Rise and sign

Establishing Signalong as part of a total communication approach in a special needs school has helped pupils develop their comprehension, expressive language and communication skills and have fun in the process. Polly OCallaghan considers the success of the strategy and how ongoing challenges will be met.

Total communication

L-R Frances Duffy, Sarah Doherty, Alison Dennis, Polly OCallaghan, Lin Artus.

READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO CAPITALISE ON NATURALLY OCCURRING COMMUNICATION MAKE CHANGES TO AN ENVIRONMENT MOTIVATE INDIVIDUALS, CARERS AND COMMUNITIES

s speech and language therapists working in the educational setting know, there have been significant changes in the special needs sector. For our school it has led to a population shift down the scale of learning difficulties. Whereas previously most of our pupils had moderate learning difficulties, we were increasingly being referred pupils with severe learning difficulties and more complex speech, language and behavioural needs. With the school specialising in communication difficulties, our department is continually looking for ways to develop the communication support available for pupils. The shift in population has meant we are working with a different client group, thus requiring new skills to ensure these more complex needs are met. Our speech and language department has successfully implemented a variety of low and high tech AAC (alternative and augmentative communication) aids for many of the pupils. As a school we took a Total Communication approach; in fostering the use of a combination of systems all children are encouraged to communicate, each using the most effective method in terms of their own needs. Our AAC devices range from VOCA (voice output) to simple Mayer-Johnson symbol boards and we work with the pupils, parents, special support assistants and teaching staff to ensure the aids are used to maximise understanding and communication opportunities in all areas of the curriculum. For us to develop our Total Communication approach, we decided as a school to introduce key word signing to extend the range of AAC available to pupils. Many children already used some signing spontaneously to help convey their meaning. As an AAC modality, signing seems to capitalise on an already naturally occurring developmental process. In normal child language development most children will use gesture prior to the development of speech as the primary linguistic mode and, as adults, we naturally use gestures to emphasise the message we want to convey to a child. For individuals with learning difficulties, who often have profound short term auditory mem-

ory and processing problems, the use of manual signs provides visual information to support the spoken word. As with the use of symbols and pictures, providing visual information is more concrete and accessible to many individuals with learning difficulties. However, signing has the advantage of being very instant and more readily available to the individual in that all too familiar situation where communication aids have been left at home! We did not want to replace our existing AAC modalities, and were aware that signing would not be suitable for many pupils, but felt it would add to the communicative opportunities available within our learning environment. We chose the Signalong sign system because of its clear, easy to make, iconic signs with a large catalogue of resources for adult and child use. Signalong is a sign supporting system based on British Sign Language used primarily to assist communication in cases of language problems associated with learning difficulties. Sarah Doherty, a very experienced special needs teacher from our school, trained as a Signalong tutor over the summer break. The tutor course is a five day intensive course for individuals with some previous Signalong experience. Although many speech and language therapists qualify as tutors, it is also attended by a number of other professionals such as teachers. We considered the high caseload demands in the speech and language therapy department and decided we didnt have the flexibility to allow for the significant amount of time needed to train all the staff and run courses elsewhere during the school working week. Instead, we would use our time and skills to work with the Signalong tutor in developing the signing skills of our pupils and helping staff to use sign effectively. Having already completed the foundation course, Sarah volunteered to attend the tutor course and allocated one and a half days of her teaching week to train staff in Signalong. The tutor course allows participants to deliver the Phase 1 foundation course in Signalong. Upon completion of this 16 hour accredited course with a final assessment, trainees are able

to generate any Signalong sign from the drawing and written description provided by the Signalong Group as well as covering a core vocabulary of approximately 350 signs. It also helps trainees understand some communication concepts important when working with individuals with learning difficulties including the use of key words, symbolic development, generalisation and over-generalisation. Sarahs task was to train all the staff in school including Special Support Assistants, teachers, catering staff and care staff. The course was also available to parents and people from the wider community and other schools. Sarah worked with us in planning how to establish Signalong effectively in our school. Our longterm aim was that, by the end of the academic year, our school community would be using Signalong as part of our Total Communication approach.

