A few months ago, you may remember, I wrote about how you can support children learning British Sign Language (BSL). Have a read of the blog post here. As part of this article I featured some fantastic BSL resources by Deaf Books. I’m excited to share with you another book from their collection, the BSL Baby Sign Link Book.

This fantastic book cleverly uses QR codes so that you can not only see their beautifully illustrated pictures of the various useful first signs, but you can scan the QR code for the sign and watch a short You Tube clip of it! Genius! It’s absolutely brilliant and provides parents with the reassurance that they are signing correctly.

The BSL Baby Sign Link Book would be perfect for families of newly diagnosed deaf children as well as families of children with communication needs. As I learnt from this book, approx 90% of deaf children are ‘born to hearing parents who may have no prior knowledge of understanding of deafness or sign language’ so understandably a resource like this book could be incredibly useful for so many families learning BSL alongside their child. It would also compliment any baby sign classes that a child might be attending with parents.

What did we like about it?

• QR Codes– When I heard that this book was being created, I was genuinely very excited. It’s such a clever and useful idea to incorporate QR codes into a sign book linked to videos to enable the readers to physically see how to carry out the sign. I’m sure I’m not alone when looking at pictures of signs with descriptions, in questioning if I’m doing it correctly and the video clips gave me the reassurance I needed. What’s great about having the QR codes is you don’t have to search for video clips of signs.

• Easy to Use– I must admit, I was slightly concerned that scanning the QR codes on each sign might be a bit off a ‘faff’, but I need not of worried as it really isn’t difficult at all. In fact, it couldn’t be simpler and it’s incredibly quick. All you need is an internet connection and a smart device. You just download the free app from SignConnectUk.com hold your phone over the QR code for a split second and the video for that sign pops up!

• Great Selection of Signs– It’s clear that the people at Deaf Books have really thought about which signs should be included in this book. There’s a brilliant collection of very useful signs of common words that babies and young children might need to communicate effectively. Brilliant for families of deaf children or those with communication needs. But also useful for all children.

• Organised– This book is ideal as a reference book to dip into when you’re looking for a particular sign. To make it even easier they have organised the book brilliantly into colour-coded topic groups. Each topic starts with a summary of the signs and you can also locate each sign using the index at the back.

• Extras – The BSL Baby Sign Link Book also includes a page on BSL hand shapes and british two-handed, finger spelling alphabet.

Where can you buy it?

The book can be found on Amazon here.

Visit Deaf Books Website here.

*Please note that we were provided with a sample for the purpose of this review and this post is sponsored. All opinions are our own.