Communication Unbound: Autism and Praxis

A Back Door Approach to Autism and AAC

“…Most readers will be familiar with the debate that surrounded an AAC technique called facilitated communication (FC) (Biklen, 1990). Briefly, FC involves the use of a keyboard communication device of some type (e.g., a small portable typewriter) on which messages are typed on a letter-by-letter basis.…”

Critical Issues in Causation and Treatment of Autism: Why Fads Continue to Flourish

“…itator gives physical support to enable an individual with limited or no speech to type on a keyboard or point to items on a communication board (Biklen, 1990). Initially, FC met with great excitement and expectations.…”

Cognitive Science and Cognitive Development

“…The domain of folk psychology has been studied more in this respect than any other in individuals with autism. While there remain extensive debates about the extent to which autism is solely the result of a cognitive deficit (Birlen, 1990;Cohen & Volkmar, 1997), in a large number of cases the primary deficit seems to be a specific cognitive problem in thinking about the mental states of others, such as how beliefs and desires can lead to actions, deception, and misunderstandings (Baron-Cohen, 1995Leslie & Thaiss, 1992). Moreover, there appears to be a continuum along which individuals can be variably handicapped in their ability to have a " folk psychology," ranging from severely autistic individuals who have great difficulty understanding almost anything about how mental states lead to actions to more modest deficits such as Asperger's syndrome in which individuals are able to understand the mental lives of others, but only to a limited extent and with considerable difficulty (Klin, Volkmar, & Sparrow, 2000).…”