Have you heard the news? Para Dance UK is now Makaton Inclusive!
We are really pleased to have put our learning into practice and our Inclusive Dance sessions can now be Makaton Inclusive too, developed for all ages and covering all genres, we are really pleased to begin introducing this next step to you. We have been really busy developing our dance choreography to make the most of this brilliant opportunity and open up to all Makaton users.
At Para Dance UK we are always looking for ways to become more inclusive and with 100,000 children and adults use Makaton symbols and signs, either as their main method of communication or as a way to support speech it was a natural progression for the team to begin applying these methods to the Inclusive Dance Sessions.
Emma Millward, Head of Dance said “Makaton and other communication methods are widely used across the disability community and so it is important that we use every available tool to communicate with all of our participants and enhance the experience of dance with Para Dance UK…”
About Makaton
Makaton is based on British Sign Language but is instead used alongside speech at all times to support each individual’s needs. It has been designed to support the development of speech and language but also provide accessible forms of communication for those with difficulty expressing themselves verbally. The adaptive technique uses signs and symbols that are easy to learn and understand,
Combining Makaton and Dance
Dance is a universal language and an amazing form of self-expression, combined with Makaton, we hope to open up the wonderful benefits of dancing to even more people. Now the Para Dance Instructors are Makaton trained, we will be using Makaton Inclusive videos to support our projects and enhance the impact that Dance has on our members and participants.
For more information on Makaton Inclusive Dance please email info@paradance.org.uk.