Sign languageSign language was first developed as a means of communication for hearing-impaired individuals. Sign language has also been used to teach people with developmental disabilities who have little or no communication skills. Teaching autistic children how to use sign language is not as common a practice today as in previous years, possibly due to an increase in the use of computerized communication systems.However, research suggests that teaching sign language along with speech will likely accelerate a person’s ability to speak. Sign language is useful for those who have little or no verbal abilities or communication skills. It is not recommended for those who have a relatively large vocabulary. Furthermore, persons with a variety of functioning levels can be taught to use sign language. Many aberrant behaviors associated with autism and other developmental disabilities, such as aggression, tantrums, self-injury, anxiety, and depression, are often attributed to an inability to communicate with other people. Signed speech may, at the very least, allow the person to communicate using signs and may stimulate verbal language skills. When teaching a person to use sign language, another possible benefit may be the facilitation of their attentiveness to social gestures of others as well as their own. A sign language (also signed language) is a language which uses manual communication instead of sound to convey meaning – simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to express a speaker’s thoughts fluidly. Sign languages commonly develop in deaf communities, which can include interpreters and friends and families of deaf people as well as people who are deaf or hard of hearing themselves.  Makaton Makaton™ is a system of communication that uses a vocabulary of “key word” manual signs and gestures to support speech, as well as graphic symbols to support the written word. It is used by and with people who have communication, language or learning difficulties. This includes people with articulation problems (such as cerebral palsy), people with cognitive impairments such as autism or Down syndrome, and their families, colleagues and carers. Adults can use it to help the development of speech and language in children, or as a means of functional communication for every day use. Communication using Makaton involves speaking (where possible) while concurrently signing key words. The sign
vocabulary is taken from the local deaf sign language (with some additional ‘natural gestures’), beginning with a
‘core’ list of important words. Sign language |