one cuing
the responses, "I worry a lot about whether what I'm doing is real when I
facilitate. If I'm doing this unconsciously, I'm unconsciously producing an
autistic personality" (C11). Another father expressed his doubts about
facilitation therapy over his daughter:

My child is severly handicapped. This breaks my heart; but I
havelearned to live with that and make it part of my joy. I cannot in
good conscience allow that to be erased by the denial of other;
that [she] . . . is reading and comprehending . . . is incredibly
ludicrous, not to mention serious fabrication . . . . The onus of
responsibility to prove whether or not this so-called method is
effective should rest on the practitioner. (Biklen 119)

The father had also done facilitated communication with his daughter and nothing
happened. If encouragement, love, and support is given by the facilitator to
the autistic child, and these elements are supposed to help the child
communicate, then a parent should be able to get a response from their child.

Facilitation therapy is controversial in that manipulation is thought
to be involved. Biklen uses an argument by Cummins and Priors:
The success of assisted communications has very little to do
with emotional support, . . . and very much to do with physical
control by the assistant; either in the form of overt control of the
client's movement's or by supplying covert cues which are used by the
client to control his or her movements. (112).

Biklen noticed in his first studies of facilitation, an autistic child would
only communicate with one facilitator, and could not independently communicate
even though he wrote, "Let me show them what I can really do" (112). Physical
manipulation is also evident if the child being facilitated is not old enough to
spell, but is communicating on the keyboard. Other signs of physical
manipulation are: if the child types without any problems of pronoun reversals,
incorrect verb tenses, not normal "autistic" language, and if the child says
things that others would not want to know or that aren't true about family and
friends (Biklen 128).
The most recent controversial subject with facilitation therapy is the
reports of sexual abuse to the autistic child. Dr. Bernard Rimland, director of
the Autism Research Institute in San Diego, states, "I know of about 25 cases
through facilitated communication of sexually abusing their kids" (Goleman C11).
The result of the cases is that the facilitator was sexually abused and
expresses the event through the autistic child. When these cases go through the
court it is up to the judge to determine the reliability of the facilitator
(Lambert B10). It's sad to think that facilitators would use the autistic child
in revealing their sexual abuse.
Facilitation is not the only answer in helping with autism. Behavior
therapy is making progress with its effects in treating autism. In the New York
Times, it explains how a team of psychologists have reported that the progress
of "19 children with autism who at age 2 or 3 had recieved 40 hours a week of
behavioral treatment . . . By age 11 . . . nine of those autistic children were
going to regular schools" (C10) This kind of therapy is used to award good
behavior and discourage bad behavior. It is less controversial and seems to
working more than facilitated communication. Also with behavioral therapy, it
not only communicates with the child, but obviously can bring some children back
into the real world. Facilitation therapy only helps the child to "talk," if it
is even the child speaking.
Another treatment for autism is an effective medication called
clomipramine. It was reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry that it
"reduced a range of symptoms in three-quarters of autistic children tested"
(Goleman C11). The improvements in the children were that they were able to
make eye contact and begin interactions. Also compulsive behaviors were reduced.
In facilitation therapy many of the compulsive behaviors are still observed,
plus when the child is given medication there is no doubt that it is the
autistic child doing the communicating.
For some autistic children facilitation therapy may be the key to
reaching out. For the majority of autistic people, to close the gap between the
real world and the world they live in, takes intensive therapy. It takes more
then a hand supporting a wrist or an arm to communicate. Facilitation therapy is
proving to be too controversial to really know if it's the autistic person's own
thoughts. Yes, there is a hidden person inside that mute creature. Hopefully
with love and support from family and other outside contacts, that unique
individual will emerge.