WHEN children at a York toddler group sang the children’s favourite Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, they innocently made signs with their hands to indicate a twinkling star.

But parents were startled when staff asked the toddlers to use a different gesture – because the one they were using had an unintended double meaning in sign language for deaf people.

The decision to use a different sign, taken by staff at the Sure Start mother and toddler group, which meets at the Gateway Church in Acomb, shocked one parent.

She claimed: “It seems a little politically correct. These are innocent little children just making a sign to show a star. No one would give it a second thought. Now every parent in York may worry their child might be making an offensive gesture when they’re singing this song.”

But a spokeswoman for City of York Council, which is responsible for Sure Start, denied it was a case of political correctness, saying it was more a “sensible decision taken to prevent deaf children or deaf parents being offended by the use of the gesture.”

She said staff at the mother and toddler group had been on a sign language course at which they were advised that the gesture was very similar to the sign used for female genitalia.

She said the staff realised it was a sensitive matter and, using their own discretion, had decided to use the accurate hand sign for a star.

She a language programme called Makaton which used using signs and symbols to help people communicate, designed to support spoken language with the signs and symbols used with speech in spoken word order.

She said: “Parents have not been banned from using the other sign and City of York Council does not have a policy over this matter.”