Sunderland care home celebrates Makaton International Awareness Day with residents

Archers Court Nursing Care Home in Sunderland joined in celebrating Makaton International Awareness Day. This year's theme was 'Friendship', and highlighted the power of communication in building connections and breaking down barriers, particularly for people living with communication challenges.

- By Dominika Biela Contributor

Makaton is a unique language programme that combines signs, symbols, and speech to help people communicate more independently. It can be life-changing for people with speech or language difficulties, as well as for people living with dementia. At Archers Court, Makaton has become an important part of daily life, thanks to Jacqueline 'Jackie' Smith, Deputy Manager, who first encountered Makaton while supporting her nonverbal grandson.

She said: “My grandson, Jay, now uses simple signs like 'yes', 'no' and 'more'. It has allowed our family to connect with him in ways we never could before.”

Inspired by her positive personal experience, Jackie brought Makaton to Archers Court, where it is now being used to support communication with residents living with dementia.

Archers Court Nursing Care Home is entirely dedicated to providing person-centred, specialist dementia care to the people of Sunderland.