Re: How useful is Makaton?

[Anonymous]

#5158

Hi Jayne,
Would agree that TEACCH/PECS have more use in ‘our’ environment than Makaton but as an advocate of Total Communication, Makaton may work, in a supplementary role, for some. Our son loves watching my brothers and their family sign and one of their sons, who is both deaf and autistic, has a wide vocabulary of signs (SSE and BSL, not Makaton). Currently our son enjoys copying signs although he does not ‘request’ using them but, hopefully, he may move on with it. Initially all he wanted to do with his TEACCH/PECS symbols was ‘match’ them as ‘matching’ was such a large part of his school activitys.
The main problem we found was that whilst ‘pictures’ are universal, you can only sign to others who can sign. Carol mentioned that we visited a school where one child was a prolific makaton user. I had tea with him and his teacher and it was a wonderful tool for him and he could use it, and respond ‘spontaneously’ rather than search for symbols. However, she pointed out that she was the only ‘fluent’ teacher in the school which is a good indication of its limitations.
Dave.