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Testimonials

Here are some personal stories of how Makaton has influenced some people's lives

S. Gorton - Early Intervention Teacher

I have been involved in the Early Childhood Intervention field for about twelve years. Gradually over that time I have increased the use of Makaton with all children attending our programme.

Usually the first words are those related to eating and drinking and there have been many proud moments for parents when children actually sign for more for another piece of fruit or another turn with a toy.

We use signing, COMPICS and spoken language on a daily basis in the programme. All children are encouraged to sign as they then provide a model for other children.

We have a local school who when one of our children made the transition for early intervention to school have undertaken a programme to teach all the children in the school to sign. This way everyone can communicate with the child with dyspraxia.

Just an amusing story to share. Last year, a child with high functioning autism had taken a lot of trouble to learn the sign so he could communicate with two of the children in the programme. We explained that people who had a hearing impairment or difficulty speaking used signing. Shortly after this he had a visitor to his house, who came with an old deaf dog. Needless to say mum found our young friend sitting on the back seat signing to the dog. He was most upset that the dog didn’t get his message.

Makaton is a great way to open up a way for young children who are non-verbal to communicate with the friends and family.

 

Merrilyn Austin - Language Teacher

The Augmentative Communication Program at VSSS (Vermont South Special School)

An insight into the language program at Vermont South Special School; and how the Makaton Program and Augmentative Communication Program have become a focal part of the curriculum

VSSS has an enrolment of 164 children aged 5-13 years. All students have a mild intellectual disability ranging from genetic syndromes, autism, social and emotional difficulties and hearing impairment.

When I came to Vermont in 1993, my first class of 8 year olds presented me with a huge challenge, as all 7 children in the class had severe language disorders, including profound hearing loss, several autistic children with dysfunctional language and children with a wide range of extreme behavioural disorders. Compic was widely used in the school and key word signs based on the Makaton program, had been introduced by Ella Keesing a trained Makaton Presenter. Ella worked throughout the school introducing key word signing combined with compic symbols, establishing a framework for developing language for children with communication disorders.

I am now in the 7th year of following in Ella’s footsteps at the school.

From the first day, new students are introduced into a language rich environment. The use of Compic symbols combined with key word signs assist the children to learn about their daily routine and their environment. (photo of timetables/signs for subjects). Sing and sign assemblies encourage children to make a choice from Compic cards and then join in the signed songs. Signing has become an accepted part of school life, where non verbal children can interact more successfully with staff and their peers. Key word sign and gesture also plays an important part in establishing eye contact, improving attention skills and developing the confidence to incorporate verbalisations into language. With the emphasis removed from spoken language, feelings of frustration and failure in communicating, are minimized.

SING AND SIGN

The vocabulary for VSSS has been individualised to incorporate the home book, the bus routines, special events, excursions and theme days. Signing has enabled some students to make choices, express their needs and to share their news with the aid of individually designed compic communication folders. (Photograph)

Autistic children respond well to key word signing, as it gives them time to process information. Visual hand cues can be given easily to intervene on behavioural issues, for example when its time to stop and think, for developing functional listening skills, to assist with word retrieval and learning concepts. Compic routines displayed on the fridge at home and in the classroom enable children to be well prepared for the day.

Key word sign and gesture has played an important part in developing the confidence of several students with elective mutism and under the careful guidance of the school’s speech therapist, these children have begun to converse within the first twelve months at school.

An exciting development has been the growing use of electronic voice output aids, funded mainly by philanthropic trusts. Non verbal students can now move out of their classroom, for example with a Big Mack, and deliver a message independently. Students with Message Mates are able to go home, make comments about their day and bring back news from home. The Message Mate Club has been formed to give these students a social get together once a week to share their news, sporting achievements, enjoy cooking activities and games and receive further training in the use of high and low tech communication aids, for example, personalised chat sheets for various activities. The Club has enabled these students to fully participate in one of the ‘noisiest’ sessions of the week.

The Development of Communication Options in our school has remained an important part of the school’s charter and curriculum. Annual Workshops are organised to introduce staff, parents, integration aids and the wider school communities to the Makaton Program, the use of Compic, Cued Articulation, Letterland, and PECS. This year, the school has produced six Videos on these topics for professional instruction.

The series, 'Let’s Start', demonstrates an overview of the successful and highly regarded language and maths programs used at Vermont South Special School.

Merrilyn Austin
Language Teacher
Vermont South Special School

 

Barbara Barbaroux - Mother of twins

In January 1990 I was blessed with the birth of twin girls with Down Syndrome.

It was apparent from a very early age that the girls both had great difficulty with expressive language1, and this was the area of most delay. They were going through a difficult stage of seeking attention by unacceptable behaviour and also having major sleeping problems.

The girls were attending an Early Invention Program and staff and family began supplementing their limited expressive language with Makaton. Their behaviour started to improve with the ability to get their needs across by the use of Keyword Signing. The desire for them to assert themselves and the inability to do so caused frustration and behaviour problems.

Communication has always been a high priority in fact No 1 priority and this has continued on into their school years. With valuable support, knowledge and expertise of the staff of their school (Vermont South Special School), the girls have progressed in their knowledge of signs and began combining them into short sentences. The girls have an understanding of numerous signs, 100 would be a very conservative estimate and they respond to signs as well as speech.

The goal of signing for the girls was to support speech not to replace it and when their words were understandable I found that they stopped using signs for that particular word.

The right to express their feelings and needs and for social interaction with others is vitally important to their development and the use of Makaton has been strategic in mediating language difficulties.

Barbara

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1 Expressive language refers to when a person uses a form of language (speech, written, signing) to communicate their message.