The University of Ulster has teamed up with Safeway’s Safe Hands Project, to help children with learning difficulties become independent shoppers.

The Safe Hands Project, which is a partnership between Safeway, Tor Bank Special School and the South-Eastern Belfast Trust, commissioned a team from the School of Communication and University Video Services to produce a series of educational videos to help children with special needs shop in a supermarket environment.

Commenting on the scheme, Andrew Purcell, from the School of Communication, said: “Children with learning difficulties can find the task of negotiating their way around a supermarket daunting, so Tor Bank School and Safeways, Dundonald, have introduced visual pictographs using Makaton sign language in their stores to make shopping less confusing.

“The pilot project has been very successful and we hope it will become a national initiative."

The videos are part of an innovative classroom project developed by teachers and speech language therapists at Tor Bank. The actors were students from Tor Bank School, Michael McEvoy and Joel Stafford.

“The project’s success reflects on the skill and experience of the television crew at the University, who have many years of experience of the use of film for research, training and teaching," Mr Purcell added.

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