MAKATON V BSL (All bets are off!)

As ongoing concerns are being raised by worried parents of deaf, and other children with special and sensory needs in education, ATR expressed such concern to the three involved parties concerned.

(1)  Contacted the Pride Of Britain Organisers.

(2) The Makaton Website.

(3)  The BDA/RNID and allied BSL areas.

The response it has to be said was pretty dire.  RNID and BDA responded with personal attacks on ATR, and blocked online, any further engagement.

Pride Of Britain failed to respond at all, unaware their support and coverage of sign use was used on X, Facebook, and on BSL sites, to suggest media supported its attack on Makaton, which they defined  as a 'stolen' format deaf people 'owned'. Nobody owns languages.

The Daily Mirror has yet to respond.

Enclosed below was the only response to the attack, from Makaton web team, we can but hope the BDA gets its house in order, and tells its members and BSL supporters it is bad news,  BSL users and supporters are seen attacking vital educational support to assist disabled children. One can only surmise the point being made very badly, is the reluctance to endorse BSL in education, which has nothing to do with the use of Makaton.  This is BSL bullying, from a very online savvy area prepared to attack anyone and everything to get what they want, even our children's education.

ATR. 

We're aware of some negative comments circulating on social media regarding the use of Makaton and the suggestion that it constitutes cultural appropriation of the Deaf community's language. This isn't a new concern raised by just a small number of the Deaf community; however, it's something we've been eager to address and educate people about. We've been actively engaging in dialogue on this matter, working closely with the British Deaf Association over the past six months to foster a mutual understanding of the importance of both British Sign Language (BSL) and Makaton. We've been striving to clearly delineate which audiences and communities each form of communication serves and the terms we use to describe each communication method. Additionally, we've been collaborating on joint statements to provide clarity to our communities on this issue.

It's our policy not to engage directly with negative comments on social media, as doing so often exacerbates the situation and draws more attention to it. It's worth noting that the recent resurgence of interest in this issue may have been sparked by a question on BBC's Pointless on Monday, which referred to Makaton as a "language" – a term we're actively moving away from in favour of the more appropriate and up to date terminology.

We hope this explanation clarifies our stance on the matter. Rest assured, we're actively monitoring the situation across social media channels.

Best wishes,

The Makaton Help Desk

We can but hope the 'negative comments of BSL users' is taken to task, and, that the BDA takes any notice, so far they have endorsed these attacks on another charity..

Pride Of Britain attacks Makaton.

Pride of Britain organisers are supporting media discrimination, and publicly supporting BSL attacks, on Makaton use, a communication support system used in special education, to support children with sensory need.

To this end BSL supporters online, have attacked Makaton users on social media, parents of children in special need schools,  Teachers Of the Deaf who utilise it, and now with help by Pride of Britain./Daily Mirror, in rejecting MAKATON's existence.  BSL areas claiming Makaton was 'cultural theft and appropriation', i.e. 'stolen' from British Sign Language, (a perceived 'language' of minority deaf areas, which to date is not used as a teaching format for young children because it hasn't been validated in schools).

The whole thing stinks frankly, with jaded pop stars and z-celebs taking part, who participate to promote themselves, using disabled and other children/adults, as a front, the penultimate in patronisation.

As it is BSL 'week' accept no alternatives apparently!  Just another example of 'language sectarianism and apartheid' from a hard-core BSL area, who are already notorious for killing online free speech on their charity, and personal sites.

It is to the Daily Mirror's shame they have gone and supported these petty and negative attacks by BSL promoters on vulnerable deaf children's options, who need every available tool we can muster to enhance their communication, no one-size fits all, certainly not an oppressive and unbending promoted system like BSL.  For shame P O B.

Deaf children come first, not BSL campaigners making  money promoting a system most deaf DON'T use, BSL.

I'm in survey overload....

Another 'Survey' aimed at hearing parents of deaf children regarding how they 'choose' to have their child educated. We could save the Uni a lot of pointless effort, as even the NDCS has never gained a significant response to such a survey (Or indeed published any stats if they had).  The issue for areas like the NDCS is to support deaf children and their parents, they don't have a definitive policy for communication/language inclusions in deaf educational areas. Choosing such is outside their domain too.

The promoters of this survey are obviously wanting to know why parents are NOT opting for a BSL tuition.  We can only put this naivete into prospective by saying they haven't done research on how deaf educational approaches currently function.

