Okay, im going to give Makaton a go!

[Frasersmum123]

Have decided toda to give signing a go so that DS can communicate what he wants, to stop his frustrated screaming!

Are there any good sites where I can find out what the signs are or free? The signs I relaly want to start with are drink/biscuit/cuddle/tired, but after lots of googling I can only really ind stuff to pay for, and some of them are really expensive .

[Frasersmum123]

I will do, thanks a million xxx

[hungryhippo21]

does he have a salt? they may be able to give you a few starters - ds1 had his first salt on friday and learnt 'more' am trying to teach him a noun now but he thinks more covers ecerything - he does the sign and gets whatever he wants. think in hindsight should have started with something else. Someone on here (sorry cant remember) suggested looking at cbeebies under justin - have found somethere.

[basementbear]

I'm sure if you have been googling you will have come across www.makaton.org but just wanted to mention it in case you hadn't

[misscutandstick]

something special

[Frasersmum123]

Thanks everyone.

We tried watching Mr Tumble, but when they all shout 'Mr Tumble' DS started to cry

[ilovesprouts]

my lb 27months has just learnt more today at cdu playgroup i was so proud

[madwomanintheattic]

buy the dave benson phillips makaton nursery rhymes dvd

and be prepared to spend your entire life doing the rap version of goldilocks...

[MaggsS]

I have been learning / teaching my DD2 (2.7) Makaton signing for awhile now and it has really helped with her communication / behaviour.

She was born with a cleft lip and palette and has very bad hearing and speech delay.

I have learnt most of my signs from Something Special which she really enjoys.

If you have a speech therapist ask them about courses. I have just signed up for one in April for £30 inc books. It's a 2 day course and alot cheaper if you go through them rather than you local college.

Hope this helps

[slightlycrumpled]

We use makaton with DS2, I accessed a course via our SALT. There was no charge for parents and carers, also picked loads up from something special.

Makaton has been an enlightening experience for us and definately improved the mood in the crumpled household!

[MaggsS]

Something Special is really the way forward if you can get ds over his Mr Tumble phobia

[Phoenix4725]

Big thumbs up for Makaton from me and for mr tumble to.But do not be suprised if takes a while before he signs back took my ds 18 months before we got the first sign back and now its like hes exploding with it he has so much to say

Ds dx is GDD.MLD.SLI and hes still non verbal at 3.8 but can now communicat his needs and has headed of lot of frustration

what aout if you sit with him and turn tv down at that point

[Davros]

Just a few words of caution if you are going to do the teaching yourself, make sure you are teaching words that are useful/functional to your child, e.g. a child with ASD may not find "hello" or "thank you" very interesting but may do it if prompted but not spontaneously, whereas a child with another disability/disorder may find these and similar wonderful and fun. So try to teach what means something to them or, obviously, pick up on what they try if you're watching TV or DVD. Also don't try to teach too many at once and repeat, repeat, repeat. Although DS uses PECs very well he also uses Makaton, despite me being told many times by professionals that you DON'T do both, well you can and we do and it works well. Lots of luck, it is great!

[cyberseraphim]

I find these stories so interesting as it just proves the cliche that autistic children are all different. My DS1 (ASD) says 'hello x' and 'bye bye x' unprompted but he has no concept of what waving means and does not/ cannot do it. I feel Makaton would be too complicated for him but I know 2 non verbal ASD boys who use it very well [confused emoticon]