Makaton

Makaton is a communication tool with speech, signs, and symbols to enable people with disabilities or learning disabilities to communicate. Makaton supports the development of essential communication skills such as attention, listening, comprehension, memory and expressive speech and language.^[1][2] The Makaton language programme has been used with individuals who have cognitive impairments, autism, Down syndrome, specific language impairment, multisensory impairment and acquired neurological disorders that have negatively affected the ability to communicate, including stroke and dementia patients.^[1][3]

The name "Makaton" is derived from the names of three members of the original teaching team at Botleys Park Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey: Margaret Walker (the designer of the programme and speech therapist at Botleys Park), Katherine Johnston and Tony Cornforth (psychiatric hospital visitors from the Royal Association for Deaf People).^[4]

Makaton is a registered trademark of the Makaton Charity, which was established in 2007^[5] to replace the original charitable trust, the Makaton Vocabulary Development Project, established in 1983. The original trademark application for Makaton was filed in Britain on 28 August 1979, with registration approved as from that date under trademark registration no. 1119745.^[6]

In 2004 the Oxford University Press included Makaton as a common usage word in the Oxford English Dictionary. The entry states: "Makaton, n. Brit. A proprietary name for: a language programme integrating speech, manual signs, and graphic symbols, developed to help people for whom communication is very difficult, esp. those with learning disabilities."^{[7][citation needed]}