It is a special song for young people who struggle to speak. Many pupils at Mitchell House Special School in east Belfast are non-verbal but that does not mean they cannot communicate. And to get that message across they have written and recorded a song called My Voice.
It aims to educate people about alternative communication like Makaton, eye gaze and electronic devices and those who use them. The lyrics and music to My Voice were written by the "Moon" Class in Mitchell House School, made up of pupils from 11 to 13 years-old. "Sometimes my voice is confident, sometimes my voice is calm, sometimes I use my talker, to tell you who I am," one of the verses goes.
Gemma,12, was one of those behind the song and she said that she wanted people to be more aware that not everyone communicates the same way. "The meaning of the song is that we wanted to tell you that no matter how you use your voice, it's still important and that's really the school motto that we wanted to embody," she said. "And it's really important to me personally being friends with a lot of people who are non-verbal that people understand that they're not actually non-verbal.
"It's people who don't understand them that think they're non-verbal." Katie-Louise, 11, used an electronic communication device to take part. "We're celebrating how we all communicate differently," she told BBC News NI. "This month we wrote a song with our teacher Miss Ryan to show how we all communicate differently and that our voices matter." The school's deputy head pupil Matthew uses eye gaze to communicate with his friend, the head pupil Caelainn.
Eye gaze lets people operate a computer or tablet to communicate using their eye movement, or communicate with the use of cards as visual cues. "Matthew usually uses cards for yes or no questions," Caelainn said. But Matthew also operates an electronic communication device with his eyes.
"So if Matthew looks whatever way it picks up on his eye," Caelainn explained. "It's been a privilege to be here for 16 years, it's been amazing and all the kids are amazing, they're so friendly, they're so respectful to people and they're good with other people's needs." Due to its work, Mitchell House has been accredited as a Communication Friendly Setting by Elklan, a UK-wide organisation supporting children's speech, language and communication. It is one of only two schools in Northern Ireland to achieve the accreditation for its work using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).
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