British Sign Language (BSL) and Makaton are very colourful languages. Makaton is used as an early learning tool with many of the signs taken from BSL. Its structure is simple with around 200 signs to learn.
Andy has recently become involved with Sign Language and uses it more and more in his shows and performances. Nursery Rhymes, Songs and Short Stories are simplified so the audience to join in and copy his actions. Children and adults find the concept of learning and being able to sign so enjoyable and it teaches them the basics of Deaf Awareness.
- Nursery Rhymes and Songs
- Short Stories
- Colours and Shapes
- Animals from the jungle and farm
- Emphasis on 'Hello', 'Look' and 'Me'
- Simple questions with 'What', 'Who' and 'Where'
- Days of the week
Signing should not just be thought of as a language that is used only by the deaf community. BSL is used by over 80,000 deaf and over 120,000 hearing people in the UK. We have a very special community who also sign but are not necessarily deaf, but find it hard to communicate.
There are very few people who offer such fun learning as Andy The Clown. You only have to look on eBay to see how few signing DVD's are available. Mr. Tumble (Justin Fletcher) and Dave Benson Phillips have a couple of DVD's available and there are 3 or 4 touring drama companies who sign there productions.
Andy will have DVD's and educational reference material available from his online shop in the near future - check back for more infomation in the summer.