Raise the profile

As soon as our first foundation course was up and running, we began to publicise signing as much as possible around the school. We wanted to raise the profile of signing to staff, pupils, parents and the wider community. First, we set up some clubs. For our younger pupils (9-16 years), we ran a break time healthy snack club. Pupils sat in a group and requested in turn a fruit or vegetable snack. We modelled a selection of request sentences in sign for the pupils such as Give me apple please, more apple please I want apple please. We chose two different snacks each week as a way of developing signing vocabulary. At lunch time, we ran a signing chat club for the older pupils (16-19 years). We sat in a group around a table and pupils were given a cup of tea (which they asked for in sign) and we allowed the students to lead simple discussions such as favourite colours, animals and foods, teaching them some new topic signs each week. We worked with the music department to develop a repertoire of songs which incorporated signing for the pupils in their assemblies and Mass services. We chose simple, repetitive songs with a lively chorus as well as some slow 11

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Total communication

Snack Club

reflective songs for Mass services. We sang songs like Rise and Shine and The Wise Man Built in Mass and assemblies while in clubs and class activities chose pop songs such as Reach for the Stars with the older pupils and nursery rhymes like Twinkle Twinkle with the younger children. The speech and language department led a weekly singing practice where we taught the signs with the music. We sang one or two songs from the repertoire to perform each week in a service and I stood at the front of the hall with two pupils who knew the signs, signing the songs to remind other pupils and staff of the signs. The pupils loved coming to the front of the hall and it proved a real motivator to learn the signs! We encouraged the pupils to develop their signing skills by offering achievement awards. We had three vocabulary award certificates: green for pupils who knew 50 signs, orange for pupils who could sign 20 words and red for pupils with 10 signs. We chose set vocabulary for the awards, which was useful within the school environment. We gave each class three coloured posters of the signing words for each award and encouraged our trained assistants to help the children learn the signs in any spare minutes during the day. We wanted to make the scheme accessible to all our pupils, so we also had a fourth certificate called the significant achievement award. This recognised if a pupil was making any noteworthy signing progress for example, it may be a significant achievement for one pupil simply to make the thank you sign. In addition, we had a sign of the week and awarded pupils with plus points for their house teams if they were able to make the sign. We chose social phrases like good morning or functional words or phrases like toilet and help me. To make sure the parents were aware of our work, we worked some signs into our Christmas play performance with a whole school song at the end using signs. We also made a Signalong newsletter with photos of the pupils and details of all the things we had been doing and pupils achievements which we sent home to all the parents. Soon parents were expressing an interest and some had enrolled on our foundation course. One of our most successful signing events was a sponsored Sing and Signalong. We asked each class to perform a song of their choice with sign in a whole school Signalong afternoon. Pupils dressed up in costumes and performed it on stage to an audience of our staff, pupils and parents raising money for Edirisa UK (www.edirisa.org.uk), a charity supporting education in Uganda. The pupils loved performing and really enjoyed showing off their signing skills. 12

Snack Club

Exceeded expectations

It didnt take long for us to realise that the benefits of signing far exceeded our original expectations. Pupils understanding was enhanced by the additional visual clue provided. The slowed speech (which naturally occurs when we use sign to support our speech) gave the pupils much needed extra language processing time. For pupils who had difficulties with eye contact and attention, eye contact was encouraged and the gaze could be more easily drawn back as the child was prompted to look at the face and wait for the next sign. A particularly successful case for us was a pupil with autism spectrum disorder, moderate learning difficulties and an intense shyness with using spoken language. When trying to talk to him, he would turn his body away from the speaker and would speak in a barely audible whisper if at all. When we started using sign, we saw a huge improvement in his body language and eye contact, as he looked at the speakers hands for signs and started to join in with lessons by contributing with sign. There was often a reduction in behavioural issues as children were more engaged with the speaker and improved in concentration. Particularly noticeable in our healthy snack club, signing was helping pupils in their sentence sequencing skills. It seemed to assist pupils in understanding the units of a sentence, in turn enabling them to recreate the sentence themselves in the correct sequence, something which has often been a real challenge for our pupils. Aside from the noticeable speech and language gains, above all it seemed to be universally enjoyed by the pupils and gave a different dimension to my speech and language sessions.

