Can anyone help with Makaton?

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My friend child has learning difficulties and has decided to use makaton. I really want to teach my wee chap (14 months) the signs as he grows up so they can communicate and play together.
Course is about £150?? Can really afford to pay for that. Would it be of to teach based on the work sheets or is the entire teaching package?

Thanks

Sorry, Cant really afford!!
must preview

my friends child uses that at his school.they were given worksheets to learn at home with him.

could you not print them out over the internet from a site and use them instead of paying alot of money?

i dont know the ins and outs of it all but i thought it was just hand movements for different things?

makaton

dont know if ive done this right

im getting better! cant do links well.this site has got packs to teach at home for under £200 each and as far as ive looked there's only two packs.

there's probably sheets you could print off the computer too.

hope the site is some help

when I was teaching my dd1 who has sn makaton I bought the two little books - think they worked out to about 14 quid in total - that was very helpful. Then started with easy things like - eat, drink, bed, bath.

think they were the pocket book of signs 1 and 2.

Gloucestershire has produced some CDs with signing on. These are not always the same as Makaton but most are. It is often easier to learn signing when you are shown it than trying to learn it from pictures. The website is this The company 'childs play' has produced some fab books with signing in them. The signs are based on British Sign Language and I did ask them to make them linked to Makaton as well but not sure if they did. It would be great if the 'baby signing' stuff was linked to Makaton as well but as British Sign Language is a regional language there may be some variations. I really think all children should be taught sign language as a second language but that is just my soap box! Fantastic to hear that you are keen to learn signing and it will really help your friends child to see signing being used by other people as well as school / parents.

Good luck

Seems a lot to pay for a course, I'd try it from worksheets and I guess your friend is learning//has learnt Makaton so she would help you with any corrections?

Something Special on cbeebies (4.45 weekdays - old series. New series weekends at 9am and 3.30pm (repeated)) is pretty good. Have picked up loads of sighs from that.

Also I got an old video with Dave Benson Phillips in it and that is ace. Lots of nursery rhymes. My dd is 17 months (has sn) and loves it. Its coming out on dvd soon I think.

I forgot about Something Special. There is a website for this on the cbeebies site.

See here

Just to say you really don't need to pay all that money.The key to learning sign is using it repeatedly and consistently in your normal environment.Buy a book or dvd by all means and something special is excelent.You'll be amazed at how easy it is and how quickly your child picks it up.
My daughter used MAKATON from about 12 months and although the classes were useful for learning new signs i used a book far more to look things up as they became relevant through out the day.My second daughter picked it up just by watching us despite no formal teaching.Good luck.

I second the something special website, will teach you all you need to know to get started. We have a full set of DVDs and have all enjoyed watching them.

The now rather old Makaton Nursery Rhymes video is great. Can now be obtained on DVD from Play and other suppliers.

Where can you get Something Special on DVD?

bbc products website also does something special dvd

Try this @ £4.99!