On Saturday, January 26th Hope Technology School hosted a training workshop in facilitated communication (FC). The FC Institute at Syracuse University defines facilitated communication as one form of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) that has been an effective means of expression for some individuals with labels of autism and other developmental disabilities. It entails learning to communicate by typing on a keyboard or pointing at letters, images, or other symbols to represent messages. Facilitated communication involves a combination of physical and emotional support to an individual who has difficulties with speech and with intentional pointing (i.e., unassisted typing).

There were many participants: trainers, trainees and FC users. The main speaker was Janna Woods, who is a master trainer in facilitated communication. She has worked with a number of our students and has trained several of their facilitators. Janna showed an inspiring video about a woman named Peyton Goddard, an FC user, who graduated as the class Valedictorian from Cuyamaca College in San Diego. This was a very inspirational story that shows that within each person there are skills and talents that often times go unseen and need to be fostered. (Sue Rubin is another woman who has thrived as a result of FC).

We are very excited that the door has been opened to new avenues of communication.