Impact of Facilitated Communication Combined with Direct Instruction on Academic Performance of Individuals with Autism

Abstract

This article reports findings of an empirical study designed to assess the educational utility and potential of using facilitated communication to instruct and evaluate individuals with autism in basic academic skills, including letter recognition and sound/ symbol correspondence, number recognition and one-to-one correspondence, and positional words and positional concepts. A direct instructional strategy was paired with facilitated communication to evaluate use of facilitated communication as a tool for developing basic academic skills of persons with severe disabilities. Results are presented along with suggestions for future use of facilitated communication.