Makaton is a system of simple signs and drawn symbols used always alongside speech, giving a child a way to say what they need before their speech apparatus is ready. It does not replace talking — it is scaffolding for it.
In brief — the key points
- Communication is not the same as speech. A non-speaking child has a full inner world — what is missing is only the channel to show it.
- In Makaton a sign never travels alone. A spoken word always accompanies it, in spoken word order. That is the fundamental difference from sign language.
- The fear that signing will “stall” speech is not borne out by research. The Millar, Light and Schlosser review (2006) found gains in speech for the large majority of participants and not a single case of decline.
- Frustration drops immediately — usually well before the first words appear. For many families that is the change that matters most.
- You can start with ten signs. On one condition: everyone in the house uses them, every day, at the same moments.
The wish to be heard
Let us start with something easy to overlook: communication comes before speech and reaches wider than speech.
A child who does not yet use words does not have an empty head. They have emotions, preferences, ideas, questions, longings. They know they want another piece of apple, not a pear. They know their ear hurts, not their stomach. They know they want this book read, not that one.
They simply have no way to say it.
And here begins something the parents of such children know all too well. When a child cannot convey what they feel and need, frustration builds — entirely understandably. That frustration has to go somewhere, so it goes to the only available form: screaming, throwing, hitting, crying with no visible cause, withdrawal.
The world then calls this “difficult behaviour”. It is a message. A very precise message, sent through the only channel the child has left.
Understanding a child at this stage is one of the most valuable gifts we can give them. Makaton is one way to deliver it.
What Makaton actually is
Makaton was developed in the United Kingdom over fifty years ago and has since spread to dozens of countries in versions adapted to local languages. The programme is stewarded by The Makaton Charity.
The system rests on three pillars, used simultaneously:
Speech. This is both the starting point and the destination. The adult always speaks normally, in full sentences, with natural intonation.
Signs. Simple, largely intuitive hand movements accompanying the key words in a sentence. You do not sign every word — only the important ones. When I say “do you want more juice?”, the sign lands on “more”.
Symbols. Clear, economical drawings representing concepts. They help children who do not reach for signs — because of motor difficulties, or simply because they prefer to point. Symbols go on the daily timetable, on a choice board, on toy boxes, into books.
The vocabulary is layered: first a core vocabulary — a few hundred concepts essential to daily life, introduced in stages from the simplest — and beyond it an open, topic-based resource vocabulary covering wider areas of life.
This is not sign language
The difference genuinely matters, and it is worth understanding so as not to say untrue things about Makaton.
British Sign Language is a full, natural language — with its own grammar, syntax and history, used by the Deaf community. It stands alone; it does not need speech to function.
Makaton is a supporting system. Signs follow spoken word order and always travel with speaking. They are a clue, an additional channel — not a separate language.
Saying “my child is learning to sign” about Makaton is therefore a shorthand that can mislead.
The fear parents raise most — and what the research says
The question that comes up almost every time is: “If I give them signs, why would they bother learning to talk?”
That is a good question and it deserves an honest answer rather than a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
The evidence most often cited here is the research review by Diane Millar, Janice Light and Ralf Schlosser, published in 2006 in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. The authors analysed studies from 1975 to 2003 that measured speech before, during and after the introduction of augmentative and alternative communication. Twenty-three studies covering 67 people met the criteria — most of them using manual signs.
The result: the large majority of participants showed gains in speech. Not one showed a decline. The authors note honestly that the samples were small and that broader research is needed — but the direction is consistent and unambiguous.
Why does it work this way? The simplest explanation I know is that a sign does not compete with speech, because in Makaton it never occurs without it. The child hears the word every single time. They receive it through two channels at once — auditory and visual-motor — which makes it easier to build the link between a concept and its sound.
There is also a less obvious factor. A child who can make themselves understood stops fighting. Tension falls, frustration falls, and the number of successful interactions with an adult rises. And speech develops precisely inside successful interactions — not in the silence after a failed attempt.
