Are you a support worker?A carer?A family member or friend to a person with learning disabilities, or someone autistic?

Perhaps you're a new parent who wants to connect with their child, and help their baby or child to learn to speak.

Maybe you're interested in learning sign language but find it daunting, and could do with learning something simpler to ease you in.

Or maybe you just want a new hobby. Well, Makaton can help with that.

Makaton is a simple form of sign language, used alongside speech. It supports the development of essential communication skills such as attention, listening, comprehension, memory and expressive speech and language. The Makaton language programme has been used with individuals who have cognitive impairments, autism, Down's Syndrome, specific language impairment, multisensory impairment and acquired neurological disorders that have negatively affected the ability to communicate, including stroke and dementia patients.

It consists of a Core Vocabulary of roughly 450 concepts that are taught in a specific order (there are 8 different stages). For example, stage 1 involves teaching vocabulary for immediate needs, like "eat" and "drink". Later stages contain more complex and abstract vocabulary such as time and emotions. Once basic communication has been established, the student can progress in their language use, using whatever modes are most appropriate. Also, although the programme is organised in stages, it can be modified and tailored to the individual's needs. In addition to the Core Vocabulary, there is a Makaton Resource Vocabulary of over 11,000 concepts which are illustrated with signs and graphic symbols.

In this course we will be covering the core vocabulary, to give you a taste of makaton and how it can be used in your life. We're also going to be covering a bit of extras (the dentists, going back to school, old Macdonald and Slim Shady).

I originally created this course for my previous employer, which was a care home. I've tweaked it and added to it over the last year or two (explaining the fluctuations in hair length and weight, haha) for general use, and redacted any personal information about the care home.

Hope you enjoy!