Singing and Signing
Accessible Arts and Media (AAM) have worked inclusively for over 35 years, working with a wide variety of disabled young people and adults. One way in which AAM has refined our inclusive practise over the years is our singing and signing programme. And that programme’s led to a project called Inclusive Music Projects (IMPs) which makes it possible for disabled young people to be in a choir and create music in an accessible way.
Why sign?
Anyone can have a barrier to communication. Someone may have a sensory impairment, a learning disability, developmental delay, a physical disability, just to name a few, and these will impact on how they can communicate. Therefore, it’s essential to find different ways of communicating.
Initially when we think of communication, we automatically think of speech and hearing. If someone has a hearing impairment, a spoken conversation wouldn’t necessarily work for them, so they need to find other methods. This is where signing might work and they might then use British Sign Language (BSL). However, if that person has a learning disability, developmental delay or a physical disability, BSL may not be the best option as it's a language in its own right, with its own grammatical structure and dialects, which makes it very hard to learn.
In this case, we need to use as many different forms of communication as possible, which is referred to as Total Communication. This could be symbols, speech, signs, physical objects, body language, facial expression, smells, colours, the physical environment… the list can go on. Within this, Sign Supported English (SSE) can be used. This is taken from BSL signs, but SSE is used in English spoken word order, only uses key signs and, most importantly, it’s used to support speech, so it can encourage vocalisations and verbal language. We use SSE in our singing and signing choirs and with the use of Signalong as our signs provider, we can access training and keep up to date with signs and best practise.
Why singing and signing?
AAM is one of the first organisations in the UK to introduce singing and signing, setting up our Hands & Voices Choir in 1997 ensuring adults with learning and communication difficulties can take part in music and express themselves creatively in ways that suit their particular needs.
As we’ve developed our practise throughout the years, we’ve found that using signs alongside the lyrics not only makes it inclusive for everyone to take part but also make it easier for learning disabled young people to remember the words. Consequently, the young people then have the confidence to sing out in performances and use their entire body to perform, rather than hide behind some paper with the lyrics on.
Using signing as a communication tool also allows the young people to be more creative in their music making and IMPs have written several songs. With their signing and the use of Total Communication, they’ve been able to communicate what they want to write a song about by signing, drawing, speech, the use of graphic scores and all this has then led to the young people writing the lyrics, the melody and then creating a backing track or sound scape to go with the song.
How can we make it more inclusive?
As we work with a wide range of young people who have different abilities and disabilities, we have had to find more ways, other than signing, to make it more accessible.
We’ve developed a teaching model that uses repetition to make the learning of songs as accessible as possible. We always start by learning the lyrics and the signs first, a line at a time, and always going back to the beginning once we’ve learnt a section of the song. We then apply the same repetitive practise when learning the melody and then we put the signs, words and melody together. Whenever we rehearse the song we always recap on the lyrics and signs first and then recap on the melody and then put it all together. In developing this method of teaching, we’ve found the young people can remember the words and signs more easily. It also gives them more opportunity to pronounce the words correctly and to learn more signs and perform them as accurately as they can.
We also bring in sensory activities to support our IMPs members in learning the songs. This gives a break from the physical elements of singing and signing, or concentrating on music making, and allows the young people to focus on something else for a while. The activity could be a physical one, using balls and a light, fun song, or passing around a sensory snake and seeing how the snake can move or using a parachute to experiment with different speeds along with some music.
Training model - supporting learning disabled young people to be music leaders
All the young people who take part in IMPs get the chance to learn how to become a music leader. We teach the IMPs members the relevant skills to teach a warm-up, a music making activity and/or a song. They get the chance to practice these skills in our weekly IMPs sessions and they make guest appearances at our after school clubs and at Hands & Voices (our inclusive singing and signing choir for adults). IMPs trainees also head out into the community with AAM staff to go into schools, community settings and conferences to either do a mini interactive performance, or a workshop where we teach participants some songs, do some music making activities with them, or some sensory activities. Through this model, one of our IMPs members has felt confident enough to come into AAM on her school work experience, working in the office and helping lead activities on some of our music projects.
Where can you learn more?
We've developed a resource bank on our website, where you can download (free of charge!) a range of copyright-free singing and signing song packs. In each pack you’ll get a transcription, sign sheet, singing and signing guide, a vocal guide track and a backing track. https://aamedia.org.uk/resources/level-1/
The resource bank is for anyone to use, this is a handy resource for SEND schools who already use signing within their teaching and communication. It can be used in mainstream schools also to encourage young people to learn about inclusivity as well as fun to incorporate with community choirs and groups . There are a wide range of songs split into 3 levels depending on your ability level – something for everyone. The songs include world music, traditional songs and some of the songs are those that have been written by learning disabled adults and young people who take part in our projects. The songs are also flexible and can be tailored for any group- allow your creativeness to shine through by introducing sensory activities, changing the words to make it more individualised for the group.
At Accessible Arts and Media we can provide workshops with our learning disabled trainees to help you get started with the resources and explore the different ways you can use the resources in your settings. We also love feedback, please get in touch to suggest ways in which we can develop these packs and make them more accessible.