Lámh in School of the Holy Spirit
Lámh supports communication between parent and child, between siblings and friends and between the school community. It is a manual sign system used by children and adults to address communication needs in Ireland. With Lámh ,speech is always used with signs and key words in a sentence are signed. Lámh currently has 588 signs.
Benefits of Lámh:
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Lámh signs can reduce frustration, as the Lámh user is able to use signs to ask for what they want, to answer and to take part in a conversation.
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The Lámh user may be more easily understood when they use signs and this encourages many to use signs and say more.
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Signing naturally encourages people to slow down a little so there is more time to work out the message.
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Signing encourages eye contact and attention to movement; skills that bare important foe supporting speech development.
Lámh in our school setting:
Lámh was introduced in 2021/2022 in the reception class in our school to address communication needs. Training was given to 4 teachers 8 SNAs in junior classes in April 2022 – ‘Module 1 Lámh Course’ and staff participate in ongoing and refresher training as the need and opportunity arises.
Lámh is currently used in the junior classes (1-3), with students and staff building their repertoire of signs and use of signing as they progress through these classes.
A ‘Sign of the week’ is taught and practiced and is posted in the school to encourage the wider school community to use signing and to raise awareness.
Students learn with Lámh- a –song. Students sign and sing along with Lámheen on Vimeo.
Students watch Dizzy Deliveries TV show, the first TV show with Lámh signs.
Students use signing at school events e.g. the school Christmas Mass.
Music Generation who attend the school use Lámh in some songs.
Resources are purchased from lámh online and Vimeo.
The licences for lámh online need to be renewed annually for a small fee.