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Dame Hannah's students take centre stage for learn the sign week
Three students from the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust demonstrated that communication is about more than just words earlier this week (Monday 06 October), when they took part in a special 'taster session' as part of national Learn to Sign Week. The workshop saw the young people from Dame Hannah's, all of whom have profound physical disabilities and communication needs, come together with seven year eight students from Ivybridge Community College to learn a unique form of sign language. With the help of Dame Hannah's registered signing tutor Sharon Hore, the community college pupils learnt how to communicate using 'signalong', a form of sign language which has been specially created for people with learning difficulties. Signalong is based on British Sign Language (BSL) but is less complicated to learn. Tamzin Gribble head of speech and language at Dame Hannah's said, "The workshop was an ideal opportunity for the community college students to see how important signing and body language is in aiding all forms of communication. Many of the students at Dame Hannah's find it impossible to communicate through words or even through BSL because of the complexity of their physical disabilities. It was great for our students to meet a fellow peer group who were so keen to learn about something that they do on a daily basis." The workshop was organised to mark the start of Learn to Sign Week (06 October - 10 October 2008) which is a national campaign by the British Deaf Association to encourage the public to join in, have fun and learn how to sign. Helen Serjeant who was the teacher accompanying the group of year eight girls to Dame Hannah's said, "The opportunity really has enriched the girls' schooling experience. Having volunteered for the trip they were all very keen to meet the students and they put a lot of effort into learning as much signalong as they could. They now know their name signs, some simple greetings and some time signs." Tamzin added, "We are keen to continue building a good relationship with our local community college. Both sets of students will take away a lot from the experience and essentially, it means that seven more people now know the basics of signalong and have developed their communication skills." The Dame Hannah Rogers Trust provides education and care for young people with profound physical disabilities and associated communication needs. Anyone interested in finding out more information about the charity or how they can support Dame Hannah's work, should call 01752 898117 or visit www.damehannah.com.
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