Mr Tumble at school?

[orangesky1]

My reception child came home today saying they had been watching Mr Tumble at school - a boring and silly man - in his words!

not heard of this one before - had a Quick Look on YouTube now, and it looks completely inane.

it is otherwise a good school, so I am surprised by this. Am I missing something? Is this actually educational?

we are not anti screen time although I have a general feeling the children don’t get enough exercise in school, but that’s a topic for another day. I do think if they are showing videos, they should have some merit - either educational, informative about the world or properly artistic, entertaining or thought provoking.

Not this lowest common denominator drivel, that seems better suited to a 2 year old.

I don’t want to make a complaint but would just be interested in hearing views from those who have watched more than two minutes as maybe I am being unfair.

Zero.

I work with lots of kids with additional needs. Mr Tumble and similar programming has done a huge amount to make children with complex needs more included and seen children's television programmes. Various parents have commented on how important it has been for their kids over the years both for them, their children and their kids siblings.

Think yourself lucky that you aren't trying to help settle a child dependent on Makaton or any other communication support system into primary or another settings.

Even as a specialist children's hospital very few staff have decent levels of Makaton. I can explain my name and job role and that's about it. Even that is rusty and I suspect that probably puts me ahead of many of my consultant colleagues.

I've not seen it recently. Symbols were used when I last saw it, but probably not the ones that your DC uses. Something Special uses the black and white ones, whereas at my school we used PECS with Widget symbols.

Is this another one of those veiled, goady threads to generate more ableism?

Don't be daft. And the OP has been quick to admit that she was wrong.

Would be more inclusive to use actual sign language used in the UK BSL
Makaton is copied from BSL (very badly) and very limited.
BSL is far more inclusive and educational

I'm not daft, thanks.

There are plenty of threads like it.

It really isn't more inclusive. Makaton is the formal, accessible sign language for children with special educational needs, who this series was planned for. Not deaf children.

There might be, but had you read the OP's responses it's pretty clear that she quickly recognises that it's a valid and helpful series.

It really isn't . BSL can be used with everyone and isn't limited or artificial

We wouldn't dream of only using artificial limited fake English with children with additional needs. There no fake English course is there?

Makaton stole the signs from BSL while oppressing deaf people and punishing them for using signs. The signs Makaton use are from BSL but many have been copied wrong and in most cases this makes them actually harder (not easier as the Makaton organisation tries to make out)

As the parent of a capital D Deaf child (now adult) we didn't care what communication system was used, we were just delighted to see a manual system used. Mr Tumble's approach meant it was accessible to all and if he were to use BSL, he would not have spoken, so that would have been excluding those with complex and profound needs.

Have you lived under a rock?
Mr tumble is an inclusive clown for young kids, his thing is being inclusive.
Personally I would rather watch paint dry, but kids seem to really enjoy him.
Your child called him a boring and silly man, you have called it inane drivel. But come on, he is a clown for gods sake, its meant to be silly.
I mean, yes, it is to an adult, but it is not designed for adults, it is for pre schoolers.
What age is your child?

BSL is too complex for the audience for which this series is intended. They also need to hear the words and see the symbols in order to develop their use of language.

Maybe you could campaign for a TV series aimed at deaf children. This one isn't, nor is it intended to be.

I always thought he was very patronising towards the children he had on the show too.
Yeeeeass that right Timmy. The ball is red!

He seems to have a disproportionate amount of time. Every time I put ceebiees on it was him and he drove me nuts.

Mr Tumble was awarded an OBE due to his work with disabilities/ inclusion

The signs were taken from BSL so the signs themselves can not be too difficult.
The grammar is different just like grammar varies between all languages across the globe.

BSL can be used as SSE (sign supported English) for those needing an auditory support. Which still respects BSL as a language without pretending it is something different.

Makaton is an extremely poor quality and limited version of SSE. Makaton should never have been set up as the signs already existed. The support should have been done by utilizing the experts (BSL users) and being respectful to the source language.
If you think Makaton creators (BSL theirs and oppressors) actually cared about SEN kids over their own self importance they would have ensured the expert skills were utilized and respected.

