Promoting spelling interventions for autism: A parent's pushback
What does a well-informed parent have to say about promoting facilitated communication?
In a guest essay published in the New York Times 1 May 2026, Professor Ana S. F. Lutz argued that facilitated communication and similar interventions such as rapid prompting method and spelling to communicate are not only not to be what proponents claim, but are actually deleterious to individuals with autism. In “Profound Autism Is Difficult Enough Without This Debunked Method,” Professor Lutz, who is the mother of an adult with autism as well as an accomplished academic and a leader of the National Council for Severe Autism, wrote that debate in the New York state legislature about whether FC and its related interventions should be adopted and support by the head of the the US Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee for research investigating methods like rapid prompting was harmful…
…because resources poured into pseudoscientific methods like facilitated communication obviously can’t also be directed toward the most intractable problems profoundly autistic people face, including self-injury, seizures, wandering and, yes, communication challenges.
She continued,
But it’s not all about money or opportunity costs. The most serious harm created by F.C. is that it deprives severely cognitively impaired individuals of the limited control they have over their own lives.
In general, the pro-spelling view seems to be that what is spelled trumps what is independently communicated by the speller through speech (because yes, many spellers can speak basic words or phrases) or behavior. You can find videos online that show agitated spellers pushing letter boards away while their facilitators appear to ignore their protests.
Professor Lutz presented a strong case for demanding that resources for individuals with autism (and their families) be focused on identifying and delivering evidence-based practices. Readers will likely come away from reading her essay with renewed courage to make such demands.
Ana S. F. Lutz is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She has written books and popular press articles about what she has learned about autism, public policy, and related topics as well as writing articles for academic publications in autism, behavior analysis, bioethics journals. Interested readers can learn more from her personal Website, her university’s bio page, and a Wikipedia entry about her.
The NYTimes article may be behind a paywall. Flash of the electrons to Special Education Today readers Joel M., Ed. P., and Mack B. for sending me notes telling me about Ms. Lutz’s op-ed.