PlayWise Ready To Deliver Signalong In Sutton
Today I became a fully fledged Signalong Tutor – yay! After four days of online training I passed all the assessments and proved I am a competent signer and able to deliver Signalong training. This means that my signing fingers are loaded and ready to sign and speak and help you all to develop an effective way of communicating with your little ones.
Signalong has been such a massive part of Sutton and Portage over the years – with the incredible Bev and Kay who have delivered Signalong training for so many years in the borough (they would hunt me down if I told you how long they have been delivering signing for)– to schools, professionals, parents and children.
So many of our children with developmental delays have difficulties with communication – whether it’s as a result of a physical need, a social communication difficulty, complex health needs or as part of developmental challenges. Signalong is an essential skill that opens up the world of communication to them. It’s pitched at the language level of the learner and is based on the British sign language whilst used in spoken word order. This means it uses speech, signing, facial expressions with the voice tone and body language, whilst making the link between sign in word. With a whopping 9000 signs, there are enough signs to take a child’s language development into adulthood. How amazing is that! (To clarify, I have not learnt all 9000 signs this week! That would be pretty impressive ha ha.)
“With a whopping 9000 signs, there are enough signs to take a child’s language development into adulthood.”
So what next? PlayWise is now able to deliver signalong Phase One courses to parents and professionals in the area. This is a very exciting new step for us. The training will enhance the communication skills of the professionals and parents working with children. It will bring our community together to use one system to communicate, providing consistency and continuity between settings and it will bring people’s focus back on the importance of communicating at the right level for the right reason.
I would like to thank Signalong and CEO Tracy Goode for their support this week and to my awesome and funny virtual classmates Sonia, Tamsin & Kim.
And now with my working flat hand (palm forward, pointing up) I am waving to you twice – goodbye!
Pam.
