Childline: Makaton International Awareness Day highlights communication is key for safeguarding issues
Childline is here for every young person and we want our service to be as accessible as possible.
This month (August 28), marks Makaton International Awareness Day. If you’re a parent who’s seen Mr Tumble, you’ll recognise Makaton. It’s a sort of simplified sign language used alongside speech to help communication for individuals with learning or communication difficulties.
Communication is key whenever discussing safeguarding issues with children. The more a young person understands about what is appropriate or inappropriate and how to tell someone whenever something is wrong, the safer they will be.
The NSPCC’s Talk PANTS campaign uses age-appropriate language to help parents, teachers and carers help keep children safer from sexual abuse and has helped more than six million people talk to children and ensure they understand that their body belongs to them, and they should tell a safe adult they trust if anything makes them feel upset or worried.
Through the NSPCC website, the resources to help share this vital safeguarding information are available in Makaton and British Sign Language, with sign-a-long PDFs and subtitled videos to download or share, as well as translations into other languages and custom-made guides for foster parents and parents of children with autism.
Our Childline website is also available in accessible ways, with a section of the site dedicated to support d/Deaf children.
The Deaf Zone is there to help any young person who is hard of hearing and includes videos – subtitled or using English or British Sign Language – offering advice on bullying, discrimination, overcoming challenges around d/Deafness and more.
There’s also a video facility for children to contact our Childline counsellors using British Sign Language if that’s preferable to email or 1-2-1 chat, ensuring the service is accessible to all. Children need support for all sorts of reasons, and the NSPCC and Childline want to be there for every one of them.
Whether they need to speak to someone about something they’re going through at school, something they’re going through at home, or just something they’re worried about, Childline counsellors will be there for them around the clock. To find out more about Childline’s support for the d/Deaf community, go to the Childline website and search ‘deaf zone’.