Learning how to communicate with Down's Syndrome individuals through Makaton - Lifestyle Monday

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post, 

Over the weekend, I learned a new and very important skill and that was Makaton. As you all already know, I've been working part-time as a support worker at Project 21 Cambridge for around 4 months now. My role as a support worker is to support Down's Syndrome youths in their musical theatre classes. My job includes making sure that everyone feels happy and comfortable in every class, trying to get people to join in all the activities, and ensuring that everyone's needs are met whilst they attend each session. 

However, I've found that as passionate as I am about my work, there's always been a barrier in the way I could support all the students and that barrier was mainly in the communication side of things. Sometimes, during a session, I would walk up to one of the students in the hall just to check up on them and see how they're getting on and instead of speaking to me, they would sign things at me because some of them prefer to use a visual form of communication. It was always quite awkward trying to decipher what they were saying, with the very limited knowledge I had on sign language already. Thankfully though, this weekend I was able to take a two-day course in Makaton so that I could communicate more easily. At first, I didn't really want to go through this extra staff training because I had heard horror stories from my older sister Alice, about how boring and pointless she had found most of her staff training sessions to be. However, this turned out not to be a boring or pointless session at all and there was a lot that I was able to gain from taking part in the course.

If you are unaware of what Makaton is, it's a multi-modal form of communication that is used by people with Down' Syndrome, autism, speech difficulties, and by people who are learning English as their second language. It's multi-modal because it uses a mixture of signs, symbols, and speech to communicate. Unlike BSL (British Sign Language), Makaton involves spoken language because people who use Makaton are still able to hear and so they need to be encouraged to associate words with symbols and meanings, so that they develop their speech through their language. In the course, we were learning signs for words like mother, father, brother, and sister, but whilst we were practising we were encouraged to speak whilst we were signing so that we got used to how it worked. In the course, we also practised some key Makaton symbols for words like family, home, and house. In Makaton, instead of writing words, they sometimes use symbols because it's pictoral and easier to understand for someone who has Down's Syndrome. At the end of the course, we discussed how we as Project 21 support workers and dance teachers, could use Makaton in our classes to aid our students. One of the dance teachers suggested writing out a plan for the day in Makaton symbols, to reduce some of the member's anxiety, which I thought was an excellent idea. I also suggested using Makaton in class during our breaks, when we ask the students for drinks because we can now sign the words for juice and water. I think that this will make everyone feel a little bit more at ease and confident in our abilities to guide them through the classes.

Overall, the Makaton course was a great success. I feel as though I am now able to connect more with the students at Project 21 because I've got a clear way in which to communicate with them. Makaton is also a skill that I could potentially apply to other jobs so it's a great thing to put on my CV. Once I get my certificate, I will also be able to show people that I've taken the course which will provide me with the basis to pursue Makaton further, if I choose to do that in the future.

All in all, it was not a pointless course and I'm glad that I took part in it.

Have you ever learnt Makaton or sign language before? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!

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See you next time, 

Bye,

XOX, Juliette

P.S. You can check out my new dance tutorial to Toy by Netta below! ⬇️👇 

Jujupage1

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