To celebrate World Book Day we teamed up with Family Fund, Wouldn't Change a Thing and Singing Hands to make a video of The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson, with Makaton signing. Join in with the help of our free download of Makaton symbols and signs.

Did you watch Mr Tumble reading the second Makaton CBeebies Bedtime Story, Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross? There is still time to join in with the help of our free download of Makaton symbols and signs, the video is on YouTube until 20th April.

We also have a free download of Makaton symbols and signs to help you sing and sign along to the Red Nose Day school song for Comic Relief 2019, Put A Nose On It! – as performed by our friends Singing Hands.

Get ready for Easter with our free download of Makaton symbols and line drawings of signs for Easter,  including Easter, chicks, chocolate, church, Easter eggs, flower, Friday, Jesus, kit (baby rabbit), and Sunday.

Jake (aka DJ Jay) has had an amazing month…

“A video about my Makaton Friendly events reached almost a million views, I was a finalist at the BBC Young Reporters Awards, and I was interviewed on live BBC News. This is my blog about how it all happened!”

“Canterbury is setting a world-leading example - breaking down social, communication, inclusion and equality barriers - by attempting to become the very first Makaton Friendly city anywhere in the world!”

“Staff at Carers Nest Pre-school in Devizes, Wiltshire, recently completed the Makaton Beginners' Workshop… Our completion of the course tied in perfectly with our themed Red Nose Week, where we were raising money for Comic Relief. All the children took part in a sponsored Makaton week: each day they have learnt new signs, from being able to sign their own names and our Hello Song, to learning lots of animal signs too!”

The best way to learn Makaton is to attend a workshop. It means that you learn with other people, share your experiences, receive feedback on your signing and symbol work, and enables you to practise with others.

We're running the following workshops at our Head Office in Farnborough:

Training to become a Makaton Tutor is rigorous and can be hard work but it could be one of the most rewarding things you do! 

The four-day residential Tutor training course costs £1,950, which includes tuition, all course material, accommodation, all meals and a copy of the Foundation Workshop Tutor Pack on successful completion.

We are now booking places on the following Tutor training courses in 2019:

• 10th – 13th June 2019: RAU, Cirencester
• 23rd – 26th September 2019: Easthampstead Park, Wokingham
• 11th – 14th November 2019: Heaton Mount, Bradford

People who use Makaton for everyday communication can now understand how to get help in a power cut and stay safe around electricity, thanks to two new videos.

The UK's biggest electricity distributor, UK Power Networks, which delivers electricity across the East of England, South East and London, has worked with The Makaton Charity to make sure customers with specialist and complex communication needs can access the helpful information.
 

Asda is to roll-out the use of Makaton to aid both children and adults with learning and communication difficulties, in all its UK superstores.

Initially 394 Asda superstores across the entire country will have Makaton shopping lists available for free in-store from the customer service desk for customers to collect at the start of their shop.

Asda has worked closely with The Makaton Charity ahead of the roll-out and is the first major UK supermarket chain to offer Makaton nationwide.

The Makaton roll-out  follows previous initiatives by Asda to make shopping easier for customers, including the launch of the Happy Little Helpers scheme last year.

Don’t forget you have until 12th April to take part in the Learning disability and autism training for health and care staff consultation.

As part of the All-Party Parliamentary Group we are urging organisations, healthcare providers, patient groups, families, and of course individuals with a learning disability to submit their views on:

• what should be included in the training
• how should it be delivered, how to involve people with learning disabilities or autism
• how they can mandate, monitor and evaluate the impact of training

Day in, day out we see communication being a barrier to the people we know and love, and now we have an opportunity to highlight the importance of being able to communicate and understand a person who has difficulties communicating. Making the care they receive personalised and meaningful. This is our chance to make a real difference.