I have forgotten all the signs I dont want to sign in case I make a mistake The pupils I work with can speak so I dont need to sign I just forget to use it. It was clear that just completing the course was not going to be enough to get everyone using signing and some of our staff needed ongoing support and teaching. We took several steps to meet this challenge: 1. Individually tailored course delivery what words are relevant to them? The foundation course covers just over 350 signs, which may seem a lot to remember for many people. It is important to stress to people learning Signalong that they should focus primarily on vocabulary relevant to them. To help our trainees, we worked out key signing vocabulary relevant to each group, as for example a special support assistant would need different key signing vocabulary to the catering staff. Although Sarah covered all the vocabulary in her course, we worked with her in tailoring her courses with activities based around the vocabulary relevant to the individual trainees signing needs. We also worked with individuals who had extra duties such as running a breakfast club in learning the vocabulary needed for that specific situation. 2. Developing signing confidence giving staff a role Events such as our sponsored Sing and Signalong day, where the classroom staff were required to work out signs for a song to teach their class, were great for encouraging staff to use their signing skills. We also gave staff a pupil signing partner, so they could teach signs for the pupil to work towards a Signalong vocabulary award. We got as many staff as possible involved in assembly and Mass services and tried to ensure there was a Signalong aspect to most of the whole school events. 3. Revision and education As with learning a foreign language, if you dont use signing you quickly forget. We held regular revision meetings where we played Signalong

Enthusiasm and challenges

Although there was lots of initial enthusiasm For Signalong, we were met with plenty of challenges along the way. We found that, although our trainees were demonstrating they were competent signers during the training sessions, it was disappointing to see that many were just not using it at all with the pupils. Reasons given included:

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Total communication
Tips for Signing 1. Always speak when you sign, using the sign concurrently with your words 2. Only sign the key words 3. Always face the child 4. Encourage good looking before you sign 5. Praise any attempts to sign - even if they are not accurate - to increase signing confidence 6. If a child signs incorrectly, model the sign correctly and help the child make the sign by shaping the childs hand while saying the word 7. Try to teach new signs in a context with real objects (eg. if you are teaching food words, have the food there and encourage pupils to request the foods using the sign they are trying to learn) 8. Make signing fun, using it with music, drama and games.

Voice Care Network

news extra

Roz Comins, Founder of the Voice Care Network UK, has stepped down as coordinator. The Network now has an office administrator and a development officer, Phyllida Furse. The organisations three key commitments are to provide continuous professional development opportunities for voice tutors and speech and language therapists, offer prevention-focused voice workshops throughout the UK and gather research on the benefits of keeping voices healthy. www.voicecare.org.uk

Sing and Signalong

games to keep staff up-to-date and using their skills. We talked to staff about their pupils needs and explained how they could use signing effectively with them. We helped staff appreciate that, even if the pupils they worked with could speak, using Signalong may help their understanding, and we used specific examples of where it had been particularly effective. We also made videos of speech and language sessions where we had seen significant communication and / or behavioural improvements, to give motivation to staff.

A long way to go

foundation course covers a basic vocabulary that is adequate for working in the ModerateSevere learning difficulties group. If used effectively, Signalong can greatly improve the communication partnership and is a useful modality for many individuals with learning difficulties. The introduction of Signalong in our school has been fun and enjoyable and I look forward to continuing to develop new and exciting ways of using signing to enhance communication and learning in our school environment. Polly OCallaghan is a speech and language therapists at Pield Heath House School, Uxbridge, Middlesex, tel. 01895 258507.

