Facilitated Art

Before we start, I need to give you guys a little history lesson on the subject of Facilitated Communication. I guess a definition is a good place to start: Facilitated Communication has been defined as "a method of facilitating expressive communication...by supporting the communicator's hand, wrist, elbow, or shoulder, and providing backward resistance to assist the individual in selecting letters on a letter board, typewriter, computer using a word processing program, or a small, portable computer."

The technique gave parents of autistic children hope that their children might break away from their mental prisons, and thus, it was assumed that the children could then express themselves for the first time.

Turns out FC was a load of shit. The “facilitators” were literally putting words in the autistic children’s mouths. They would even, for flair and effect, type shit like, “I amn not a utistivc on thje typ” (I am not autistic on the typewriter).

Jackasses.

I started thinking about FC yesterday as I sat in 001 Vanier (a room in Vanier College) for student orientation. (Yes, I’m a peer advisor.) I started thinking about it because during the summer 001 Vanier is the headquarters for the summer camp that Vanier runs. While I was bored to tears listening to a woman go on about “how to be successful in university” my imagination went to the pictures the children from the day camp had made. I remembered how when I was younger teachers would give us topics for our art. Goddamned facilitators, they’re everywhere. I took some snaps with my camera phone for evidence.

“I Love Money” uhhhhhh…. WTF?

This kid was obviously rebelling. It’s too bad his message to the world looks more like a Rorschach Tester.

I can just imagine the camp councillor now, “Okay… so paint a picture of the scariest thing you ever saw.” I won’t go into a detailed description of what this is, but I will give you a few points of interest.

Red heart shaped object represents Daddy
Purple squiggly object represents Mommy
Top left blue eyeball object represents the children themselves
Bottom right blue phallic object represents mommy’s battery operated friend
Blue circle objects (x4) Sweat
Top right Thunderbolt object… you really don’t wanna know.

Again, by camp councillor suggestion, “Paint a picture for a ‘Drugs are Bad’ campaign”

Who hasn’t gotten high and thought their dog was yellow and bigger than their house?

I don’t even know what this is. What is that?


*some you are probably bright enough to notice the parallel I'm making between facilitators and autistic children. It wasn't an intentional slight against the kids that painted these pictures. I just consider it a bonus.