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The rapid prompting method (RPM) is a prompting technique used by some parents and educators to help their (often non-speaking) child or student with autism or other disabilities to communicate through pointing, typing or writing. It is closely related to the discredited technique facilitated communication (FC). Soma Mukhopadhyay is credited with creating RPM, though others have developed similar techniques, known as informative pointing or alphabet therapy. RPM users report unexpected literacy skills in their clients, as well as a reduction in some of the behavioral issues associated with autism. Eschewing scientific testing as "stigmatizing" to her clients, Mukhopadhyay and proponents of RPM have drawn criticism from the scientific community. Critics warn that RPM's over-reliance on prompts, verbal and physical cuing used by its facilitators during the sessions, may inhibit development of independent communication in its target population. As of April 2017, only one scientific study attempting to support Mukhopadhyay's claims of efficacy has been conducted, though reviewers found the study had serious methodological flaws.According to Dr. Stuart Vyse, RPM avoids participating in research to validate its methods. Instead of defending RPM on scientific grounds, some proponents are responding to criticism by going on the offensive and claiming people with autism's right to communicate are being robbed.

Historical background

The rapid prompting method (also known as RPM, Rapid Prompting, Soma®RPM, Informative Pointing, and Alphabet Therapy) is largely credited to Soma Mukhopadhyay, who has a master's degree in chemistry and a bachelor's in education. By trial and error, Mukhopadhyay combined various behavioral and communication techniques to help her son, Tito, who has a diagnosis of autism and exhibits limited speaking abilities. Mukhopadhyay posits that autism is a manifestation in which a child's cognitive abilities are undermined by poor sensory integration abilities and that RPM serves to "activate the reasoning part of the brain" and, therefore, distracts the student into learning. Proponents of RPM and related techniques claim to be able to help people with disabilities express untapped intellectual abilities and advance communication skills through a system of pointing, typing, or writing with verbal and physical prompts from a facilitator. This is, purportedly, "the most direct and unlimited path to learning and communicating." RPM proponents point to the "sole study of RPM", "Harnessing repetitive behaviours to engage attention and learning in a novel therapy for autism: An exploratory analysis", published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology (2012), as proof of the method's efficacy.

In 2001, Mukhopadhyay brought RPM to the United States, in conjunction with a fellowship from the Cure Autism Now Foundation, lead by Portia Iversen and Jon Shestack.

In 2004, Mukhopadhyay and Helping Autism through Learning and Outreach (HALO) collaborated to expand RPM's reach nationally. Mukhopadhyay owns the trademark for RPM.

In 2005, Mukhopadhyay moved from California to Austin, Texas, where she established the Halo-Soma Institute. There, she provides clinical services, offers workshops and promotes RPM internationally. Evaluation research is not conducted by the institute. Mukhopadhyay is the author of Rapid Prompting: an Instructional Guide, Understanding Autism through Rapid Prompting (2008) and Curriculum Guide for Autism Using Rapid Prompting Method: with Lesson Plan Suggestions (2011).

After some initial collaboration with Mukhopadhyay, Iversen developed the Informative Pointing Method. She also wrote a book called Strange Son: Two Mothers, Two Sons, and the Quest to Unlock the Hidden World of Autism, which, as one reviewer stated, expresses her "absorbing and speculative views" on autism which are "at once compelling and controversial." Iversen spends much of the book discussing Tito's communications and documenting her own son, Dov's, introduction to RPM.

Alphabet Therapy was developed and is promoted by Vanderbilt University and focuses specifically on people with Angelman Syndrome.

Rapid prompting method

RPM founder Mukhopadhyay purports to base RPM on psychological, developmental and behavioral theories put forth by Jean Piaget (developmental psychology) and Anna Jean Ayres (sensory integration), the goal of which is to "establish functional independent pointing-based communication in people who are otherwise nonverbal due to severe autism or other developmental disabilities." RPM users employ elements of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), but reject the documentation and evaluation procedures integral to ABA as being unnecessary and stigmatizing. Mukhopadhyay postulates that, by observing student's self-stimulatory behaviors (as in the case of autism, the "sensory preoccupations that drive and develop them"), she can identify each student's "dominant learning channel" (visual, tactile, or auditory) and individualize a program to match his or her needs. RPM facilitators "presume competence" in their (often nonspeaking) communication partners; the assumption being that people with autism "are likely to possess considerable hidden knowledge that they cannot express" and that prompting will address these individuals' hypothesized difficulties with motor planning and self-stimulatory behaviors. RPM is a "low-tech approach that requires only an instructor, student, paper, and pencil".

