Makaton International Awareness Day

Community
Group photo of Makaton trustees with Treloar's Speech and Language team members taken outside and everyone is showing thumbs up.

28 August is the Makaton International Awareness Day. At Treloar’s, Makaton assists staff and students to communicate on a daily basis.

During our work-up week, the Makaton tutors run a range of Makaton training; including Makaton Level 1 and 2 courses and our ‘taster’ session. Makaton is really beneficial for a lot of our students. It is a language programme which uses symbols, signs and speech to help develop essential communication skills. Whilst some students may not physically sign back to staff, they still use Makaton as a comprehension tool to aid their understanding of what people are communicating to them.

At Treloar’s, we use Makaton in a range of ways. This includes:

  • Signs of the week which are shared in assembly and on a wall calendar
  • Over 300 staff are trained to at least Level 1 Makaton to use on the house, in class, therapy and in many other departments and areas
  • College have a Sing and Sign YouTube channel where they film songs using Makaton signing
  • School and College have Sing and Sign clubs
  • Makaton signing in the Christmas carol concert