The topic of today's reading was functional communication: what it is and what it is not. The assigned reading, Facilitated Communication: What Harm It Can Do: Confessions of a Former Facilitator, featured the case of Wheaton's daughter's facilitator in which she claimed that she had been the facilitator in the Wheaton case twenty years ago, a story that appeared in Frontline Prisoners of Silence and, later, in an episode of 20/20 with Hugh Downs. He admitted to holding Betsy Wheaton's hand and writing accusations against her family members. These allegations were graphic depictions of rape and sexual assault that had no bearing on reality. There was no physical evidence of abuse, but his words typed in the guise of FC, set in motion events that caused serious harm to many people, including Betsy and her brother who were removed from their home to foster care. custody, while his parents were accused. All this irreparable pain was caused by my unshakable faith in FC. During all this, she wonders how she could not notice that all this time she was moving the child's hand and realize that she was having a conversation with herself. She also expressed how everyone in the room, including the special guardian, knew that FC was false and that she was not the facilitator of the child but the one who moved her arm. FC is more about the facilitator's desire to connect with their disabled family member or client than it is about the disabled person's ability to communicate through FC. On the other hand, the frontline video showed how nonverbal people with normal intelligence were able to have relevant conversations, and how these people treated as non-functional individuals used keyboards to break the silence between children.... .. middle of paper ......position. This will prevent cases such as reading, where the facilitator unconsciously types things for the children, from continuing to occur every time programs similar to facilitated communication are used. Finally, I do not believe that the problem per se is on the FC program level but in the individuals who use it to facilitate communication between the child with autism and the people around him. I am not saying that these people have a twisted mind and that is why they write that their families sexually abused these children, but that they are human and therefore can easily attach themselves to that person and make mistakes like the one presented in both the reading and the videos. Because, as expressed by the facilitator during reading, it is the facilitator's desire to connect with the child that unconsciously pushes him away from the goal of helping the child write on his own..