Every Student, Every Opportunity, Every Day
  • Introduction
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    • Getting Started: Parent/Carer Consultation >
      • Student Information
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    • Behaviour Intervention Cycle >
      • Flow Chart of Student Behaviour
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      • Interagency Profile
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  • Visual and Technology Support
    • Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems >
      • Classroom Communication Checklist
      • Tangara School Values
      • Expressing Feelings
      • Picture Prompts for Daily Tasks
      • Basic Communication
      • Choices
      • Timetables and Schedules
      • Adpating Learning Activities
      • Voice Output Communication Aides (VOCA's)
      • Sign Language
    • Technology Program Ideas >
      • Interactive Whiteboards
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  • Literacy Teaching Strategies
    • Emergent Literacy >
      • Shared Reading
      • Shared Reading in Sunshine Class
      • Guided Reading in Violet Class
      • Self-Selected Reading
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      • Working with Words
    • Sensory Stories >
      • Sensory Story-Toys
      • Sensory Story-Spiders
      • Sensory Story-Butterflies
      • Sensory Story-Wilfred Gordan McDonald Partridge

Sign Language

Sign language can be a powerful and enjoyable communication tool when teachers and students have a simple, shared vocabulary.  A few basic signs can create many opportunities for communication for a student with special needs.  For example, if a student can sign 'more', then they can communicate this across a range of activities such as meal times and play times.  Baisc signs which can be good starting points for building a sign language vocabulary include: more, finished, yes, no, drink, toilet, happy, sad, stop, wait, go.  
  
Many students with special needs use gesture and body language to communicate their wants and needs.  Pointing and eye gaze are extremely effective ways of making a request or choice.  For students who won't or can't use sign language, building their capacity to use gesture can make a big impact on their life.  For example, once a student can use eye gaze to make a definite choice then they can learn to make choices across a wide range of activities. 

Sign language is most powerful when it is combined with verbal communication and/or visual communication.  


The button below links to a Signed English website.
   
Sign
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