Soma Mukhopadhyay

Soma Mukhopadhyay is an Indian educator and the creator of the so-called "Rapid Prompting Method", a form of facilitated communication. Her use of the RPM with her autistic son Tito garnered media attention in America in the late 1990s and early 2000s.[1]

Mukhopadhyay came to the United States in 2001, and joined Helping Autism through Learning and Outreach (HALO) in Texas in 2005. She also hosts workshops involving RPM worldwide. RPM was featured in an Apple Inc. commercial, which led to further controversy over her technique.[2][3]

It has been noted that Mukhopadhyay gives a high rate of verbal, gestural, and physical prompts even to the most independent students, and uses circular logic to explain why she claims RPM is legitimate.[4] Mukhopadhyay has also acknowledged that a teacher who wants to move quickly could accidentally guide the student's arm through touch, when that is not allowed in RPM.[5]

References
  1. Todd, James T. (2015). "Old Horses in New Stables". In Foxx, Richard M.; Mulick, James A. (eds.). Controversial Therapies for Autism and Intellectual Disabilities: Fad, Fashion, and Science in Professional Practice. Routledge. p. 374. ISBN 9781317623830.
  2. Montague, Jules (9 January 2018). "Apple's 2017 Webby-nominated ad featured autism pseudoscience". The Verge. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  3. Kreidler, Marc (28 April 2016). "Syracuse, Apple, and Autism Pseudoscience". Skeptical Inquirer. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  4. Tostanoski, Amy; Lang, Russell; Raulston, Tracy; Carnett, Amarie; Davis, Tonya (2014). "Voices from the past: Comparing the rapid prompting method and facilitated communication". Developmental Neurorehabilitation. 17 (4): 219–223. doi:10.3109/17518423.2012.749952. PMID 24102487.
  5. Schlosser, Ralf; Hemsley, Bronwyn; Shane, Howard; Todd, James; Lang, Russell; Lilienfeld, Scott; Trembath, David; Mostert, Mark; Fong, Seraphine; Odom, Samuel (2019). "Rapid prompting method and autism spectrum disorder: Systematic review exposes lack of evidence". Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 6 (4): 403–412. doi:10.1007/s40489-019-00175-w.


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