Certification and licensing

As of April 2017, RPM is not recognized as a clinical profession nor does it have recognized standards for registering, licensing or certifying treatment providers. Practitioners appear to be self-taught or have participated in workshops and camps offered by Mukhopadhyay, Heather Clare (Informative Pointing), or Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Angelman Program (Alphabet Therapy).

Professionals applying for RPM workshops are required to submit 10-min video samples of the use of rapid prompting, a resume, and a letter explaining the "reason for wanting to attend course".

Targeted population

RPM literature indicates that, along with autism, the techniques may be used effectively with people exhibiting the following: Fragile X syndrome, blindness, deafness, Angelman syndrome, Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, and Prader-Willi syndrome.

Practices and procedures

Beginning with a "teach-ask" protocol, the facilitator presents the student with a concept (i.e., The chair is yellow), then immediately follows up with a question (i.e., "What color is the chair?"). The student is then given prompts (i.e., two pieces of paper, with choices written on each) to represent the answer. This procedure is repeated, using a combination of prompts provided by the facilitator to elicit a response. Prompts may include physical (i.e. words written on paper), auditory (i.e. the sound of paper tearing), verbal (i.e. spoken directives), and visual (i.e. gestures by the facilitator). Choices move from two, three, to four and so on, with increased difficulty. The student progresses from making choices, to spelling on a letter board held by the facilitator, to spelling on a letter board (flat on a table or held by the student) or voice-output device, independently.

Media

RPM has been featured in several documentary and on several television news programs including: 60 Minutes II, CNN, PBS (How does the autistic brain work?), and National Geographic (Mind Tree Poems, 2005). Mukhopadhyay's son, Tito, featured prominently in a BBC Documentary, Tito's Story, and is given credit for co-authoring (with his mother using RPM), "two poetry books, a collection of short stories, and a book describing his sensory experience." Print sources discussing RPM and the Mukhopadhyays, include The New York Times and Scientific American.

The August 2014 documentary film, A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism, was adapted from a 2009 Icelandic film entitled Solskinsdrengurrin (The Sunshine Boy) by Margrét Dagmar Ericsdóttir and Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. The film follows Margret, an Icelandic woman, in her quest to find answers for her 11-year-old son who is severely impaired. Her search leads her to Austin, TX, Mukhopadhyay and RPM.

Critics of this type of media attention point out that these programs portray autism as "mysterious in nature", offer anecdotal evidence (i.e., Tito's poetry) as proof that RPM works, and downplay the fact that RPM "does not have research to support it at this time."

Criticism

Empirical evidence

RPM proponents point to one study to support their claims of efficacy: "Harnessing repetitive behaviours to engage attention and learning in a novel therapy for autism: An exploratory analysis, as proof of the method's efficacy". In this peer-reviewed, quantitative study using videotaped sessions of Mukhopadhyay working with clients, the study authors attempted to measure how RPM influenced participants' attention to their facilitator and the materials being presented (joint attention) and the effect of RPM on restrictive and stereotypic behaviors (RSB). Although RSBs reduced as joint attention increased, the authors were unable to show that RPM itself had a direct correlation to the behaviors exhibited by the participants or that joint attention increased as a result of its use. Correct answers were observed while students were not engaged with the activity, leading reviewers of the study to ask: "How does the client know how to answer, what the answer options are, or where the letters are located if the client is not looking at the facilitator or at the moving letter board?" The study authors postulated that "direct gaze [at the facilitator or letter board] may actually inhibit the ability to respond correctly," The authors did not investigate authorship of the communications produced during the RPM sessions.

According to reviewers, RPM method does make use of concepts such as errorless learning, response interruption, and redirection. However, these behavioral intervention components are not implemented in a manner consistent with the research-base. Practitioners claim to be responsive to each individual's dominant open sensory channel, the "basic features of training" to not appear to be distinctively different across the channels. Studying RPM's efficacy is made difficult by policies that prevent videotaping of RPM sessions (even of one's own child) and instructional workshops.

To date, RPM proponents, by resisting participation in studies, have failed to produce methodologically sound, evidence-based studies demonstrating that RPM provides people with autism and other developmental disabilities a reliable and independent method for communicating.

