Lezli

I believe it's whichever you feel more comfortable with, rather than whichever you write with. I think part of my problems in the past have been that I change hands - I learned fingerspelling right-handed as a kid, but my BSL instructor was left-handed so I got myself in a muddle copying him (You'd think mirror image, right? No). I just used whichever hand felt correct at the time. I got my left hand smacked more times than I could count.

I'm now trying hard to stick with left-handed. Right clearly didn't work for me. But now I'm having to undo three decades of right-handed fingerspelling.

Since your post was four months ago I assume you figured it out for yourself, but I thought I'd reply in case anyone else was wondering.

That's a brilliant reason. If only there were more like you in the NHS (volunteer or otherwise)

Hello everyone. I learned to fingerspell when I was a kid, because there was an article about it on Blue Peter. When I realised I wanted to be a teacher I took a Level 1 class in the hope that I would be able to master the language and teach D/deaf and hearing kids.

I didn't pass, although my instructor could never work out why. And I'm no longer a teacher for a variety of health reasons - primarily that my voice keeps disappearing on me. It's getting harder and harder to communicate, and now I want to learn for myself as much as to be able to communicate with any D/deaf person I meet.