On-body signing

Also called Body signing, Canaan Barrie signs, Body signs, Touch cues

Signs made on the person's own body rather than in the air, for people who cannot see hands or attend to them, so the word is felt, not watched.

What it is

On-body signing is signing done on the person rather than in front of them. Instead of making the sign for drink in the air where it must be seen, the partner makes it on the person's hand, arm, chest or face, so that it is felt. A tap of the fingers to the lips for eat. A stroke down the arm for finished. A gentle press on the shoulder for sit.

The signs are usually a simplified set, a few dozen, chosen for the person, and many are drawn from established body-sign vocabularies developed in schools for children with visual impairment and additional needs, of which the Canaan Barrie signs from Edinburgh are the best known in the UK. It is not hands-on signing, which is full BSL received by touch by someone who already knows the language; on-body signing is for people who do not have a language yet, or whose attention cannot be held by hands in space.

Alongside it sit touch cues: a consistent touch before an action, such as a hand on the shoulder before a hoist, which tells the person what is about to happen. Touch cues are the first step, and on-body signs grow out of them.

Who it can help

Children and adults with a visual impairment together with a learning disability or profound and multiple learning disabilities, and deafblind children, for whom the world arrives without warning unless someone builds a way to signal it. Also some people with severe autism or cerebral palsy who see and hear but cannot hold their gaze on a signer, and for whom a sign on the skin lands where a sign in the air did not.

It helps the person's carers as much as the person: a shared set of a dozen body signs means that a bath, a meal and a lift are announced the same way by everyone, and the person stops being startled.

It is not for a person who sees well enough to follow hands, who should have Makaton or Signalong instead, nor for a deafblind person with language, who should have the alphabet methods or hands-on BSL.

How it works

The partner approaches the person, makes contact in a consistent way, says the word aloud, and makes the sign on the person's body at the same time. The sign is always made in the same place with the same movement. It is done before the activity, not during, so that it works as a warning, and it is repeated many times a day.

Over weeks the person begins to anticipate. Then, in some people, the sign comes back: the person makes it on their own body, or takes the partner's hand and makes it, and that is expressive communication. Not everyone gets there, and a person who only ever receives body signs has still gained a predictable world.

The set is documented with a photograph or a drawing of each sign, its meaning, and exactly where and how it is made, in the person's communication dictionary, and every new carer learns it from that.

Getting started

Choose three touch cues this week for the three things that happen to the person most often without warning: being moved, being fed, being washed. Agree exactly what each cue is with everyone involved, write it down, and use it every time before the action, with the spoken word.

After a fortnight, add the first on-body signs for things the person likes: music, drink, a favourite person. Watch for anticipation and for any attempt to make the sign back, and celebrate it.

Ask the person's speech and language therapist or their visual impairment teacher for the Canaan Barrie or a similar vocabulary to draw from, and ask Sense about training for the whole staff team.

Where to get help

Sense for deafblind and multi-sensory impaired children and adults; it trains families and services in on-body signing and touch cues. PMLD Link for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities. Your speech and language therapist and the council's sensory team. Where the person also benefits from responsive, playful interaction, Intensive Interaction sits naturally beside this.