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I was looking after my little sister today ( i say little she's 14. but she's disabled and has a much lower mental age so it can sometimes feel like a looking after a young child).

I had promised her that we would bake, something i tend not to do. I only avoid it because i end up doing all the baking and don't let my sister do any however this time i was good and let her do all the mixing, pouring, icing and decorating while i just measured out the ingredients, put the cakes in and out the oven and did the washing up.

However, it was when we were letting the cakes cool down, that i was truly inspired. We had the TV on and were watching the programme something special on cbeebies, I'd heard of it and seen little bits here and there but never actually sat down and watched a whole episode.


Well what can a say, Justin Fletcher is a real gem, he's amazing, there should be more people like him. I'm trying to learn British sign language at the moment myself, I'm working my way through a set a DVDs, its a long process but I'm determined to master it. I'm taking it slow as I don't want to neglect my studies but so far i am really enjoying it. I do it in front of mirror which seems to be helping, i think!
I did however find something special very useful which is why i think i will watching more episodes. But more importantly i was shocked at just how good my sister was at sign language, i knew that she had done a bit of sign language at school and has been watching Justin Fletcher programmes for a long time but still considering her difficulties i was very impressed.

She's always been a fan of those types of programmes. I remember she loved Dave Benson Phillips, he did nursery rhymes  in makaton, we actually still has the video until very recently, she loved, she must have watched it a million times.



I do however wish there were more programmes like that as many children do have difficulties communicating and programmes like something special really do help to open up different methods of communicating to them, plus it's one of the few programmes my sister really enjoys and understands.