Autistic genius novelist woos the literary world with novel composed using "Facilitated Communication"

[Jack by the hedge]

It's not just her word though, is it? It's the word of his High School that graduated him as satisfactorily educated PLUS UCLA and PLUS Columbia, PLUS Random House Publishing.

So, just like the Cottingley Fairies, it's impossible that all those people have been fooled, so it must be real.

 

[Helen]

It's a scam because you read it on Wiki and therefore you believe all disabled people are scammers. Pure dogma.

No, I linked to wiki for your edification (in the naive beluef that you actuallywanted to learn). I have encountered facilitated communication many times in my professional capacity, and have researched it thoroughly. Some people are scammers, whether they are disabled or not is neither here nor there, most people aren't, but facilitated communication is definitely a scam.

 

[Helen]

Sounds reasonable to me.

It would.

 

[Darat]

It's not just her word though, is it? It's the word of his High School that graduated him as satisfactorily educated PLUS UCLA and PLUS Columbia, PLUS Random House Publishing.

Can you please provide the evidence of this? When did they test him (and her)? What did the test or tests they used consist of?

 

[Darat]

But is she demanding you accept her claim? People are free to be sceptical. It doesn't mean the person on the receiving end of it has to jump through your hoops.

No one has said she is demanding I accept her claim, I very much doubt she knows of me and very, very, very much doubt she is aware of this thread and my posts in it to demand anything from me...

 

[Darat]

It's a scam because you read it on Wiki and therefore you believe all disabled people are scammers. Pure dogma.

You are repeating this strange claim - what is the disability you think the mother has?

 

[catsmate]

So you saw a YouTube and instantly believed its premise.

No. That is another example of you engaging in silly strawman pseudo-argument.

 

[catsmate]

What is the extent of your research in this issue? Do you always take YouTubers' alarmist alerts at face value, in preference to reputable educational institutions with well-established entry requirements?

Oh look, another strawman.......

 

[catsmate]

Do you have a citation other than an angry YouTuber that his mother is the only person who has ever communicated with Woody?

Please cite the examples of others, not using his mother as intermediary.

 

[catsmate]

So claims angry YouTuber scribbling down her own letters as if that's all it takes to understand autism and years of this type of communication.

Or you could took at the video evidence for yourself....

 

[catsmate]

Yes and he brought out a book so SOMEONE put his words into publishable form.

Indeed.

 

[catsmate]

More skeptical takes.

We Have to Hold the Line Against the Cruel Pseudoscience of Facilitated Communication

the New York Times seems hellbent on restoring public faith in the comprehensively discredited practice

freddiedeboer.substack.com

Critical Questions the CBS LA Reporters Apparently Forgot to Ask About FC — Facilitated Communication

One of our readers sent me a link to an article that was published on May 27, 2022 by CBS Los Angeles and asked “Is this Facilitated Communication?” (FC) The article is titled “Man with autism to become first nonverbal graduate of UCLA” and is accompanied by a short video featuring a facilitator

www.facilitatedcommunication.org

 

[catsmate]

Woody has not asked for people to patronise him. He has brought out a novel

No he hasn't.

 

[catsmate]

Stephen Hawking's mum transcribed his words into publisher's standards?

Puerile.

 

[catsmate]

It's no different from a foreign language interpreter or a sign language expert.

Rubbish. Such interpretations can be done by multiple persons, not just one.

 

[catsmate]

I was referring to Stephen Hawking.

Please can you do some research on how autism impacts on people. Woody is NOT 'locked in' like, say, Hawking, he has severe SENSORY issues. For some autistic people, this can mean great fear of going out, being in noisy places, unable to bear certain materials on their skin, avoiding the feeling of water in a shower and great, great shyness. Demanding stop avoiding people and LOOK at them and ANSWER their sceptical mocking questions is cruel and shows a lack of knowledge into the autistic syndrome.

You're attempting to distract again.

 

[catsmate]

It's a scam because you read it on Wiki and therefore you believe all disabled people are scammers. Pure dogma.

More strawmannery.

 

[Lithrael]

Rubbish. Such interpretations can be done by multiple persons, not just one.

Yeah, this is the biggie. If the mother can't teach even one other person to interpret for the guy, then nothing she's doing is inconsistent with 'she is performing her version of his character and getting people to believe that her performance is actually him.'

 

[Darat]

What this thread plainly shows is how she has "got away" with it, when a person with poor critical thinking skills sees what is happening they aren't able to analyse what they see, they need to rely on others and as we know DK is strongest with those that lack such skills. It's not surprising "he" has excelled at shall we say a "softer" subject, if she had been claiming he had great mathematical skills it would soon have been very apparent in his schooling and university courses that he had no such skills. That his skills matches that of his mother's skills is of course totally coincidental....

 

[theprestige]

Really it's an indictment of the California school system, and the UCLA and Columbia admissions offices.