Unlike when most of us were growing up, there are now many options for learning a new language. American Sign Language (ASL) is a popular world language for many students today and, like Spanish and French, can also be taught in a homeschool setting, too.
Below, we’ll cover who can learn ASL, how ASL fits into a homeschooling environment, and the techniques used in high-quality instruction. We’ll discuss how to implement it at home step-by-step, and what resources are available to help you out along the way.
Who Learns American Sign Language (ASL)?
There are approximately 250,000 to 500,000 Americans who are part of the Deaf community and use ASL as their primary language. But this is only a fraction of those who use ASL. In recent decades, the number of people interested in learning the language has grown dramatically. About 90% of Deaf children have hearing parents, so another large group of ASL learners are parents and other family members.
It might surprise you to learn that ASL is the third most studied language in US colleges after Spanish and French. Most states now recognize it as a world language, which allows high school students to fulfill graduation and college entrance requirements. Also, many students are drawn to the spatial nature of ASL, which provides something different from traditional textbook and audio-based language lessons.
Learning ASL can be a useful professional credential as well. Currently, there’s a national shortage of certified ASL interpreters. Knowing ASL also helps people who work in service industries, like teachers, doctors, nurses, and police officers. As well, it can be a great inclusivity tool to make sure all people feel welcomed, safe and able to be communicated with in social settings.
Common Techniques Used for Teaching ASL at Home
At first glance, teaching ASL might seem like a daunting task, but once you make the mental shift from paper and pen to the 3D space around you, you’ll realize that the techniques involved are pretty logical and straightforward. It can be really enjoyable to learn ASL!
Routine-based integration
Instead of treating ASL as a subject students work on for an hour or more a day, homeschool students can layer it over their usual daily routines.
For example, try a one-sign segment during the day, such as lunch. During this period, you choose one sign (for example, eat, more, or help) and intentionally use it whenever it naturally applies, while spoken language is still allowed.
Another technique is the voice-off dinner. Once the family has basic vocabulary down, everyone agrees to communicate using sign language only during the meal, with no spoken words.
For younger children, the "Sing and Sign" approach is a helpful approach. And simply adding signs to common rhymes or songs provides students with a hook that helps them remember (Chen-Pichler 220-222).
Video feedback loop
Have the students record themselves signing a short sentence and play it back next to a video of a native signer, making sure the video is clearly labeled as ASL rather than another sign language. Also, have your child practice in front of a mirror to master non-manual markers like facial expressions (Miklós et al 345-350).
Games
Most children enjoy learning ASL because there are so many ways to incorporate games.
Try ASL Pictionary, where one person signs a word, and another has to draw or guess it. Another popular game is Sing in a Minute, where the student signs as many words as possible in 60 seconds. Also, fingerspelling games engage students in reading the hand at different speeds.
Receptive eye training
Flashcards are great tools for learning vocabulary. Put an image of a sign on one side and a description of the sign on the back. Then spread the cards out and sign one word. The student then selects the correct card.
Also, students can watch ASL storytelling videos. It’s okay if they don’t know all the signs, as this helps them learn to use context clues from gestures and facial expressions (Berke 305-307).
Topics Typically Covered in an ASL Homeschool Curriculum
An ASL homeschool curriculum usually includes three main subject areas.
Vocabulary
Like learning any new language, knowing the sign for the words we communicate with is essential. Students need to master fingerspelling for names and words that do not have a specific sign.
They also need to learn what’s called number incorporation, since conveying “in three weeks” differs from “three years old.” And just as it is when learning French or Spanish, it’s important to spend time on high-frequency topics (Valli et al 72-75).
ASL grammar and syntax
ASL grammar is not based on English, so students need to learn how to build sentences visually.
This involves mastering non-manual markers, like the use of facial expressions as punctuation. Signers also need to understand directional verbs since the meaning of a word like “help” changes based on whether the help is directed at you or at me. Learning to sign classifiers, which are hand shapes used to convey size, shape, or movement, is also important (Smith et al 82-85).
Deaf culture and history
Studying Spanish and French involves learning about the food, music, art, and customs of the people who speak those languages. Learning ASL is no different. It includes learning about Deaf culture. ASL learners explore Deaf history and identity, cultural etiquette, and famous Deaf figures (Padden and Humphries 1-15).
How to Plan an ASL Homeschool Curriculum
A successful ASL homeschool curriculum prepares students for interpersonal and interpretive communication. To make sure your child can both convey a message and understand one received, just follow these straightforward steps.
Step 1: Determine your academic goals
Backwards design is the gold standard in curriculum design for all subject areas, and ASL is no exception. Before you select resources, decide what the endgame is for the student. Is it to experience a language different from their own for fun? To become more comfortable in their bodies? Or to earn academic credit or prepare for a career?
Homeschool requirements vary by state, and in many cases, parents have flexibility in deciding what counts for credit. That said, when ASL is used to fulfill a high school world language credit, especially in states that follow national standards, you want to focus on the five C’s identified in the American Council on Teaching Foreign Language (ACTFL) standards: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities (National Standards Collaborative Board 25-30).
