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The Only Study Investigating the Rapid Prompting Method has Serious Methodological Flaws but Data Suggest the Most Likely Outcome is Prompt Dependency
... In the Rapid Prompting Method, as the name suggests, communication relies on eliciting responses from the participant through the facilitator's use of physical, verbal, or auditory prompts. Critics of the Rapid Prompting Method and other forms of FC argue that these methods do not facilitate independent communication (Lang et al. 2014) and that the elicited responses from the participant are highly susceptible to facilitator influence (Schlosser et al. 2014). One could argue that this criticism provides ground for questioning the autonomy of Tito Mukhopadhyay's voice and the identification of his autobiography as a first-person account of autism. ...
Sensorimotor research is currently challenging the dominant understanding of autism as a deficit in the cognitive ability to ‘mindread’. This marks an emerging shift in autism research from a focus on the structure and processes of the mind to a focus on autistic behavior as grounded in the body. Contemporary researchers in sensorimotor differences in autism call for a reconciliation between the scientific understanding of autism and the first-person experience of autistic individuals. I argue that fulfilling this ambition requires a phenomenological understanding of the body as it presents itself in ordinary experience, namely as the subject of experience rather than a physical object. On this basis, I investigate how the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty can be employed as a frame of understanding for bodily experience in autism. Through a phenomenological analysis of Tito Mukhopadhyay’s autobiographical work, How can I talk if my lips don’t move (2009), I illustrate the relevance and potential of phenomenological philosophy in autism research, arguing that this approach enables a deeper understanding of bodily and subjective experiences related to autism.
Improving educational outcomes for students with autism and intellectual disability requires delivering services and supports marked by evidence-based practices. We surveyed 535 special educators of students with autism and/or intellectual disability about (a) their implementation of 26 instructional practices, (b) their recent access to training and resources on those practices, (c) the factors they consider when deciding which practices to use, (d) the importance they place on various instructional areas (e.g., social skills, reading), and (e) their preparedness to provide that instruction. Although teachers reported implementing a wide range of evidence-based instructional practices, their recent access to training and resources was fairly limited. Special educators identified a constellation of factors informing their instructional decision making, placing emphasis on student needs and professional judgment. When considering instructional areas, a gap was evident between ratings of importance and preparedness. We address implications for strengthening professional development pathways and offer recommendations for future research.
The neurological disabilities of Tito Mukhopadhyay, who displays all the signs of classic low-functioning autism, are discussed. Austistic intelligence varies widely, from severe retardation to savant syndrome. His mother, Soma, taught him to write. An advocacy group of parents and educators, helping autism through learning and outreach (HALD), hopes to formally study her strategy of 'rapid prompting'. Tito's hierarchy of senses, hearing over vision over touch, leads to a fragmented world perceived through isolated sense organs.