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Makaton Signs


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I know this will be an easy one for you all who use Makaton regularly. How do you express please and thank you?

 

Today I queried thank you with my Area Senco, i had thought to say thank you, you touch your lips with your fingers and then put your hand up palm facing outwards, (bit like a native American "how" sign) for want of a better expression.

 

My senco said this phrase, 'please to the knees' (touch your lips and palm upwards in an arc bring your arm down your body. To say thank you, 'ta to the bra' - same action but only bring the palm down to your chest.

 

 

Is this the way everyone else does it? Did I dream my way of saying thank you? Help please!!

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I know this will be an easy one for you all who use Makaton regularly. How do you express please and thank you?

 

Today I queried thank you with my Area Senco, i had thought to say thank you, you touch your lips with your fingers and then put your hand up palm facing outwards, (bit like a native American "how" sign) for want of a better expression.

 

My senco said this phrase, 'please to the knees' (touch your lips and palm upwards in an arc bring your arm down your body. To say thank you, 'ta to the bra' - same action but only bring the palm down to your chest.

 

 

Is this the way everyone else does it? Did I dream my way of saying thank you? Help please!!

 

I've always been taught to do it the way your senco suggets. I like her sayings to help remember it!

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I know this will be an easy one for you all who use Makaton regularly. How do you express please and thank you?

 

Today I queried thank you with my Area Senco, i had thought to say thank you, you touch your lips with your fingers and then put your hand up palm facing outwards, (bit like a native American "how" sign) for want of a better expression.

 

My senco said this phrase, 'please to the knees' (touch your lips and palm upwards in an arc bring your arm down your body. To say thank you, 'ta to the bra' - same action but only bring the palm down to your chest.

 

 

Is this the way everyone else does it? Did I dream my way of saying thank you? Help please!!

 

I dont know the signs but those I have seen nursery children using are more like you describe than those of your SENCo.

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Hi I work at a Nursery for children with Special Needs the signs your SENCO gave you are correct ,

if you need any more signs please get in touch

Good Luck

Helen

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Many thanks for all your replies - I have just e mailed the website where I found the original "thank you" sign I have been using to see what they have to say. I expect some of you may know the website already, it is the newbury park redbridge school language site.

Ah - so you weren't dreaming - I take it all back! :o

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So had a reply from the website - and this is it "translations are never straightforward. I can get nine people agreeing on a translation and then find someone who insists it should be something else. This is particularly true for Makaton and BSL which vary in different parts of the country. While I try to be as accurate as possible when learning a language I've come to realise that it is more important to have a go."

 

 

Whilst I am in agreement with the correspondent that it is important to have a go, I always thought that to be accurate with sign language was essential, or we would further confuse a child.

 

I will use the 'ta to the bra' from now on because that appears to be what is taught locally can those that have taken proper Makaton courses or have their literature tell me do Makaton just have one version or different versions around the country?

 

Am I being a pedant? This has niggled me - and I don't really know why:(

Edited by Panders
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I have recently learnt BSL and the sign you describe as 'ta to the bra' is the same one used for both please and thank you in BSL so it makes sense that this would be carried over into makaton (though I know they're both completely seperate).

 

Something that might interest you though is that in BSL at least there are different 'regional accents' to the language. Sometimes the difference is quite marked, to the point where myself and half the class failed one of our level 2 BSL exams because the signer on the video was scottish. The other half of the class all said they only passed through sheer luck (it was multiple choice and 9/12 was the pass rate). On the resit we got a signer from around our area and all passed with full marks.

 

To me this suggests that there might be 'regional accents' in makaton as well. I guess it's just one of those things that happens when you try to spread a language around an entire country. All it takes is just one person or setting to misinterpret something, or to create a new sign for a word they don't have a sign for yet, and suddenly you end up with different 'accents' around the counrty.

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