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Sign Language to become a new GCSE?

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  • Yep, agree it's a good idea and a nice one.

  • I must admit compulsory is a bit OTT, but it is something I’m fairly passionate about, all my life I thought against a speech impediment, I was lucky I overcome it, but I have always remember the horror when I first went to school and found out people could not understand what I was saying, my family could but no one else could. From then on in I have always supported an organisation / charity that look for a cure / way forward in research for both the deaf and blind with special reference for the young. They have undertaken tremendous work and progressed, but unfortunately they are relatively small.
  • My little boy went to sing and sign classes which promotes sign language as a form of early communication. I think it’s a great idea.
  • Great idea. I think all kids should have an introduction to signing and having it as a recognised GCSE is even better.
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  • That's great stuff I reckon...
  • Should be treated the same as learning any other language so if schools can offer it alongside French, Spanish, German etc then I'm all for it.

    As an aside, picking at least one language for a GCSE should be compulsory IMO.

    It is compulsory isnt it? I certainly didn't want to study italian.
  • Teach your own kids sign language, they pick it up quick and can use it before verbal communication develops.
  • Should be treated the same as learning any other language so if schools can offer it alongside French, Spanish, German etc then I'm all for it.

    As an aside, picking at least one language for a GCSE should be compulsory IMO.

    I think it already is. I didn’t get a choice to drop German that’s for sure
  • shine166 said:

    Teach your own kids sign language, they pick it up quick and can use it before verbal communication develops.

    I just read about a couple who taught their kid sign language from 4 months old, ill try to find the link when I get home.
  • Should be treated the same as learning any other language so if schools can offer it alongside French, Spanish, German etc then I'm all for it.

    As an aside, picking at least one language for a GCSE should be compulsory IMO.

    I think it already is. I didn’t get a choice to drop German that’s for sure
    I thought it was on a school by school basis but I might be wrong...
  • shine166 said:

    Teach your own kids sign language, they pick it up quick and can use it before verbal communication develops.

    I just read about a couple who taught their kid sign language from 4 months old, ill try to find the link when I get home.
    Yeah, you can get them on it real early... for earlier than them being able to actually talk. Admitedly I didnt realise it was that early though !
  • shine166 said:

    shine166 said:

    Teach your own kids sign language, they pick it up quick and can use it before verbal communication develops.

    I just read about a couple who taught their kid sign language from 4 months old, ill try to find the link when I get home.
    Yeah, you can get them on it real early... for earlier than them being able to actually talk. Admitedly I didnt realise it was that early though !
    My son could sign before he could talk thanks to watching something special.
    Got any links? My first arrives in December, wanna be prepared!
  • Is sign language universal?
    What is the difference between BSL and that stuff that Mr tumble does. (If you don't know the man, you don't have kids.)

    Ive been googling, some of it is the same... but I think itd definitely make it easier for them to learn 'proper' signing as they get older.
  • shine166 said:

    shine166 said:

    Teach your own kids sign language, they pick it up quick and can use it before verbal communication develops.

    I just read about a couple who taught their kid sign language from 4 months old, ill try to find the link when I get home.
    Yeah, you can get them on it real early... for earlier than them being able to actually talk. Admitedly I didnt realise it was that early though !
    My son could sign before he could talk thanks to watching something special.
    Got any links? My first arrives in December, wanna be prepared!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flXsU4V0zz8
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  • 'we' are 10 wks pregnant, slightly overwhealming atm but absolutely buzzing about it. Cant wait to be able to teach it stuff like this.
  • edited August 2018
    shine166 said:

    'we' are 10 wks pregnant, slightly overwhealming atm but absolutely buzzing about it. Cant wait to be able to teach it stuff like this.

    Ive spent The last 6years teaching kindergarten English, my wife is a Chinese teacher and I'm still worried about this stuff.

    Mostly worried about when my childs Chinese is better then mine!
  • edited August 2018
    Learned BSL to Level 1 standard at evening classes years ago.
    Never had any hearing impaired relatives but was curious how difficult it might be to learn and LB Bexley did a weekly class on a midweek evening that rarely clashed with football. Cost was insignificant.
    As soon as you appreciate that it primarily isn't a manual way to translate English, it is dead easy to pick up.
    It is possible to 'finger spell' and that can facilitate communication with someone who is profoundly deaf, but that isn't BSL, nor is BSL the same as spoken English.
    At the time I had a number of colleagues with kids at primary school and most of them, then, had some amount of signing at school, with classroom assistants. All long since cut away.
    The biggest thing we learned that year was that more people in UK have BSL as their first "language" than Cornish, Welsh and both Gaelics added together, yet BSL was not acknowledged as a national "language", where all the regional tongues had been for years. "Language" in inverted commas because by definition signing isn't spoken in the strict sense.
    Tony Blair had promised to allow an act of parliament to be passed, enshrining BSL in the constitution. The duplicitous cnut then shelved it, effectively for good, on the bare faced lie that there wasn't sufficient time for it to make its way through the Houses. No votes in it presumably, nor any money in it for him.
    When word of the government's shitty behaviour spread, BSL was quietly put back on the schedule and duly enacted in 2003.
    American sign language is more widely used internationally, there are also forms that are primarily one handed, where BSL is 2 handed. BSL is what has been taught in the UK to the hearing impaired and to a limited degree in some primary schools.
    How useful is it to a hearing person with no hearing impaired relatives, colleagues or friends? I've used it maybe three times in 20 years. Learning additional languages at a very young age, especially from the cradle, is shown to significantly enhance cognitive capacity. Learning a communication form that requires physical coordination too must be even more beneficial.
  • big up the "silent child" team who's oscar winning short bought this to mainstream attention.
  • given the plethora of different voice languages heard on the streets of England nowadays, sign language might well have to become the new 'national language' ((:>)
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