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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Something Special and Makaton

24 replies

lingstudent · 14/04/2010 16:51

Dear all,
I am an undergraduate student at Leeds University and I am currently writing my dissertation.
I am looking for stories from parents who have used Makaton with their children and how it has effected their communication skills. Since the arrival of Mr. Tumble and Something Special, there has been an increase of children without any known communication disabilities using Makaton as a form of communication.
Therefor I am interested in stories from anyone who has experienced Makaton.
Anything at all would be helpful, positive or negative.
I will be using the data for analysis purposes only and all stories will be anonymised.
Thank you for your time,
Claire

OP posts:

thecloudhopper · 14/04/2010 18:16

Hi try posting this on the SEN boards as more may well help you.

BlackYellowRed · 14/04/2010 18:24

DS (NT) is being taught some signing at nursery. Milk & fruit, home time etc. He likes it a lot and shows off what he knows.

HTH a little. Good luck with your dissertation!

Woobie · 14/04/2010 18:27

ooo, pitty this is today (iykwim)....I start a course on Friday next week for baby signing. (by the time I have anything to say it'll probably be too late.)

peachygirl · 14/04/2010 18:37

Have you contacted Makaton itself? They will have other reaserch studies for you to reference.

heth1980 · 14/04/2010 18:49

I went to baby signing classed with my daughter when she was around 9 months.....they were fun but 9 months was obviously too young to pick anything up. I'm not sure what age they should be expected to be able to sign at..........

UniS · 14/04/2010 20:08

some children will start to sign before 9months. depends on how consistent the adults around them are with signing. DS ( NT we assume) was signing " milk" when he wanted a feed from
8 months old. but we had been supporting some english words with sign for most of his life.

UniS · 14/04/2010 20:09

to OP, sorry we were not using Makaton, more like signs supporting English , both DH and I have BSL as an additional language.

MrsBadger · 14/04/2010 20:55

dd (2.7, NT) has been a colossal Something Special fan for nearly a year, at least one episode a day (our sky+ is full of them)

she spontaneously used (and still uses) Makaton to reinforce and clarify what she's saying despite the fact that we rarely sign to her

eg requests for second helpings are always accompanied by a vigorous 'more' sign

last year when she was working out the names of colours she got the right sign for each colour well before she got the right word

and as she expands her vocabulary, but her diction and pronunciation are still developing, she uses it to enhance her communication with us
DD: I saw a aaow
Me: A what?
DD: a aaow [signs rings round eyes]
Me: Oh, an owl, I understand
etc etc

Personally I could take or leave it as a communication tool but Something Special is such high-quality tv compared with the other things she could be into that I'm happy

The side effect, of course is that DH and I have picked up a lot of signs too, which occasionally makes (eg) communicating from opposite ends of the swimming pool / ice-cream queue / supermarket a lot easier

Lionstar · 14/04/2010 21:06

We used signing with our DD from about 9 months. No classes as such just a mish-mash of Makaton/BSL/ASL signs we picked up (or made up). She was signing at a year old and built up to a 'vocabulary' of around 40 signs by 18 months. The most important signs were potty, more, milk, thankyou and hot. The period we used them for was fairly short because she was verbally quite adept too, but in that interim they were amazingly useful and it was lovely to have such a positive channel of communication.

Original poster

lingstudent · 19/04/2010 12:29

Hi!
thanks to everyone so far who has told their stories. they have all been very helpful!
The reason I have posted this help request in this forum is because I am looking for parents of children without any known communication disabilities and Something Special seems to be encouraging all children to use Makaton, so all your stories have been very useful for my research.
I have contacted the Makaton society but they haven't heard of any research on the effects of Makaton on children without disabilities, so as far as I know I am the first to try this, which is quite exciting!
If anyone else has any more experiences to share I would be very grateful, and thank you again to everyone who has contributed so far.

OP posts:

CMOTdibbler · 19/04/2010 12:37

My DS learnt Makaton from Something Special. Before he could talk he used it to communicate his needs, and once he was talking he used it to support what he was saying, and it really increased the amount that you could interprete from him. He got really annoyed at people who didn't sign, and couldn't tell that he not only wanted a drink, but wanted milk/water/juice at that point.

Aged nearly 4, and a total non stop chatterbox with a huge vocabulary, he will still sign if he sees someone else signing, or to really add weight to a request for something - alas often 'Please may I have a biscuit , Please '

beesonmummyshead · 19/04/2010 14:44

I took dd to a 6 week course of sign language when she was 7.5 months old. Basic signs like dog, cat, bird, fish, flower, milk, food, drink, swing, slide, nappy, and a few other animals. I then signed fairly consistently when I was with her (although I work 3 days a week and none of her other carers signed). By 9 months she was signing for milk, food, drink, cat and dog. By 1 months she was signing most of the time (and we got a few new signs from mr tumble) and spoke early too - by 1 months she had about 30 words, 100 by 18 months and talking fluently before she was 2.

