In re A.L. CA4/3

INTRODUCTION

T.L. (Father) appeals from the juvenile court‟s jurisdictional order finding his daughter, A.L., comes within the provisions of Welfare and Institutions Code section 300, subdivisions (b) and (d), from the dispositional order declaring A.L. to be a dependent child of the juvenile court, and from the custody order granting A.L.‟s mother 1 (Mother) sole legal and physical custody of A.L. The juvenile dependency petition alleged that Father sexually abused A.L. on several occasions. A.L., who was born in 1995, is autistic. It has been reported that she functions at a third grade to sixth grade level, attends special education classes, and “excels at comprehension.” A.L. cannot speak. She communicates through an iPad by typing one letter at a time, often with facilitated communication, which is “a process by which a facilitator supports the hand or arm of a communicatively impaired individual while using a keyboard or typing device.” (Am. Psychol. Assn., Resolution on Facilitated Communication (Aug. 14, 1994) [as of July 29, 2013] (APA Resolution).) By means of typing on an iPad, it was communicated that Father had…