I have wanted to learn BSL for many years now, but up until recently I have only ever picked up a few words and never really made the time to sit and actively learn it. I am a hearing individual but I also have ADHD and one of my "quirks" if you like, is that although my hearing is near perfect, I simply don't process the words. As such I have always been treated as though I'm either ignorant or hard of hearing, neither of which is true. I actually learned to semi lip read to try and combat this...whatever it is. Well I'm in my 30s and I now have a daughter who I am pretty convinced has ADHD too. She has all the problems I do and that includes being perfectly able to hear but not actually hearing the words. Her own language skills are incredible and when she hears the words her understanding is spot on. But you can tell that she's hearing your voice and not processing the word. It's quite difficult to actually explain so maybe you know what I mean and maybe you don't. 

I always wanted to teach her BSL as I believe it's a skill everyone should be taught, but she didn't seem really interested in baby sign classes so we stopped and never got around to it again. This Christmas though I've noticed more and more that I'm signing to her in busy rooms. Not BSL, but our own version. Today in a shopping centre with a brass band playing she broke down in tears because she couldn't "hear" me. She could hear me, she just couldn't distinguish my words. So I calmed her down and signed while speaking what I was trying to communicate with her and the look of relief just from being able to understand what was being said... it broke my heart that she was struggling so much. But as we both have near perfect hearing, it was never even considered for me and it's only because of personal experience that I know she could benefit. So that's my goal. I want to learn to sign so she and I can communicate properly with each other and others around us. As well as to include others with hearing difficulties who need to sign.

Hi Katie i used to be a Children’s OT assistant and we came across both deaf children and also deaf parents so it was helpful to know at least some finger spelling to communicate with them. I now work as a children’s physio assistant and again work with deaf children and parents so I would say it might depend on the demographic you work with but also always something useful to have if you work in health and therapies services 🙂

Hello @libby jo - Happy to help.  What are you trying to work out?

I'm not quite sure how to use the website could do with some help !😁😁

try print a word 

Hi there, I've been learning BSL for about two years now and I'm currently half way through my level two course. I am studying occupational therapy at university and I was wondering if anyone on here has experience with occupational therapy as a Deaf service user or know of anyone who has used BSL as a method of communication while using occupational therapy?       

Not quite sure what you mean! I pressed the create button to make my original post asking for the BSL signs mentioned in my post. I don't see what you mean by suggesting I press the create button again!  

Hi there, I'm new to BSL and I am interested in how to teach English as a second language (ESL) to those who are hard of hearing and to those who are visually impaired. If there are any books that would give a seasoned ESL teacher pointers on how to do this, please can you recommend them. I look forward to receiving your recommendations and feedback.