Singing Hands - my new favourite thing

I was recently sent THE most brilliant singing and signing CDs and songbooks by Suzanne and Tracy of Singing Hands (above; you may have seen them on Something Special ). I was so taken by the concept and its execution, and by the fact that they were parents of children with special needs who'd done something incredibly positive with the information they were forced to learn, that I emailed them and asked them to write something about what they do, and how they came to do it, for the blog. As some of you may have noticed, I am evangelical about Makaton. Singing Hands is not only a brilliant way of learning some, but it's the most tremendous fun for little children - Nell absolutely loves her books and CDs, and it means she can join in nursery rhymes with aplomb at, er, nursery. I can't recommend Singing Hands highly enough. Their website is here  and there's also lots of detailed info right at the end of this article. An invaluable resource for parents, obviously, but also for speech and language therapists, SENCOs and so on. Anyway:

Hello!  We are Suzanne and Tracy of Singing Hands – we’d like to tell you about the songbooks and CDs that we have produced to help foster children’s early communication skills by introducing them to signing through songs and rhymes.

We are both parents of a child with special needs and began to learn Makaton when our children were a few months old.  As parents, it was then instinctive for us to sign and sing with our children but Singing Hands was only formally established when they were due to attend mainstream nursery in 2003.  Our goal was, and still is, to encourage communication between children with SEN and their peers by fostering an inclusive approach to language.  Our fear was that it would not be possible for our children be fully included in their setting if they could only communicate with their LSA (Learning Support Assistant).  It seemed obvious that the only way forward was to sign with all children to help achieve this goal.  We both felt that this could best be achieved through songs and stories – a natural opportunity to use a fantastic and engaging range of signs that all children could enjoy.

Our aim is to demonstrate how signs can be used in a fun, dynamic and practical way so that music time can become one of the favourite activities of the day.  Produced in conjunction with the Makaton Vocabulary Development Project (MVDP) each signed songbook contains 30 tried and tested songs that we have used in our baby signing classes, toddler groups and nursery and school sessions over the years.

Who are the books for?
Anyone and everyone!  The books are aimed at parents and carers interested in signing with their baby or young child.  We have also strived to create a useful product suitable for families whose children have language and communication difficulties and special educational needs.   The resources will be useful tools for professionals such as teachers, early years’ practitioners, Portage workers, Speech & Language Therapists, SENCOs and music therapists working in both mainstream and SEN settings. 

How the songs work to assist communication
Babies have a natural tendency to use gesture (e.g. clapping and waving ‘bye-bye’) and introducing signs builds on these normal patterns of communication development.  Children learn that communication is a two-way process and they can both respond and initiate communication long before their speech has developed. 

As a parent, you may perhaps be out of practice with singing nursery rhymes and have only a rusty recollection of Baa Baa Black Sheep from your own childhood.  But singing nursery rhymes with your baby is fundamental in helping their early language development.   Songs are a perfect vehicle through which to introduce signs as they allow children to rehearse the use of age-appropriate language over and over again.  Nursery rhymes form one of our earliest musical experiences and, through repetition of simple rhymes, children begin to learn how language is constructed.  From a parent/carer’s  perspective, singing songs is also a natural, child-centred activity which can help develop children’s conceptual thinking and memory skills as well as encourage the adult to be a more involved and responsive communication partner. 

It is amazing how much vocabulary is actually included in the songs – anything from colours, numbers, body parts and feelings to jungle animals, farm animals and transport - you learn them without even realising it.   The great advantage of learning the signs alongside music is that the rhythm makes the signing almost dance-like.  Very few of us can recite the whole of Goldilocks and the Three Bears word for word but, somehow, alongside a melody we are more likely to be able to do it.

The beauty of signed singing is that it is an active, not passive, experience.  Children are not simply listening to our voices, they are watching the signing, looking at the props and symbols and, wherever possible, trying to copy the actions too.  By using signs, symbols and props, we appeal to children’s different learning styles: visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), kinesthetic (moving) or tactile (touching).   We offer a multi-modal (i.e. multi-sensory) approach which means that when we introduce a song such as Incy Wincy Spider we say the word SPIDER, sign SPIDER, we show a symbol of a spider (with the written word underneath) and a pass round a rubber spider for the children to touch.   

