What do Lady Gaga, David Beckham and Miley Cyrus all have in common? Read on and find out…

British Sign Language

English is the official language of the United Kingdom, but it isn’t the only one. Nine years ago the Government made British Sign Language, or BSL, an officially recognised language. BSL is a language that uses people’s hands and facial expressions to communicate, instead of speaking. More than 70,000 people in the UK use it to communicate, and most are deaf.

But it’s not just deaf people who use it, it’s becoming more and more popular with celebrities too! David Beckham, Miley Cyrus and even Lady Gaga are learning sign language. They want to be able to communicate with their fans who are deaf, and David Beckham is learning it because one of his son’s friends is deaf.

Being deaf

Someone who is ‘deaf’ might not be able to hear anything or they might be able to hear less than other people. If you think about how it might feel to be unable to hear very well, you can see why using your hands to communicate can really help.

Not everyone who is deaf uses sign language, some deaf people read lips and speak, some use a combination of signing and speaking. There’s no right or wrong way, everyone just wants to make themselves understood.

Fingerspelling

An important part of BSL is fingerspelling. Fingerspelling means using your fingers and hands to shape the letters of the BSL alphabet. So instead of writing them down or saying them out loud when you spell a word, in BSL you can spell it with your hands. Although BSL usually uses gestures to communicate whole words, learning the alphabet is a brilliant place to start because you can use it to spell out words and anyone who uses BSL will be able to understand you.

At school 

There are 45,000 deaf children all over the UK, and nine out of every ten deaf children go to mainstream schools like other children. Some go to schools specially created for deaf children. For lots of deaf children, having someone who knows how to fingerspell would be really helpful for them, as often there are no other deaf children at their school.

Start learning

Deaf children don’t all have the same levels of hearing and some can hear much better than others, but missing parts of conversations is something deaf children often say is very frustrating for them. Having the really important words signed can be really helpful, and once you know how to fingerspell, it’s easy to do. So why not start learning? The first word most people want to learn is their own name. What does yours look like in BSL? You can find out by taking part in the NDCS Fingerspellathon this term.