We still have a long way to go with our Signalong challenge. We need to continue to work with the staff we have trained to ensure they keep up their signing skills. Important for us is further work with parents for the transfer of signing skills into the home environment. As with all AAC, there is often resistance from parents, as many worry it will hinder their childs ability to develop spoken language. We may need to talk with particular parents to alleviate these concerns and encourage them to develop some signing skills themselves. We also hope to work with the wider community such as the pupils care workers to help our children with communication outside of the school environment. Signalong has been hugely popular with staff, pupils and many of the parents at our school. The

Acknowledgements

My thanks to all staff who supported the launch of Signalong at Pield Heath House School. A big thank you especially to Sarah Doherty, Signalong tutor and R.E. teacher; Frances Duffy, Head of Speech and Language Therapy; Lin Artus, a volunteer in the speech and language department; and Alison DenSLTP nis, social communication skills teacher.

ORC International is reporting that 41 per cent of passenger transport employees in customer facing roles in the UK lack communication skills. The research companys survey of 1000 passenger transport employees and employers was carried out on behalf of the employer-led training organisation GoSkills to provide greater insight into the skills gap that exists in basic numeracy, literacy, IT and communication skills. It also found that 23 per cent lack basic skills, that English firms fare worse in comparison with Wales and Scotland and that the language barrier between native and non-native English speakers is a problem for many companies. Respondents said the main barriers to addressing the skills gap through training are lack of time and funding. www.goskills.org

Transport employees lack communication skills

PECS in the frame

Resources

Mayer-Johnson Picture Communication Symbols, www.mayer-johnson.com Rise and Shine! (CD / DVD) http:// km.churchinsight.com/Shop Sign & Rhyme DVD temporarily unavailable (more information from www.signalong.org.uk) Signalong Basic Vocabulary Phase 1 www.signalong.org.uk

REFLECTIONS DO I HAVE A CLEAR RATIONALE FOR INTRODUCING A NEW COMMUNICATION TOOL OR MODE? DO I RECOGNISE WHEN IT IS EFFICIENT FOR ANOTHER PROFESSIONAL TO OFFER CORE TRAINING WHILE I USE MY SKILLS IN A STRATEGIC SUPPORTING CAPACITY? DO I HAVE A REALISTIC PLAN FOR MAINTAINING AND DEVELOPING THE APPROACH IN THE LONGER TERM?
How has this article been helpful to you? What are your experiences of introducing a total communication approach? Let us know via the Summer 08 forum at http://members.speechmag.com/forum/.

Pyramid Educational Consultants are running a photography competition to catch the best in PECS practice. The Picture Exchange Communication System has been used in the UK now for 10 years. The prize is a day of free consultancy. www.pecs.org.uk/photocomp.htm (deadline 1st August).

Road volunteers

The national road safety charity Brake is urgently seeking volunteers from the health professions to provide immediate practical and emotional support to families and individuals who are newly bereaved as a result of death on the road. Training, debriefing and support will be provided. e-mail Diane Bevan, brakecare@brake.org.uk

Time to Get Equal

Recommended reading

Layton, T.L. & Savino, M.A. (1990) Acquiring a communication system by sign and speech in a child with Downs syndrome: a longitudinal investigation, Child Language Teaching and Therapy 6, pp.59 -76. Powel, G. & Clibbens, J. (2003) Augmentative Communication, in Bochner, S. & Jones, J. Child Language Development, learning to talk (2nd edn). London: WileyBlackwell. Rondal, J. & Buckley, S. (2003) Speech and Language Intervention in Downs Syndrome. London: WileyBlackwell.

Williams, G. (2002) Augmentative and Alternative Communication, in Abudarham, S. & Hurd, A. (eds) Management of communication needs in people with learning difficulties. London: WileyBlackwell.

Scope is calling for one million people to campaign together to tackle injustice, break down barriers and challenge disablism. The charitys Time to Get Equal Week runs from 9-15 June. Activities include an online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/noreservations which asks the government to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in full, without reservation or limitation, by December 2008. www.scope.org.uk

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