In our experience, singing also restored some ‘normality’ to the entirely different world that we suddenly found ourselves in – it didn’t feel like therapy, it felt like something ANY mummy (or daddy) would be doing.  Singing a few songs each day and doing the signs for monkeys and tigers was not a chore, it was fun.

Perhaps here we should also add a word of encouragement too.  You do not have to be the world’s best singer to enjoy doing this with your child.  All too often we hear people say “But I can’t sing……..”.  Let us reassure you that your child will think you sing like a bird even if you think you sound like fingernails scraping down a blackboard.  What they are enjoying is your undivided attention, eye contact and enthusiasm, not whether you are good enough to win Pop Idol.  Thankfully our children are not as harsh in their judgments as Simon Cowell!

About us
We met through the Toy Library at the Project for Children with Special Needs in Richmond (now the Three Wings Trust) back in 2000.  We learnt to use Makaton with our first born children (Tracy’s son has Down Syndrome and Suzanne’s daughter has CHARGE Association).  Signing for us was a necessity, not something we were doing for fun, but it soon became one of the most enjoyable things we did.  Within a short time, we were running the singing sessions at the Toy Library using our fledgling signing skills.

We had our second children around 18 months’ later and began signing with them as well – primarily to communicate with our older children.  It wasn’t long before we noticed that the youngest babies enjoyed signing too.  Therapists visiting our eldest children frequently commented on our second children’s verbal skills.  We were sure this was linked to their early exposure to signing in conjunction with speech.   

By this time, we were enjoying signing with our own children so much that we decided to branch out and teach other families the benefits of signing with their baby.  Our duo became officially named Singing Hands and our mission to raise awareness about different ways to communicate began.  Along the way, we both qualified as Makaton Regional Tutors and Suzanne also passed BSL Level 2. 

What initially started out as one 45-minute class in Twickenham has grown to numerous baby signing classes and a toddler group.  We also run sessions in a whole range of settings:  nurseries; mainstream schools; mainstream schools with units; special schools; weekly sessions Great Ormond Street Hospital School; local hospices; the Childminding Association; the Playgroup Network; Learning Skills Council (LSC); and the Down’s Syndrome Association. We are now trustees of Me Too & Co, a support group for children with additional needs and their families – run by the same team of people who ran the Toy Library where the two of us first met. 

Singing Hands on the telly!
In 2004, a chance meeting with a BBC executive lead to us being filmed for a slot for BBC Cbeebies Tikkabilla programme.  We were then delighted to be invited to contribute to five episodes of the award-winning signing programme Something Special on BBC Cbeebies with the fabulous Justin Fletcher.  These five nursery rhyme episodes are now available on DVD too.

Undoubtedly, Something Special has been central in bringing signing to a wider audience and is exactly the sort of programme we wish had been around when our children were very little.  In no small way, it has changed how signing is perceived.  When we started out, we used to have to explain what signing was, how beneficial can be, and how it would not hinder speech and so on.  Now, when we go into nurseries and schools, children are telling us what signs they already know – all based on what they have learned from the TV.  How fab.  The more the merrier we say.

Singing Hands Songbooks and CDs
If you’d like to find out more about our songbooks, or to contact us, please visit us at www.singinghands.co.uk  or email us at info@singinghands.co.uk.  For more information about Makaton, visit www.makaton.org.  See www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies and click on the link to Something Special for lots of printouts and video clips. 

Singing Hands Book of Songs and Song Time CD Volume 1 = £22.50 plus P+P
Singing Hands Book of Songs and Song Time CD Volume 2 = £22.50 plus P+P

Comments

[Lynne Watson]

Seeing Suzanne and Tracy makes me reflect on the 'circle of life'. So often such great things start from the seeds of sorrow for example medical progress from the destruction of human bodies during acts of war. The most amazing thing is that these giant leaps are all part of lifelong learning - won't it be great if, in many decades time, those youngsters learning signing from singing Hands will be able to use (or reuse) their skills as their hearing fades with increasing age. Won't it be good if we can go into supermarkets and shops to order our groceries using signing rather than relying on hearing aids and raised voices. Our young people need so much more than just what the National curriculum can provide - there is little point in knowing the capital of France or how to do algebra if we can't communicate with our peers.
Rock on Singing Hands!