Julia Donaldson works with The Makaton Charity on The Gruffalo and Monkey Puzzle songs!

When Julia Donaldson recorded a video of the Monkey Puzzle Song she worked with The Makaton Charity to include Makaton signs; the project was so successful that Makaton has now been included with the recording of The Gruffalo Song.
 
Makaton is a language programme which combines signs, symbols and speech to help communication. Used by over a million people in the UK Makaton is the leading language programme for adults and children with learning or communication difficulties and everyone who shares their lives. Most users will be introduced to Makaton during childhood so using Makaton signs and symbols with popular children’s books helps those with communication difficulties be included in the fun.
 
Julia works with a Makaton Tutor to learn the signs for the songs and in some cases signs and symbols have to be specially created. Whilst there were already signs and symbols for the words 'Monkey' and 'Puzzle',  those for the 'Gruffalo' were developed specifically for the project.
 
In addition to Makaton signs being used in the songs there are downloadable guides on using the signs and symbols when reading the books with children, details can be found here.

Thursday 3 August 2017