Archives for "language"
Sign of the Times
Due to the fact that my 14-year-old daughter is extremely dyslexic she has not studied a modern language at secondary school. I’m convinced this is the right choice for my daughter and was extremely grateful to the school for not forcing her to continue with French. It does raise the question however as to what language could a child study if they struggle to write. I’m sure there are conversational classes but they tend to be geared towards adult learners.
This got me thinking and on one of my many dog walks I bumped into a friend I had not seen for a long time. When I asked her what she had been doing she said she was doing her level III British sign language course. She told me that she had done level I years ago but had not taken it any further. Wow I thought here is a language that has no written form and would be perfect for my daughter. I mentioned it to her school who looked as if I’d gone completely mad. So I started to do a little research myself. To my amazement I discovered that British sign language (BSL) was only recognised as an official modern language in March 2003, even though it is the first language of many British people. Around 70,000 hearing and deaf people use BSL in the UK, this means that it is used more than Welsh or Gaelic. Currently there is not a GCSE in British sign language which seems a shame – though you can do an NVQ in British sign language and there are tutors local to where I live.
Many years ago when my now 11-year-old daughter was two and a half and still not talking I was given the opportunity by her speech therapists to do a couple of courses in Mataton. I am a huge fan of Makaton, I am absolutely positive that without learning this sign language my daughter would not have made such rapid progress. Makaton is a language that uses signs (and sometimes symbols) to help people communicate. It is designed to support spoken language and the signs and symbols are used with speech, in spoken word order. When Makaton was originally developed in 1972 it only used speech and manual signs, but by 1985 graphic symbols were introduced for those who found signing difficult.
Today over 100,000 children and adults, use Makaton. Most start using Makaton as children then naturally stop using the signs and symbols as they no longer need them. However, some people will need to use Makaton for their whole lives. It is also a useful temporary language for example with someone who has had a stroke or want to tell their children off in public spaces or congratulate them from a distance, it is also very useful in swimming lessons!
When I was a child the TV show Vision On had a lady who signed BLS and today Mr. tumble on the TV show Something Special signs in Makaton. They are living modern languages, with job opportunities, in fact there is a shortage of BSL translators currently. In school there should be opportunities to learn BSL or Makaton. How do I persuade my daughter’s fantastic secondary school to include a sign language on the curriculum?
OFSTED Report
The special school that I have volunteered at for the last five years had a full OFSTED inspection last month. It was nearly 10 years ago when the school had its last full school inspection. When I asked how it had gone the school said fine and they were very pleased that the inspector was extremely knowledgeable on special schools.
Last week I was given the inspection report, the school secretary had printed off a few too many and I’m not surprised because they got an outstanding. The opening line of the report said this is an outstanding school. The report is very fair. One of the comments should be true of any school special or not, that the children feel happy and safe, love coming to school every day they attend whenever they can, work hard and behave outstandingly well.
As a parent and governor I have read many letters from inspectors and I have to say they’re all pretty much the same. I imagine it is a standard letter however this one was very different.
The inspector asked the teachers to explain to the students by any means they can, using symbols, pictures or by telling the parents that…
This is an outstanding school
You are well taught and make good progress in your learning
You grow up as delightful young people who try to help each other
You are well looked after and enjoy school
Your headteacher and her staff are very good at their jobs
I do appreciate that inspections do need to take place. Teachers and governors always get in a bit of a state when one is announced, but now the school can celebrate its success and keep working towards maintaining its high standards.
I know it is the fashion now to try and include as many children as possible in mainstream school, this school might well buck the trend and I can imagine parents clamouring to send their children here.
At the moment it is very difficult to send your child to a special school it seems to me that a child must fail in mainstream before they are allowed into a special school.
Some children might need a couple of years is a special school/nursery and then they may be ready to make the transition to mainstream.
I think a more flexible approach is needed to provide an education for these very special children.
the Great lake.
Wow what a fabulous day I have just had.
It was beautifully sunny, one of those perfect was days when you don’t need a coat and you’re not worried about sunburn. I taking out the four-year-old autistic boy I work with.