I do think she was a very frustrated baby in all areas (she walked at 9 months too) and so certainly needed to communicate far more than other babies. Sign language certainly helped her to do that, and I believe it helped her vocabulary too.

beesonmummyshead · 19/04/2010 14:46

sorry should have said, dd stopped using signs at about 18 months, really when she could communicate effectively. However she has just been very ill and hospitalised (with gastroentiritis, nothing serious) - during that time she lost most of her language but she did sign for drink and food, which I found inteesting (she is 2.7 and NT by the way).

Thankfully she is now fine, and chattering away again

boredwithfoodprob · 19/04/2010 16:26

My DH took DS on a weekly baby-sign course (sing & sign) for 10 weeks from about the age of 14-16 months. At first he showed no interest in using the signs but we became more consistent in using them at home and he LOVED the Sing & Sign DVDs too and gradually he has picked up more and more signs so that now (aged 19 months) he must know around 30 signs. Some of the signs are gradually disappearing as he comes to be able to say the word but he loves the positive response he gets from signing to people and it has taught him even before he could speak that communicating with others is a fun and positive thing. It also appears that the words he knows the signs for have been some of his first spoken words.

thecloudhopper · 19/04/2010 17:57

Hi OP I work with a child with Downs Syndrome who has no speech at all other than ta and so Makaton is our way of communicating he knows 20-30 words and uses them a lot during the play group sessions. He can comunicate a basic need and I can commnunicate back to him.

cat64 · 19/04/2010 18:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

lentilmum · 20/04/2010 22:13

Hello

I've not used Makaton, but my son absolutely loves Justin and Mr Tumble.

However, I do remember a while back that the Sunday Times columnist India Knight wrote about her experiences on this exact topic, so if you look back at her archive in the website, you'll find that if you haven't already.

HTH

SuperBunny · 20/04/2010 22:19

I am a teacher and sign at work. I sign at home too and DS (4) who does not have SN has picked up lots. He often signs to me and, if he doesn't know the correct sign, he'll make one up. I think it is great.

SuperBunny · 20/04/2010 22:24

Have read more of the thread - My DS sounds a lot like CMOT's - he is very verbal but will sign and point while he talks (Total Communication) e.g.

Mummy , can I have a drink , please .

When I sign 'what would you like to drink?', he'll respond and will often sign to me 'Good signing, Mummy'

paisleyleaf · 20/04/2010 22:28

Not makaton, but I've got a BSL certificate and signed with my NT DD as a baby. We went to tinytalk groups for the fun, social, singing.
It was great for her to communicate so well before she could speak. She'd sign 'potty', 'milk', etc
I believe it really helped her speech development too (she was speaking well quite early). I think this is because the signs really break down the language: for example you might say "come on lets get our coats on and go out" but you'd simply sign 'coat' 'out'.

Caz10 · 20/04/2010 22:29

My DD (NT)is 2.4yrs and did about a year of Sing and Sign classes from about 9mths. She LOVED it and used a lot of signs very early on. She now speaks quite a lot, but is addicted to Mr Tumble, our Sky+ is full too!

What has been interesting for me is:

how very quickly she picked it up, and how well she communicated from an early age, often putting 2 signs together, eg where's doggy or hot milk etc
I think it has helped her speech - however she may well have been an early talker without the signing, who knows
as someone mentioned above, she uses the signs now for emphasis and for comic appeal, "please (sign) can I have another biscuit..." with pleading face and big smile!
also as someone else said, it is very useful when I can't quite understand what she is saying.

she has never met any SN children but I would hope that she could sign with them if appropriate, and it makes me happy to think she can communicate with others this way

Caz10 · 20/04/2010 22:31

Oh yes, and the signs she used 1st were definitely also among her 1st words!

mummy2rachel · 23/04/2010 23:06

My dd (23 months old, no SN) is OBSESSED with Justin and Mr Tumble. Before she could talk, she was signing to communicate. Signs that she used often became one of her first few spoken words.

Eventhough now she can talk quite well for her age, she uses signing to emphasize what she means. The first song she sang was the Something Special theme song.

She is learning to speak two languages at home. Sometimes we aren't sure which language she is using and cannot make out what she is saying. Signing allows her to show us what she means.

While I don't like her to watch too much tv, I think watching Something Special is at least more educational than some other shows. Like others here, I think signing has helped with her speech, especially with having to learn two languages.

I think it is brilliant that if she were to meet someone with SN, she would be able to communicate with them. I have learnt a lot of signs from her too.

cranbury · 24/04/2010 09:10

I did baby signing with DD from about 7 months, she did learn quite a few signs but I felt (totally unscientific) that it may have delayed her normal speech, she said her first words at 8-9 months, but didn't really develop much until she was nearly 2 - but she came out with full sentences, and is way ahead of her peers now according to pre-school! She stopped signng immediately she could talk. DD seemed to aware that most people did not sign so thought it was odd.

I will not do baby signing with DS as a result of my experience. I don't know if it was signing but it really didn't add anything to our lives, and DD found the signing classes quite dull compared to her normal music class.

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