facilitated communication is quite likely a sham. It has a very seductive appeal to anyone wishing to communicate with an autistic person, but has been shown by research to be less than reliable. It was developed in Australia in the 1970's and came to the United states through the work of Doug Biklen . I would suggest a review of any text in Abnormal psychology. A short review is available in Ron Comer's text published in 1995 by Freeman. The therapists who have found value in this therapy are very honest and ethical people for the most part, but they have become victims of a self-fulfilling prophecy. They have found for example that when the facilitator is only hearing the autistic and is kept uninformed of the topic being discussed by use of headphones, the communication does not occur. Please check out the research and don't waste your time with quackery.