I am very proud and delighted to let you know that my Off We Go ‘Going to Buy Clothes’ and ‘Going to the Doctor’ books are now up on ITV’s Signed Stories. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Signed Stories is a wonderful resource that presents stories in and a fun and active way, while also signing at the same time. Signed Stories has a very simple goal – to help improve the literacy of deaf children nationwide by allowing them to share in the joy of storytelling. It’s also designed to provide useful advice and guidance for the parents, carers and teachers of deaf children; and for the deaf parents of hearing children. Now Signed Stories are expanding to help children with learning/intellectual disabilities like autism. Using sign language with children with a language delay is proven to help with speech development.

See below some tips from the Signed Stories Special Education Needs section :

Autism and sign language

Children with autism might need more help to develop their language and learning skills – and sign language can really help kick-start the learning process.

1. Sign language is visually engaging – many signs such as “drink” etc are visually associated with the object or word they relate to and this acts as a bridge to speech and language development.
2. Children with autism may display negative social behaviours, like tantrums and aggression which are intensified when they cannot communicate their basic needs and wants – sign language offers them another way to relieve this frustration.
3. Giving children an additional means to communicate boosts their confidence and self-esteem.
4. Children who can express themselves are more likely to seek out social interactions and enjoy the company of others – and learn how to behave and communicate with others.

We use a mixture of communication with our son Stephen, including sign language. Signing is an important tool to help communication and head off frustration. We need to raise awareness with society that sign language is like any other language and encourage everyone to learn some signs. It brings such joy to a child or adult who uses sign language to be acknowledged and responded to by a new/unfamiliar person!

Best wishes as always,
Avril