Parshaman: You did not identify the book you saw, but there was a theory about “facilitated communication” for autistic children advanced by a professor at Syracuse University that was unequivocally debunked at least 15 years ago by a Harvard University professor. To make a long story extemely short, the debunker proved that the “communications” from the autistic children were in fact coming only from the facilitators and had nothing to do with the autistic children or what they were thinking.
The debunking was a sad ending to a situation which supporters of the autistic children so much wanted to work. Part of what the debunker established was that the facilitators wanted so much to help the autistic children that they unconsiously faked the positive results. In some ways, the whole story demonstrates how intense belief and good faith can distort our perceptions of reality.