Case study: Micky

Bev McCue is a portage worker for the local authority of Sutton in south London, as well as a Signalong tutor. She describes working with Micky, who has epilepsy, overall delay and a speech and language problem. 'I went to see Micky when he was two and a quarter. Initially his mum didn't want sign language because, like a lot of people, she assumed that if he signed he wouldn't talk. I started a very simple picture-based system with him. Then I thought, "This child really does need to sign to communicate", because he was obviously frustrated. He'd throw his...