Mother’s moving testimony as a successful BSL student
27th November 2024
My son was born profoundly deaf. His first two years were in complete silence and he did not learn any speech. At the age of two he had a cochlear implant but it has taken a long time for him to get used to it.
Towards the age of three he was getting very frustrated. He had lots of tantrums and it was very hard for him to communicate with me and me to communicate with him. I looked online and found a few very simple signs like ‘play’ or ‘food’ and started using them with him and I could see it really helped.
Since then I wanted to learn more BSL but there were no opportunities that I could find. When I found out about this free 60-hour BSL course at Manchester Deaf Centre, funded by Manchester Adult Education, I wanted to sign up straight away.
When I first joined the course I wanted to learn more signs relating to everyday life, so I could teach them to my son to help reduce his frustration, improve our communication and make life easier. Things like talking about daily routines, clothes, travel (eg, travelling to school), what we’ll do on the weekend, food, etc.
I really enjoyed the course and I learned so much and loved practising afterwards too. Sometimes I would find myself in the supermarket looking for items that we’d learned signs for in class, like cat food and dog food, and practising the signs in the aisles! Every day after class I would go home and straight away teach my son the signs I learned. It was a good way for me to practise what I’ve learned in class and he loves learning the signs too.
It’s definitely made communication easier for me and my son. So, whereas before, if he was feeling poorly, he had no way to tell me what was wrong. But after the class when we learnt about health-related signs, he can tell me now if he has a headache or a cold for example.
Although he now has a cochlear implant, English is still very hard for him as he needs extra processing time and it takes a lot of focus and concentration. He also needs more practice with speech – he is having speech and language therapy. So it is brilliant to be able to use BSL more at home. For example I have now taught him lots of signs for different foods like chicken, egg, fish etc, and I can tell him what we are having or he can tell me what he wants using BSL. That wouldn’t be easy using words in English as it would be too overwhelming for him.
There has been another good outcome from me learning BSL. I work in a chemist and we have 2 elderly deaf patients who come in for their medication. One patient is partially deaf, uses some sign language and some lip reading. The other patient is completely deaf and uses sign language. In the past I have written things down on paper to try to communicate with them.
The fully deaf patient came in when I was near the end of my course and I managed to have a conversation in BSL. She was SO happy and it was a really lovely experience. Afterwards my colleague said ‘did you see the look of happiness on her face when you signed with her’. I went home that night and I was so proud of myself as I had managed to have a conversation in BSL, including about her medication. It's so wonderful to now be able to communicate with her more effectively than any of our staff could before.
I took my Level 1 BSL exams at the end of the course and I was really pleased that I gained the qualification. I would really like to go on to take Level 2, as I would like to be able to have a higher level of conversation in BSL so I can carry on teaching my son and helping people who use BSL.
Murium, BSL student
For more on our free BSL courses (conditions apply) visit https://www.manchesterdeafcentre.com/services/bsl-courses/learn-bsl-for-free/
For more about our paid BSL courses at all levels visit https://www.manchesterdeafcentre.com/services/bsl-courses/
For more about how we can help organisations and groups with BSL training visit https://www.manchesterdeafcentre.com/services/bsl-deaf-awareness-training/
