Learn to Sign week helps put finger on deaf awareness

 

 

 

 

The recent Learn to Sign week campaign by the British Deaf Association (BDA) once again helped highlight the importance of Deaf Awareness and BSL throughout the UK.

As part of my contribution to the campaign, I decided to take my ‘conver-sign-tion’ talents to pupils of some primary schools in my area.

First on the list were the teachers and pupils at Sacred Heart in Bridgeton, where we all joined together and started off by giving our fingers a ‘wiggling warm-up’.

Then it was off to fingerspell all 26 letters of the alphabet. This great area of the language can help children’s fine motor skills and another handy tip being that your vowels are all on your left hand.

Next port of call was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me, as I went along to see the children at Blackfriars Primary, where I was a pupil – way back in 1971.

Fingers at the ready once again, and this time we took a BSL trip around the globe while practising signs for different countries.
Finally, it was just a short trip along the road to St Francis Primary School, and a BSL workout with three different classes who were all eager to soak up the various signs for emotions like, happy, sad, jumping for joy and more. Full marks to all the pupils who got involved, and also many thanks to the teachers who allowed me to come along.

It is just a pity that there is not a regular place for BSL in school curriculums, as presently children are taught Spanish, Italian and French.

For anyone who is interested in learning BSL, visit the website at www.glasgowbsl.co.uk and if any other schools would like a fingerspelling
workout, contact me at colin@glasgowbsl.co.uk
Meanwhile, the Sign-now.com team have a new dedicated website called www.sign-videotalk.com, where you can see all the information from inviting friends to checking the support page.

In order to invite friends, you need to click the relevant box on www.sign-videotalk.com or go to the top right of the videotalk page and enter your username and password again for security reasons. It is like a telephone book but with a personal security key. So why not invite friends and start chatting!!
If you know a friend that is already a member of Videotalk, just type their username on the top bar and if your friend is not a member, just send them an invitation using their email address on the bottom bar.
Just remember, if you bought a new mobile, you would need to get your
friend’s mobile number to start chatting it’s the same with Videotalk.
But if you encounter any problems please do not hesitate to contact the team
via admin@sign-now.com
But most importantly, enjoy Videotalk.
Sign-now.com was co-founded in 2006 by deaf entrepreneurs Andrew Thomson and
Dean Humphreys, who had the desire to remove the barriers that the deaf
community experience when accessing information and services.

In 2008, Sign-now.com welcomed the addition of Caroline Thomson to make the
most of the combined talents.

Caroline, who also manages Online Advocacy Services, is an independent advocacy for the deaf in Scotland and also current technological prowess in web based technology. It was also in that year Andrew Thomson won the 2008 Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year.