Katharine Beals

Katharine Beals has a PhD in linguistics and is an adjunct professor in the Autism Program at the Drexel University School of Education, where she designed two of the program's five courses. She also teaches courses on autism at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and classes in language, literacy and evidence-based instruction at the Temple University College of Education and Human Development.

She specializes in language and literacy acquisition in autism, language technologies for autistic individuals, educational challenges for students with autism, evidence-based instruction, and the problems with facilitated communication as an intervention in autism.

She is the designer of the SentenceWeaver, a comprehensive linguistic software curriculum for language-impaired students with autism, a contributor at FacilitatedCommunication.org, and also an autism parent.

She has written and lectured extensively about the education of students with autism, language technologies for autistic individuals, and facilitated communication in autism. Her articles include pieces in The Atlantic, Education News, Nonpartisan Education Review, Skeptical Inquirer, Persuasion, Index on Censorship, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

She is a contributor at FacilitatedCommunication.org.