Gemma Pierce

I am a Learning Support Assistant for a PLMD/ASD school. and already use Makaton whilst in my role which I find fascinating. I am currently learning BSL because it is sometime to pass the time whilst being at home, I am a critical key worker but as we only have 9 students that are in at the moment only a select few of us are needed at the moment. I thought it would be a good idea to brush up on other ways of communicating, I do not have any hearing impaired friends or family as yet, but would like to be able to communicate with them, and make them feel like they are included in the conversation

I use Makatoneveryday in my job role as I am a learning support assistant for a PLMD/ASD school. There are some differences, like you speak as well as sign, and you don't sign your words backwards. You only sign the words that are the most important in a sentence such as for example: Do you need help? Sit down in your chair? Some words are the same in BSL, others a little different. We don't normally fingerspell names, just the first initial. Hope I could be of help.