Facilitated Communication, Ethics, and Harm: An SLP Interviews a Former Facilitator (Part 1)
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In this first part of a two-episode interview, trauma-informed speech-language pathologist Kim Neely speaks with Janice Boynton—artist, educator, and former speech clinician—about her firsthand experience using facilitated communication (FC) in the 1990s and her later decision to publicly speak out against it.
Janyce shares how she became involved in FC during a period of rapid change in special education, inclusion, and communication practices, and how the training, messaging, and psychology surrounding facilitated communication shaped her beliefs at the time. We explore how FC was introduced in schools, why it initially felt compelling to helping professionals, and how concerns about authorship, cueing, and ethics emerged through research and real-world consequences.
This episode examines facilitated communication through a trauma-informed lens—focusing not on blame, but on understanding how well-intentioned clinicians, educators, and caregivers can be drawn to approaches that promise access, competence, and connection. Topics include the history of FC, the evolution into newer facilitator-influenced techniques (such as spelling to communicate and rapid prompting methods), the role of “don’t test, presume competence” messaging, and the ethical implications for SLPs and other helping professionals.
This conversation is especially relevant for speech-language pathologists, educators, AAC professionals, therapists, and students navigating evidence-based practice, neurodiversity-affirming care, and clinical decision-making in emotionally complex systems.
Part two will continue the discussion with a deeper focus on ethical implications, current resurgences of facilitator-influenced methods, and how professionals can critically evaluate communication practices while maintaining compassion and humility.
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Janyce's References:
* Four in the Bedroom: https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/four-in-the-bedroom-lamentations-or-exploitation-of-non-speaking-individuals [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/four-in-the-bedroom-lamentations-or-exploitation-of-non-speaking-individuals]
* Abdication Patterns in Individuals Being Facilitated:: https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/abdication-patterns-in-fced-individuals-a-review-of-bebko-perry-and-bryson-1996 [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/abdication-patterns-in-fced-individuals-a-review-of-bebko-perry-and-bryson-1996]
* James Randi (Magician/Skeptic): https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/a-magician-cannot-dispute-fc-or-can-he [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/a-magician-cannot-dispute-fc-or-can-he]
* Types of Facilitator Behaviors (Across FC/S2C/RPM): https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/an-fc-primer [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/an-fc-primer]
* Discouraging Speech in S2C: https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/an-inside-look-at-s2c-we-actually-discourage-them-from-using-their-speech-while-they-are-spelling [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/an-inside-look-at-s2c-we-actually-discourage-them-from-using-their-speech-while-they-are-spelling]
* ABA vs. FC (in terms of cueing): https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/aba-vs-fc-what-aba-knows-about-autism-instructional-needs-and-the-harmful-effects-of-inadvertent-cues [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/aba-vs-fc-what-aba-knows-about-autism-instructional-needs-and-the-harmful-effects-of-inadvertent-cues]
* Tracy Kedar (mother/facilitator/author of "Ido in Autismland") having an awareness that physical touch was drawing criticism from school personnel, so she "developed" a form of FC that didn't rely as much on physical touch: https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/clever-hands-skepticism-and-ido-in-autismland [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/clever-hands-skepticism-and-ido-in-autismland]
* Critiques of FC Movies (including "The Reason I Jump"): https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/movies [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/movies]
* Critiques of the Telepathy Tapes: https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/podcasts [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/podcasts]
* Claims of superhuman powers by the Telepathy Tapes folks (including seeing and diagnosing medical conditions in other people): https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/review-of-joe-rogans-interview-with-telepathy-tapes-host-ky-dickens-the-stuff-of-conspiracy-theories-fantasy-and-urban-legends-part-4 [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/review-of-joe-rogans-interview-with-telepathy-tapes-host-ky-dickens-the-stuff-of-conspiracy-theories-fantasy-and-urban-legends-part-4]
* Support for FC/Telepathy in the early 1990s by Donnellan and Haskew of the University of Wisconsin: https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/haskew-and-donnellans-bizarre-take-on-fc [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/haskew-and-donnellans-bizarre-take-on-fc]
* A cost analysis of RPM (it's expensive!): https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/rpm-and-dirfloortime-at-what-cost [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/rpm-and-dirfloortime-at-what-cost]
* Portia Iversen's book "Strange Son" that recounts Soma Mukhopadyay's story and the introduction of RPM into the U.S. (Also, I don't think I mentioned it, but Soma failed two impromptu authorship tests) https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/truth-will-out-review-of-portia-iversens-strange-son [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/truth-will-out-review-of-portia-iversens-strange-son]
* https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/strange-science-in-iversens-book-strange-son [https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/blog/strange-science-in-iversens-book-strange-son]
