This is our most recent programme, and has been due in large part to the help and advice of Speech Therapist, Sue Woodward, of the Trinh Foundation. Speech Therapy is not taught as a profession in Vietnam, although the Trinh Foundation are now working to rectify this. In 2008, Sue and a small group of therapists assessed the Orphanage children with communication problems, and put together specific action plans for each child. Roe Schroeder then spent time training our Vietnamese staff how to carry these plans forward with the children and integrate them into an everyday part of their curriculum.

All of the children in the special education programme, plus the teachers and physiotherapists, are learning and using Makaton Key Word Signing. We also request that our volunteers familiarise themselves with Makaton.

Makaton is a language programme that uses key word signs and natural gestures to support communication and is a means of encouraging language development in individuals with communication difficulties. Its initial stages introduce the vocabulary required to support simple interaction and to express basic ideas. More complex concepts are introduced in subsequent stages, but the aim is to ensure that even if limited learning ability and poor retention prevent an individual progressing beyond the initial stages, he or she will still benefit from a means of forming simple interaction.

Video of 11 year old Phuoc, who has Cerebral Palsy, learning Makaton in one of our classrooms