Student comunication
One of our main focuses for all students at Five Islands School is to develop effective communication skills.
Communication allows people to satisfy needs, exercise control within their environment, establish and maintain contact with other people, ask questions and comment on experiences.
We use a combination of approaches which include:
- signing
- pictorial communication boards, such as Boardmaker Symbols
- gestures
- real objects
- electronic speech devices
- photographs
- speech.
For a list of visuals that may be useful for students, please check out the links below:
Five Islands School signing book
Five Islands School has made a signing book that all our staff and students are familiar with.
The signing book was developed to assist parents, carers and the community in understanding signs that our students may use in communicating. All signs are based on key word signing which is widely used in NSW and Australia.
Some key points to remember:
- Say and sign the word or sentence at the same time.
- Sign only the key words in a sentence.
- Wait until you have the child's attention before signing.
- Use in context with body language and facial expressions.
You can download a copy of the Signing Book (PUB 997KB).
Auslan
Auslan Signbank is a language resources site for Auslan (Australian Sign Language). Auslan is the language of the deaf community in Australia.