In 2015, our second daughter was born, and a few weeks after we learned that she was profoundly deaf. As a family, we knew we wanted to learn British Sign Language so we could communicate with her and support her language development.

When she was very young, we were incredibly fortunate to be supported by a wonderful sign language teacher who helped us begin our BSL journey. Today, our daughter uses both sign language and spoken language to communicate with her friends and family, and she attends a mainstream primary school.

As she grew older, many of her hearing friends wanted to learn some sign language so they could communicate with her more easily. This is where we encountered a problem. While official British Sign Language courses are excellent, they are largely designed for adults and focus on topics that aren’t always relevant to young children — such as travel, directions, or work-related vocabulary.

There were very few child-friendly resources that focused on the everyday signs children actually use at school, at home, and with their friends. So, Let’s Learn BSL was created.

Let’s Learn BSL offers introductory British Sign Language courses designed with children in mind — although adults are very welcome too. The courses focus on simple, practical signs used in daily life, including topics such as family, colours, numbers, animals, emotions, classroom objects, and more.

Our hope is that these courses help children build confidence using basic signs, develop greater awareness of deaf and hard-of-hearing people, and support more inclusive environments.

Whether your child is deaf, has a deaf family member or friend, or is simply curious about learning some sign language, we hope Let’s Learn BSL provides a positive and gentle starting point on their BSL journey.