Who Makaton is for
The children who use it most often are those:
- with delayed speech development — understanding far more than they can say;
- on the autism spectrum, particularly those who process visual information more easily than auditory;
- with Down syndrome — where low muscle tone around the speech apparatus often pushes talking later, while comprehension is considerably ahead;
- with intellectual disability and with neurological conditions affecting speech.
But there is one more group, mentioned far less often: typically developing two-year-olds in the phase where comprehension outruns speech. This is a very common, entirely ordinary stage in which a child understands almost everything and says a dozen or so words — and it is a source of enormous frustration in itself. A handful of signs can noticeably soften that period.
How to start at home
To run Makaton fully you need training with a licensed tutor — the vocabulary is standardised precisely so that a child can use the same signs at home, at nursery and with their therapist. That makes sense and is worth doing.
But to start, you need nobody’s permission.
Pick eight to ten concepts that recur several times a day. My standard starter list: more, finished, eat, drink, sleep, hurt, help, mummy, daddy. Do not begin with colours and animals — begin with things that actually get your child something.
Always speak and sign at the same time. A sign without a word is, in Makaton, a methodological error.
Repeat in the same situations. The sign for “eat” at every meal, “sleep” at every bedtime, “finished” after every activity. Predictability builds meaning faster than sheer repetition.
Get the whole family on board. If mum signs and dad does not, the child learns this is a language that works with one person only. Grandparents, older siblings, the childminder — everyone, or nearly everyone.
Do not demand a response. For the first few weeks your child may only watch. That is normal — they are building comprehension. The response comes when they are ready, and it will be imprecise. Honour every attempt: a sign made “wrong” is still a message.
Do not stop when words appear. The sign withdraws on its own, naturally, once the child no longer needs it. There is no need to hurry that.
What actually changes
Parents who have walked this road usually describe two moments.
The first is when a child deliberately uses a sign for the first time and gets what they asked for. Something shifts in them — they see that it is possible. That their intention can change the world.
The second arrives a few weeks later and is quieter: the house gets calmer. Less screaming, fewer inexplicable outbursts, less blind guessing. Not because the child suddenly became compliant. Because they stopped fighting to be understood.
It is worth asking about Makaton at the setting your child attends or is about to. More and more nurseries and preschools have someone on the team who has trained — and weaving signs into the rhythm of the group’s day, at mealtimes, at story time and during floor play, makes it simply the natural language of the group rather than an add-on session.
Because the point is not the signs. The point is the sentence every child should be able to hear from the adult world, including before they learn to talk: I understand you.
Sources
- The Makaton Charity — What is Makaton? makaton.org
- Millar, D. C., Light, J. C., & Schlosser, R. W. (2006). “The Impact of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention on the Speech Production of Individuals With Developmental Disabilities: A Research Review”. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49(2), 248–264. doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2006/021)
- Schlosser, R. W., & Wendt, O. (2008). “Effects of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention on Speech Production in Children With Autism: A Systematic Review”. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 17(3), 212–230. doi.org/10.1044/1058-0360(2008/021)
About the author
Katarzyna Lis — founder of MOC Montessori Nursery and Preschool in the Białołęka district of Warsaw, where she works day-to-day as a teacher in the preschool group. She holds a degree in elementary education of Montessori Pedagogy, a qualification as a daytime caregiver, and a certificate in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd — a combination that reflects her holistic approach to the development of the child: their body, emotions, relationships, independence and inner world.
In her everyday work with children she does not “run activities” — she accompanies. She creates a space in which the child’s development happens naturally, at their own rhythm, and where the adult is there to look carefully and respond. The same philosophy — observation and response to the child’s signals — underpins her approach to communicating with a child who does not yet speak.
Privately, a mother of four, combining the experience of motherhood with a passion for her work. This text was written for Dzieckologia as a practitioner’s voice — from the perspective of a Montessori institution that has, for years, looked at the child as a competent person from the very first months of life.
Author
Katarzyna Lis
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