We went to a park which has a large lake which we set out to walk round. He ran ahead of me and when he was about 50m ahead I would shout “stop” and hold up my hand. As long as I kept repeating “stop” and holding my hand up he remained still. When I got nearer we would say “ready steady go” and then we would run on around the lake, laughing. He is a faster runner than me.
About three quarters of the way round he got tired and climbed into the buggy and let me push him at a more sedate pace for the remainder of our circuit looking at the ducks, fishermen, dogs and their walkers.
As we neared the end we could hear a lot of happy shrieking noises and we could see teenage children trying to stay upright on a raft they had built. Of course they all fell in with more screams and happy laughter. There was even a dog in a buoyancy aid running up and down the bank. It really was one of those perfect days.
Then the icing on the cake: We went into the clubhouse because I wanted to ask if my teenage children could join in the fun, I picked up a leaflet and we are about to leave when the little boy jumped out of the buggy and started to open a door. I said “no! We going to the car” and he said “I need a wee” I looked at the door and sure enough it had the symbol of the ladies toilet. Wow. In we went and after checking all the toilets he chose one, undressed and he did need a wee. I don’t know why he likes to remove all his clothes when he does a wee, but he happily puts them back on again with a little help when he’s finished.
Here he demonstrated appropriate use of language, unprompted. I am so proud of him. It really was a perfect day.
When I think how hard his parents and ABA teacher’s have worked with him not only potty training (which he only really mastered six weeks ago), but speech and appropriate behaviour it is incredible. There is still a long way to go, but days like this make you realise that all the hard work, tears and frustration are worth it.
Another Year
It’s unbelievable, my youngest daughter is about to leave primary school. It just can’t be seven years ago that I took her to nursery, a child that had only just learned how to speak and would only talk to her family and one other child. We were still using Makaton sign language with speech when she started nursery and if my memory is correct by the time she left nursery she was still only speaking to the same child but now she also spoke to the teachers. Is it the same child who had a speaking part in her year six play? And she has done very well in the government SATs tests including getting a level 5 in speaking and listening!
To this day I have no idea why she did not speak. It was extraordinary. She had one word which was “mummy”, by which she meant “help”. She got by with one word and her fists. She was lucky enough to get speech therapy and we went back through the animal sounds teaching her to listen – which she was very good at. Asked to point at an object she could, asked to fetch something she could. She was able follow instructions and had a good understanding of language, but she just would not/could not use it.
After weeks of trying to get her to make animal sounds we realised that she still was not making the animal sounds but that she had made up signs for each of the animals. A dog, she would stick out her tongue. A duck, she would make a beak with her hand, and for a snake she would wiggle her arm. When I told the speech therapist this she suggested that we had a go at Makaton. Again I was lucky and very quickly went on a course run at my local hospital. Makaton was fantastic, suddenly she started to talk, single words at first and then she said her first sentence when she was 3 1/2 which was “no shoes now “. That sentence has such a symbolic emotion for me, I love saying it. Whenever I take my shoes off I whisper quietly to myself “no shoes now”. My daughter will still use fists over words if she’s tired or angry and we have to work hard endlessly saying “words not fists” however luckily she does seem to save her fists for her family.
I know that the move to secondary school will be huge for her, at primary school she has been protected by children who have known her since she was three. However my experience of secondary school is extremely positive and I’m excited for her.
My elder daughter, who is very dyslexic, will also have a large change next year. For the first two years of secondary school she has been privileged to be taught in a very small English group of just 10 children. At her school this is called learning support. This small group has been taught by the same teacher for two years and it has increased my daughter’s confidence and ability enormously. I am not sure what will happen next year and whether or not we will need to find her extra support. I believe that my daughter’s improvement in all subjects this year is partly due to the fact that the school was brave enough to let her drop French, her second language. This meant that she had three extra lessons during the week to catch up any work she had not got in her lessons and was able to do much of her homework during the school day. I do think it is extremely brave of the school to go against the government requirements and I am extremely grateful to her school for allowing her to have a different timetable from all the other children in year eight.
I know that both my girls and I are looking forward to the summer holidays, roll on Friday.