Ron Houben's seemingly inanimate body
Many years ago, so-called “Facilitated Communication” was thoroughly debunked. The idea was that those unable to communicate, such as those in a vegetative state or low functioning individuals on the autism spectrum could do so with the aid of a specially trained facilitator holding their hands while the those being facilitated guide the facilitator's hand on a keyboard. All of sudden it seemed like a miracle as those without a voice suddenly seemed capable of not only communicating but doing so with incredibly sophisticated speech…and using words they never learned.
And for a while people bought into all this. In fact, parents were even thrown in jail for child abuse based on the alleged testimonies of the uncommunicative children via a facilitated communicator. Of course, once skeptics started asking questions and the miraculous power of facilitated communication suddenly seemed to completely vanish whenever the facilitator was blindfolded, not privy to information only told to the child in private, or you know, didn’t speak the same language as the patient, the jig was up.
According to a position paper on Facilitated Communication issued by the American Psychological Association (APA):
"Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that facilitated communication is not a scientifically valid technique for individuals with autism or mental retardation."
The APA also described the technique as...
"...a controversial and unproved communicative procedure with no scientifically demonstrated support for its efficacy."
It’s not necessarily that the facilitators were deliberate hoaxers. It’s more likely that they were suckered in by the same ideomotor effect seen in dowsers and Quiji board operators. They may very well have been fooling themselves. But that was way back in the 1990’s and as far as I’m concerned, whose who are still passing off facilitated communication as a legitimate practice are either deliberate charlatans or simply have no excuse to still believe this nonsense.
So when CNN and MSNBC decided to credulously report the story that facilitated communicators were feeding them about Rom Houben, a Belgian man in a vegetative state who allegedly turned out to have been conscious all these twenty-three years without his doctors' knowledge, both networks revealed that they value a good story over the truth.
What’s really embarrassing is that CNN and MSNBC were duped by such an obvious delusion. This video clearly shows the facilitator guiding the hand, not Houben, whose eyes half the time aren't looking at the keyboard or even open enough to see the keyboard. And a local news show also covered the story, but in their footage, it's extraordinarily obvious that Houben's eyes are closed while the facilitated communication is taking place, leaving me to conclude that he’s either very strong with The Force or he’s just a six-foot-tall paper weight with no motor function at all.
And it's funny how newscasters have the tendency to overuse the word "allegedly" even when it's not necessary but on stories like this, the inaccurate story they've been handed gets reported matter-of-factly as if nobody could reasonably disagree.
And it's not like this hypothesis would be hard to test. We could blindfold the facilitator or show the motionless body of Houben one image and the facilitator another image without either seeing the other's image to find out which image is identified. If the image shown only to Houben is identified, congratulations, facilitated communication works. But if, as I suspect, the image seen only by the facilitator is identified, congratulations, facilitated communication is a fraud. Of course these tests were down almost twenty years ago and the results back then did not bode well for facilitated communication. So I don't know why we should expect a different outcome this time around.
Dr. Steven Novella has written a far more complete piece on this story and facilitated communication, which can be found here.
Comments
MSNBC has already posted an opinion piece calling the story a likely hoax due to the facilitate communication. They posted this opinion 2 days before you posted your own dig at them.
John,
you truly are a skeptic. Now let's see the atheist.
Give the guy a brake. Examiners are not investigative reporters as much as we are journalist. We gather information and assimilate it, possibly sharing more in one article than you may find in three.
its too bad the moron that wrote this piece is still stuck in the 199's has not bothered to follow-up on the NEW research. The double blind random studies of Darlene Hanson that GREATLY prove FC does in fact work and is REAL in many cases.
Do your research before you accuse CNN and others of NOT doing theres!
John,
While I'm glad to hear that MSNBC's Opinion writers have corrected the mistakes of their News dept., it does not invalidate my criticism that their news dept. shouldn't have botched the story in the first place and that such an obviously false story should have never made it to air. The opinion desk shouldn't have had to tell the news desk how to do their jobs.
Tami, I can't speak about research I've not read but I can't find any articles published in any reputable peer reviewed journal or legitimate organization that supports & validates FC as a legitimate practice. Rather, most who've done thorough research into FC such as Stephen von Tetzchner, Daniel Wegner, Mark Mostert & Stephen N. Calculator have concluded the evidence doesn't support FC as a legitimate practice. & as late as 2007, Scott Lilienfeld's research published in "Perspectives on Psychological Science" concluded that FC wasn't only bogus but harmful.
& at least in the Houben case the very footage used by the news networks seems to sufficiently expose this particular instance as either an example of deliberate fraud or self-delusion. There is simply no denying that in the footage presented, Houben's hand is being controlled by the facilitator, Houben is hardly looking at the keyboard & in the local news footage, his eyes aren't even open. Where can I find Hanson's study?
you can find Hanson as well as others in the following
Mental Retardation
Vol. 34, No.4 231-242
August 1996
Investigation of Authorship in FC
TASH
1995 Vol.20 No.1 45-56
How Teachers Confirm Authorship
(a study at Syracuse University)
Cpywrite 1995 The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps
Mental Retardation
Vol. 34 No.2 94-107
Apr.96
Investigation of the Validity of FC thru the Disclosure of Unknown Information
just to name a few....
let me also conclude that I am not stating whether or not the communication being performed in the CNN piece is valid or false. I am merely pointing out that while yes there are many studies that have proven the falsification of FC in some users it does NOT prove that FC is false in ALL cases.
Perhaps it is the type of FC that is being taught or used. Hanson teaches individuals how to ACCESS various communication devices & begins the fading of supports very early on with the outcome and end result being independent typing. I have personally seen her students go from needing support to literally typing independently. It is essential of course that she has video diary of these students from the beginning to where they are now. Some it can take years others it comes more quickly. We must remember that persons such as Sue Rubin and Larry Bissonette all started with supports!! Research them as well I think you will be amazed.
You know, "skeptic" doesn't have to imply "disrespectful". Language like, "he’s just a six-foot-tall paper weight" has no place in a discussion of disabled people.
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