Makaton and Jolly Phonics - any hope for co-existance?

[r3dh3d]

Background:

• DD1, 3 1/2. SLD/PMLD/Whatever, very limited makaton
• DD2, 20 months. NT and then some. Speaking in 4 word sentences, fair Makaton vocabulary. Showing interest in learning to read.

"Jolly Phonics" seems to be a fairly popular/available method. But it's signs as well as sounds, and some of the signs clash. As far as I can work out, the JP for "m" is the same as the Makaton for "hungry". I haven't been through all of it but I suspect there are others that are the same or similar, plus if you've got a child who is already signing surely another "use" for signs is confusing?

But then again, if you've got a disabled child using Makaton, how are they generally taught to read?

Has anyone used both side-by-side? Or know of anyone who has?

no experience of using both side by side as ds1 is nt & had gone through the jolly phonics stage before we started introducing a few makaton signs for ds2
However the signing stage of jp to reinforce the sounds was really only used for a very short time in school & when practicing at home he concentrated on the letter sounds only rather than the signing.
Ds2 started school today & although he doesn't sign anymore (we do to him if he's too distressed to listen) I really hadn't thought about a clash - you have got me thinking now!
Not sure how he will get on with jp?

I teach children with SLD and use both signing and jolly phonics. I find that the children who are able to learn to read are able to cope with the different signs and actions. A bit like children learning that a cup of tea is different than tea being an evening meal and children learning that the sign for 'y' could be for 'yvonne' or 'yoghurt'. In a way the actions for the jolly phonics letters are more like actions to represent a sound (like actions in a song) rather than signs for a word or letter. I have never had children who have been confused but to tell you the truth but for most of the children I work with learning letter sounds is more to develop their listening and speech sounds than to develop the reading skills.

I have been using sign, mainly Signalong, since DD was about 6 months old. (She is now 5, nearly 6 and has Down Syndrome)She has a great sign vocabulary, vocal, but her speech is very unclear. Unfortunately signing has not really been used to it's full potential since she started school last September.

I have also used Jolly Phonics since she was about 3ish. It was both beneficial to her SALT,general letter recognition and eventually reading ability.

I agree some things clash, but it didn't take her long to pick up on the context of the situation IYSWIM, eg. if I showed her the JP letter/picture for "m" she could say/sign the sound "m", if was talking about dinner and being hungry....LOL....well...at the moment she is constantly saying " I'm starrrrrving!" but you get the picture!

I just try to adapt to her needs and the situation and resources available.