Makaton is a travesty for how they abused the deaf community.
Please note this isn't about any person's right to use signs as every family should have access and support to communicate. This is about the historic and ongoing oppression and abuse of the deaf community and the Makaton aim to limit and oppress those with additional needs by limiting their potential

And here lies part of the issue. Every deaf child and their family should have easy access to BSL alongside a package of support including technology.they don't and in many cases Makaton is to blame due to it seen as a more oralist approach.

Families grab into anything that aids communication. And no one blames families for doing what ever they can. The issue is why does so much funding go towards a limited system rather than an actual language with lifelong benefits. Why are deaf children still being denied language. Why are disabled children being denied fully accessible language? Why are we not promoting quality, skilled, qualified staff for every child to ensure their needs are met.

Someone skilled in BSL can use these signs as BSL, as SSE or as key word sign.
Someone with Makaton qualifications often have had only 6 hours training and can only give such limited support. Children deserve more

He was also incorrectly signing happy in a way that was extremely inappropriate for a children's show.
Under the guidance of advisors high up in Makaton who also didn't know that the Makaton had made such an error in copying the BSL sign for happy.

I spent a year learning BSL as well as using Makaton at work. Given the huge number of poorly paid TAs working in special schools, it would be entirely impractical and unreasonable for them to need to give up a huge amount of time learn BSL, when they could learn Makaton pretty much on the job.

Again, these are not deaf children, they are children who need to be able to communicate very basic needs.

I feel that any further discussion on this is irrelevant to the op and somewhat of a thread jack. You clearly have strong feelings, but they have little bearing on the question the OP asked.

@Leftrightmiddle I appreciate you have strong views on this topic. As the parent of a Deaf person who was educated in a Deaf education system, and is a BSL user, I share some of your concerns. However, this discussion is more around children being exposed to alternative methods of communication, which cannot be seen as anything other than beneficial for everyone - even the profoundly Deaf - as it brings signing into the mainstream. The OP was commenting on the benefits of watching the programme at all; they have acknowledged it clearly has value for others and posters have explained why. Would I have loved to see more BSL used? Absolutely! But anything that normalises sign in a way that children feel included is never a bad thing. DD loved it, even though she could only understand half of it; it's still half more she could have understood in any other programme as a young child.

Yes. BSL is a language in itself. Makaton is an augmentative language system. They fulfill very different needs.

My dc enjoyed it when they were about two. None they are four they've outgrown it and actively dislike it so I doubt they'd be impressed to watch it in reception. But, as pp have said, it has some merits.

Nah, OP your child probably found it boring precisely because they watched the more educational version of Mr Tumble “Something Special” - all Makaton signing and friendship and disability inclusivity. It’s definitely suitable in limited amounts for reception age as well as nursery.

Personally my 3 year old finds it boring for those educational reasons! He prefers “Justin’s House” which truly is fairly inane silliness, but it has a puppet monster so is bound to be a bigger hit… I’d maybe be a bit more concerned if they were watching that one but not “Something Special” (as I assume is the case here?) - its another way to make them aware of differences in a positive way (even if the other educational content in it might be too young/easy for them).

Takes no more time to learn 10 signs of BSL than 10 signs of Makaton. If they can afford the highly inflated Makaton course cost then the money would be better spent on BSL.
Hour on hour cost Makaton cost is high than BSL.
If a school is choosing to send 1 member of staff in a 6 hour Makaton course they could use that money and get a BSL expert into to the school and train the whole staff team.

I actively make my youngest watch it as I think it’s great for inclusivity and learning marathon which is a useful skill. We also did baby sign when my child was very young. I was speaking to a parent of a 9 year old recently about Mr Tumble and she shared that there was a child at her school who none of the other children could communicate with as he was deaf. Her youngest was able to engage in basic conversation as he had learnt makaton from Mr Tumble when younger and it made a huge difference to this child’s early school days.