Unexpected literacy and extraordinary communication abilities

Critics of RPM are concerned that, sometimes even on the first attempt at using the method, people with profound communication and/or developmental disabilities achieve levels of communication or understanding of subject matter beyond what their expected age or exposure to formal education would predict. In some cases, students, with prompting, produce results in a language other than the one he or she has been exposed, indicating facilitator, rather than student authorship. Facilitators, sympathetic to the RPM goals of ensuring student success, may unknowingly, unintentionally, or unconsciously move the letter board to achieve the desired communication outcome.

Prompt dependency

In order to point, type or write using RPM, people with disabilities rely on an aide or facilitator to give verbal or gestural prompts and/or hold a letter board during the sessions, which precludes independent communication. Prompts may include verbal reprimands, trial termination, physical redirection, slapping or shaking the letter board against the subject's face or chest, and blocking escape by positioning the subject between the table and walls. Some of the verbal and gestural prompting procedures used in RPM are similar to the Pinchbeck Technique used by conjurers to "create the illusion of letter-by-letter communication."

"It is possible that no actual academic skills are taught to participants in RPM. Instead, participants may only learn how to better follow subtle, rhythmic, and frequent prompts. The danger, of course, is that an untrained observer might not be able to readily recognize such subtle prompts and may mistakenly assume that prompted responses accurately reflect the true preferences, academic abilities, and emotions of the individual. Such an outcome would make RPM equally as dangerous and inhumane as facilitated communication (FC), a thoroughly debunked method that creates a powerful illusion that seems notably similar to RPM."

— Lang, et. al (2014)

Critics point out that there are no procedures in place to prevent students' over reliance on their facilitator. Likewise, there is no purposeful or systematic fading of prompts with RPM, though research-based techniques exist to support transference of prompt-reliant behaviors to "naturally occurring discriminitive stimuli". This reliance on prompts creates a dependency that, essentially, reduces independent communication and increases the chances that the facilitators are authoring the messages. In other words, "accurate responding may not occur unless the aide knows the answers."

Proponents assert that "prompt dependency is preferable to no response" from the subjects. Critics counter this assertion. Prompt dependency creates an active participation in the communication process. Therefore the "potential for unconscious guidance remains".

With advanced computer technology capable of allowing people access to communication with eye movements, critics also question "the validity of any communication method that requires the physical help of someone else."

Facilitated communication

Main article: Facilitated communication

Facilitated communication, a technique in which a facilitator supports a person with disabilities at the arm, wrist or hand during the process of typing on a letter board, is closely related to RPM. Controlled studies in the 1990s determined that, when facilitators did not know the answers to questions being asked through FC, the answers were "routinely inaccurate". Facilitators were (unconsciously) authoring the messages.

Proponents of RPM deny similarities with FC because the aide or facilitator in RPM holds the letter board but "does not touch the person typing" and that the prompts are "nonspecific." However, critics of RPM point out that subtle cuing takes place during RPM that makes it "highly susceptible to facilitator influence."

Other similarities between RPM and FC include: reluctance or refusal to test facilitator/client pairs in controlled settings (purportedly because the process breaks the trust between the pair), presumed competence, reliance on anecdotal accounts as proof of efficacy, maintenance of practices, techniques and claims that are inconsistent with the known body of work around the behavior and communication skills of individuals with developmental disabilities or proven remediation techniques, claims of extraordinary literacy or intellectual breakthroughs, unconscious verbal or physical cuing by facilitators to obtain the expected responses, inadequate or non-existent protocols to fade supported or facilitated prompts.

Bibliography

Articles

• Evidence does not support the use of Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) as an intervention for students with autism spectrum disorder and further primary research is not justified
• Harnessing repetitive behaviours to engage attention and learning in a novel therapy for autism: An exploratory analysis
• Rapid Prompting Method (RPM): A suitable intervention for students with ASD?
• Voices from the Past: Comparing the Rapid Prompting Method and Facilitated Communication

Books

• Understanding Autism Through Rapid Prompting by Soma Mukhopadhyay ISBN 978-1-432-72928-8
• Curriculum Guide for Autism Using Rapid Prompting Method: With Lesson Plan Suggestions by Soma Mukhopadhyay ISBN 978-1-432-77461-5