Nikki and Lucinda’s video aids those with communication and learning difficulties to learn Makaton symbols and signs to express feeling and emotions

How do you express how you are? The use of Makaton signs and symbols has amplified Lucinda’s voice and has provided a way for Lucinda, her Mum, Nikki, and her wider friends, family and community to communicate their everyday needs. Nikki has said that it has also helped her communication too: “it reminds me to slow down what I am saying, cut out some chit chat, give her time to process, focus on key words and give clearer messages to her.”

Over 100,000 children and adults use Makaton symbols and signs as either their main method of communication or to support speech. Health professionals and teachers have also adopted it, so that anyone who struggles with literacy skills or understanding concepts can let their needs be known, reducing frustration and promoting inclusion and independence.

Lucinda and Nikki first featured in an online video 50 Mums: 50 Kids: 1 Extra Chromosome, a popular carpool karaoke lip sync in support of World Down Syndrome Day 2018: a campaign motivated by fifty parents’ love of their children and the want for positive change to perceptions of Down’s Syndrome.

In the same year, Nikki created their own YouTube channel Makaton with Lucinda to share this vital communication tool. This was followed by a second channel as a qualified instructor called Nikki Makaton Tutor, informed by the work of the Makaton Charity. Uploading weekly, sometimes daily, the original channel has grown to over 18,000 subscribers and continues to powerfully change perceptions and aid communication and connection with the wider online community.

Nikki Holt - a Makaton tutor - and her daughter Lucinda demonstrate Makaton signs for describing feelings and emotions.

Makaton is the UK's leading programme for adults and children with learning or communication difficulties. It is a communication programme that combines speech, signs and symbols to support people to communicate. Using signs can help people who have no speech or whose speech is unclear. Using symbols can help people who have limited speech and those who cannot sign or prefer not to sign.