Dr John-Paul Riordan is a Reader in education at CCCU and a Makaton Tutor and will be running the event. Students, staff, and people from outside the university are welcome. No prior experience is required, and experienced signers are welcome too. The aim of this course is to give a general introduction to what Makaton is and who uses it, with the opportunity to learn a few signs and symbols too. Participants will get a handout covering the vocabulary you have learnt.

About Makaton

Makaton is a sign and symbol language programme used by children and adults with speech, language, and communication difficulties and their families, friends, teachers, teaching assistants, medical professionals, and carers. The signs (hand gestures) are derived from the language of the local deaf community (British Sign Language in the UK). 

Each sign has an associated symbol, which is a carefully designed black and white line drawing. Signs are divided into a core vocabulary of 450 concepts and a resource vocabulary of about 20,000 concepts. Makaton is intended to support spoken language, so the signs and symbols are used with speech and in spoken word order. The Makaton Taster lasts for 2 hours (with a ten-minute break in the middle) and is an official course with a certificate of attendance.

We have run Makaton courses at CCCU for many years for thousands of students, staff and people outside the university, and our university became the first one in the world to become Makaton Friendly in 2019. We do research about Makaton here. To find out more (including about other types of courses and free Makaton resources) please go to www.makaton.org or www.john-paul.org.uk. 

More information

Contact: john-paul.riordan@canterbury.ac.uk