Apart from a diminishing deaf school system and fewer deaf to fill them, there is a gross shortage of Teachers to the Deaf. Also as per the BSL GCSE teachers of BSL are NOT  qualified to teach the school curriculum, it is a separate qualification.   This would pose significant issues to those who insist such teachers should be deaf as well.   So it's 'Academic' (Sorry!), to question why parents choice A or B options.  In reality choice isn't a real option, A system whereby deaf children can be taught in BSL only doesn't exist, this issue was covered via the BSL GCSE thing, where all BSL areas involved know the tuition isn't there or the training of that tuition exists to make it viable. Least of all to include aspects of deaf 'culture' which hasn't an academic refence system to use, or teachers specifically trained to teach it.. 

ATR and others, have pointed this out day one, and only this week did the BDA (Who drive all this BSL output), admitted we were right, on their BSL SEE HEAR TV show, i.e. after 10 YEARS or bans, blocks and personal attacks.  For 10yrs they talked about it but never did their homework, or discussed practicalities of making it happen.  It's important to understand it is 90% emotive and 10% chat and not research, because the research didn't back what they proposed. ATR covered 5 research surveys the last 4 weeks, what you will find is 5% engagement at best, because nobody knows where the hearing parents are, not even the NDCS, or, how a BSL approach could work, it hasn't been tried, and parents are reluctant to have their children used as 'guinea pigs' for the advantage of BSL promotion. Online surveys are suspect as you never really can quantify who is responding.  You have to restrict response to your target area, it is easy to get around that online.

Consider, if a proportion of parents DID want their children taught via BSL.  You would propose a 'Tiered' system?  Whereby some children will be educated in BSL, (You cannot  force all parents to comply),  and others educated via what works best for them, (which is the current approach).  Do you suggest parents get overruled?  You cannot offer them choices where options to choose do not exist.  No doubt why current BSL campaigners  (The majority aren't grass roots, they are charities with  few if  any grass root membership),  are all lobbying politicians and NOT consulting parents, because they know they have no rights or authority to do that in law, so 'back door ' campaigning is way of circumventing parental choice and state mainstreaming too.  The BSL GCSE an example, but only aimed at teens and Hearing mostly.

What we see is an area who are desperate to ensure a BSL community continues, commendable in part, but we are talking about parents and their children's futures which are not any domain of deaf groups of any persuasion. We know fewer deaf are using BSL now.  The BDA stated it also. We would prefer is surveys (We get 30 a year online doing the same thing), published real data too, as currently      those who run surveys do not validate their numbers.  Asking 50 people and getting 15 responses e.g. is not sadly, going to produce the results you hope for.  I think the public are far more aware how these things operate by now.

MAKATON is a language too.

Recognise Makaton as a language in law, a new petition to get Makaton recognised as a language the same as BSL.

Makaton uses signs from BSL, which is recognised as a language in law, however, Makaton is not. There are around 1 million users of Makaton in the UK, but we believe their ability to communicate with others, including professionals, in their day-to-day life is limited because it is not currently recognised as a language in law.

If Makaton was to be recognised as a language in law it we believe this would help make it more accessible for all who rely on it for their communication.

PETITION LINK

Alternatives to BSL.

 

Sign Supported English (SSE)

SSE is a way of speaking and signing at the same time, using BSL signs for key words while speaking English. When signing SSE, you don't need to sign every word. SSE can be useful to support lip-reading for deaf people whose first language is English, or to teach English to people whose first language is BSL. It can also be useful when communicating informally with a group of people who use both BSL and English. However, many BSL users find SSE hard to follow. 

Signed English (SE)

Signed English is an exact representation of English where a sign is used alongside every spoken word, including fingerspelling words which don't have an equivalent in BSL, such as 'to' or 'the'. SE is sometimes used in education to develop written and spoken English skills and English grammar. 

Makaton

Makaton is a communication programme which uses signs, symbols and speech to support communication. 

In Makaton, parents and professionals speak and sign or point to symbols at the same time. The signs and symbols provide visual support for the key words being said. The signs and symbols are used until the child has learned to speak and understand English.

Makaton symbols have been designed to support the written word in the same way that the signs support speech. Makaton aims to support the development of spoken and written language and literacy.