Makaton Tutor Jess McQueen was involved in creating the Makaton Insights campaign and shares the journey to launching the campaign, the benefits and plans for the coming year. You can find the daily Makaton Insights on social media and within the Makaton Library (additional exclusive Insights are available for members)
Firstly, I am proud to have been a part of creating the Makaton Insights for 2022 in collaboration with Zanna Finnerty, Alex Jordan and Nic Pike. The idea of the insights campaign was developed through thinking of ways to engage Makaton Users in activities that would not only strength their skills but broaden their knowledge and vocabulary.
From playing around with different interactive activities and games, the names were chosen to fit with the names of the week – you can never go wrong with a bit of alliteration! The themes for 2022 are ‘Topic Tuesday’, ‘Which Wednesday’, ‘Thesaurus Thursday’, ‘Fun Friday’, ‘Makaton Moments’ and ‘Scavenger Sunday’.
The Insights are a fun, engaging and interactive way to develop Makaton skills as well as broadening the knowledge, awareness and understanding of the Language Programme. They are designed to involve everyone – family, friends, schools, nurseries, colleges, workplaces, community groups etc. regardless of if they are a Makaton User or not.
With the success of the 2022 insights and the positive feedback we have had, new insights are currently being designed for 2023. They will be presented in a range of activities that will continue to widen skills and knowledge, as well as develop symbol recognition and alphabet skills. Without the involvement of the community, the insights would not be successful. So I, alongside The Makaton Charity, thank you all so much for your enthusiasm to take part in the insights.
Jess McQueen (Makaton Tutor)
Click here for more information on Makaton Insights