Peter Shanley
by Alice Shanley
Peter started using Facilitated Communication in April 1992. After years of guessing and hoping I was right in my assumptions, he was able to communicate his likes and dislikes, aspirations and so much more. He had been in Datahr Rehabilitation Center workshop since early 1985 and was generally described as a "good worker" though autistic behaviors seemed to preclude advancement to less supervised better paying placement or competitive employment. With FC he communicated he hated the workshop and wanted to "study computers".
BRS, The Bureau of Rehabilitative Services, sent him for private instruction, once a week at a school where he studied Lotus. He made good progress. After several months he was given private instructions once a week by a remedial teacher. Again he made very good progress but BRS discontinued that contract as its objective is job training and it felt Peter was adequately trained for filing alphabetically and numerically.
Peter recognized there were terrible gaps in his education and began to express an interest in learning more math and history. He had also rebelled against going to the workshop and would only attend 3 half days per week. In 1994 he started volunteer work one morning per week at WeCAHR doing typing and took private swim lessons once per week.
His advocate and I began discussions with Datahr about his day program and Datahr agreed to release Peter's day program funds for the development of a new program. We interviewed people for the position of instructor who would introduce Peter to the Internet, use computer software for instruction in math and history, work on community exposure and include some physical exercise. We also had to find an off-site location for computer access. This took time and there were several set-backs.
In September, 1996, a community computer lab was located. Peter has had some exposure to the Internet, remedial math and language. He has instruction 3 mornings a week and the program also includes some community experiences and physical exercise. It took some searching to find the resources and instructor. Bi-weekly phone conferences keep me informed and help develop new strategies. Peter is very happy to be learning and hopes future funding will enable him to increase his learning time.