Makaton - anybody using this

I used to work in a kindergartern where we had a little boy with downs syndrome who attended.  His parents and SLT used it with him, so we as staff did a course so we could use it too.  It was great and a very easy system to use.  The other children in the centre even picked up some of the signs and would use them too (we had a lot of children who had english as a second language)

What was great about it was that he was encourgaed to try and use words as well as signs to communicate with us, slowly over time he was using less signs and more words which was a great achievement to see.

Thanks for the info it sounds great.

I was starting to use baby sign but said to the SLT that it was probably better that I start with Makaton and then we keep it to one sign language - I haven't been given any info yet so hopefully next week at our next appointment.

Kaiha started saying mama at 6months but then for months on end nothing - then for a couple of days mama - then nothing again even his babbling went downhill. I haven't heard him say mama now for 2months and he doesn' use any other words at all although he has become more verbal. So hopefully Makaton will help

Hiya,
*lurking* but wanted to say check out http://www.makaton.org.nz/
You can also order the "dictionaries"/handbooks directly from them so you can learn a few of the signs easily.
Cheers
MB