At Ethan’s results meeting we were also given some homework one of those being to learn some of the Makaton Signs and start using them in our everyday language.
For those of you unaware of what Makaton is The Makaton Charity website states the following…
“Makaton is a language programme using signs and symbols to help people to communicate. It is designed to support spoken language and the signs and symbols are used with speech, in spoken word order”.
We have been given the following signs to learn
- To Eat
- To Sleep
- To Drink
- Milk
- Biscuit
- Toilet
- Car
- Bus
- Teddy (or cuddly toy)
- Book
- More
- Cat
- Dog
I started to use these with Ethan yesterday making sure I was at his level when I was speaking and signing. Although I believe that Ethan makes good eye contact with us it brought home how hard it is to make Ethan look at you when you need him to. I’m not expecting miracles with this as I know everything with Ethan takes time but I’m determined to learn it and make sure we use it so that hopefully as some point in the future we can use this to communicate with Ethan.
Its funny because when I was younger I always said I wanted to learn sign language, I never thought I would actually be needing to learn it to communicate with a member of my own family. They world does work in mysterious ways…
Hi Jane
Singing the Makaton stuff is a good way to get to know it. We do a good one of “mummy, mummy, put me in my buggy” Have a look for a sign and learn class through sure start…they are brilliant!
Michelle x
Thanks Michelle,
I will have a look at what is on in our area
:0)