Ciara is a first year Speech and Language Therapy student at the University of Manchester. She recently had a joint online placement with Total Communication Services CIC and Elysium Health care. As part of her placement she attended Total Communication Services Communication Advocates group and she had her first taster of signing as the group regularly practice Signalong. Ciara then decided to research the different signing systems available and she wrote up her thoughts as

While this past year has been undoubtedly challenging, we’ve embraced new ways of working remotely, including weekly sessions via Zoom with Bury People First and our group of Communication Advocates. During these sessions, we’ve looked at different ways in which we can effectively communicate, and the most consistent theme throughout was that the advocates really want their voices to be heard – how can this be done? Well, various topics have been discussed throughout the year