Facilitated Communication Training Workshop / Monthly Celebration Brings Extraordinary Results
Noted expert Laura Poorman conducts Facilitated Communication training workshop “Foundations for Success with Supported Typing”
On Saturday, March 15, Saved By Typing (SBT) hosted a Facilitated Communication training workshop as well as our monthly Celebration of Communication. What transpired was truly extraordinary and inspiring.
The day started with Foundations for Success with Supported Typing, an introductory workshop the was attended by 35 people. The training session was hosted by SBT’s Program Manager Jim Smyth and conducted by noted Facilitated Communication expert Laura Poorman, based on the work of FC founder Rosemary Crossley. The relatively low number of participants allowed Poorman to spend individual time with each.
The goal of the workshop was to introduce the basic principles of FC to typers, family members and educators to help ensure that everyone attending our advanced Master Trainer Training Conference in April, which is designed to move our typers along the road to independence, has the basic skill set needed to fully participate.
Watch this slideshow of Poorman teaching and working with the workshop participants:
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Read Foundations for Success with Supported Typing, March 15, 2014 for more information about the program.
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Time to Celebrate the Joy of Communication
After the training program ended, all participants were invited to attend our monthly Celebration of Communication, an informal gathering that provides a much-needed place for families dealing with autism to relax and have some fun, free of the pressures of typical social settings. And what a Celebration we had! More than 70 people attended, our largest turnout ever.
Even more exciting and amazing was that four people (two girls and two boys; ages 8, 9, 25, and 37) who had been non-verbal and never expressed their intellectual competence or literacy before typed for the first time at the Celebration and joined the world of communication with their families, bringing them out of “cold isolation,” as typer John Smyth puts it. The 25 and 37 year olds demonstrated literacy that has been there, undiscovered, for uncounted years.
And once they started to communicate, their physical appearances literally started to change. A few started to smile, joke and show off. Today, parents of the 9 year old report he started to get perturbed because his parents kept asking him questions like the square root of 81 (he typed “9”) and where are they going for spring break (he typed “Arizona” and spelled it properly). The 37 year old’s parents were blown away. Fortunately, a 33 year old experienced typer of 20 years came alongside to encourage the 37 year old. After talking together for a while, the new typer joked that he would be better at it than the experienced typer before too long.
Watch this amazing video as Poorman works with these non-verbal individuals to help them communicate with their family members and the outside world for the very first time.
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We celebrate the joy of these parents to begin to know the depths of each child’s intelligence and gifts, and invite everyone to attend a Saved By Typing Celebration of Communication, which are held on the third Saturday of each month. Come see for yourself what the gift that the ability to communicate gives, not just to the typers, but to everyone they touch, as well.
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