Step 2: Create a scope and sequence by level
Plan learning activities according to what milestones your child has met on the road to fluency. Language learning moves from individual words (elementary) to sentences (ASL 1) to storytelling (ASL 2) and finally to complex conversation (ASL 3+).
Use these learning targets to guide instruction at different levels.
- Elementary: Focus on basic needs and play. Aim for your child to build a vocabulary of 200-300 signs and fingerspelling.
- ASL 1: Focus on practical conversation. In English, sentences usually have a subject followed by the verb followed by its object. But ASL uses topicalization for syntax instead. This means that a sentence starts with the topic first, followed by a descriptor. For instance, in English we’d say, “I ate the apple,” but in ASL the literal message would be “apple, I eat” (Valli et al 101-105).
- ASL 2: Focus on description and narrative. Help students learn how to use classifiers and spatial mapping to tell complex stories.
- ASL 3+: Work with advanced topics, like idiomatic expressions, and explore interpreting as a career path (National Association of the Deaf 3-7).
Step 3: Outline your units of study
A typical year of ASL instruction includes six to eight thematic units. Here’s a common sequence of topics:
- Unit 1: The basics (e.g., manual alphabet, numbers from 1 to 20, and personal space)
- Unit 2: The world (e.g., family members, pets, the home environment)
- Unit 3: Daily life (e.g., food, routines at home, time)
- Unit 4: The community (e.g., places, occupations, services, directions)
- Unit 5: A deep dive into grammar (e.g., negatives, directional verbs, classifiers)
- Unit 6: History and culture (e.g., famous figures, Gallaudet University) (Smith et al 2-265)
Step 4: Plan for assessment
You can’t know if your child is progressing appropriately without assessment. But traditional pencil-and-paper tests won’t make the grade with ASL.
One type of test that will tell you what you need to know is the receptive test. This is where you sign or show a video of a signer, and the student either writes or selects its correct meaning. Another type of assessment used in ASL is the expressive test. Here, you provide a prompt (e.g., “Describe your bedroom using spatial mapping”), and the student records themselves signing the response. Then you evaluate it based on established criteria, like hand shape, facial grammar, and fluidity (Kemp 48).
What a Typical ASL Homeschool Day Looks Like
ASL students can’t learn effectively by sitting at a desk. They need focused visual study and active movement.
Here’s a common structure for a high-quality ASL homeschool day:
- Visual warm-up (10-15 minutes): Get your child moving with fingerspelling drills, eye-tracking activities, and hand exercises.
- Core lesson (30-45 minutes): Introduce a new concept, like the “topic-comment” sentence structure or directional verbs. Then watch a video of a native signer that includes 5-10 new signs. Then shift gears by reading about an important event in Deaf culture or watching a Deaf etiquette video.
- Receptive practice (20 minutes): First, have the child watch video stories of others signing without using their own hands yet. Then assess progress by signing a sentence (or using a video) and ask the students to translate it into English.
- Expressive practice (30 minutes): Children need to produce the language for the learning to stick. Include some mirror practice involving facial expressions and record themselves describing a topic. Then review the footage alongside a native speaker and ask the child to critique themselves.
- Daily integration (ongoing): As much as possible, involve the whole family in “voice off” periods. Start with lunch or time doing chores, then move up to one whole day each week (Vicars).
Popular ASL Homeschool Curricula
The growing popularity of ASL has led to a boom in resources for homeschool parents. The different products available meet different needs and intended goals.
Outschool’s online curricula and classes
A common choice for homeschool parents is Outschool’s online ASL classes for several reasons. Parents like the material on “non-manual markers,” the balance between receptive and expressive activities, and the integration of Deaf culture. Outschool classes also give the learner an opportunity to practice their language skills live with other learners. Outschool even has a number of ASL educators who are members of the Deaf community.
Outschool also has a variety of ways to engage the learner. Students can take live classes that meet over several weeks, engage in pre-recorded self-paced courses, attend virtual club meetings, and participate in one-on-one tutoring sessions. The materials span all ages and levels of fluency, and the teachers are vetted professionals.
Deaf-led immersion curriculum
These materials, made by people who use ASL as their primary language and see it as different from spoken English, use a no-voice approach and a topic-comment sentence structure. They usually include videos for instruction, receptive practice, and cultural history (Snoddon 25-26).
Family-centric/routine-based materials
These resources focus on functional communication in the home and emphasize high-frequency vocabulary used in daily life. Common materials include flashcards, printable routine charts, and short videos (Luckner and Cooke 518-520).
Kinesthetic and play-based materials
Designed especially for younger children, these resources focus on muscle memory, fingerspelling games, and sign and sing activities. They often include songbooks with diagrams, coloring pages of hand shapes, and interactive games (Hamilton 24-25).
Frequently Asked Questions: ASL Homeschool Curricula
Lots of parents are interested in teaching ASL at home, so it’s natural for common questions to surface. Here are some of the most common.
At what age can children start learning ASL?
Children can start at any age, even before they can speak. Most experts advise that earlier is better because children develop motor control in their hands before they master the more difficult muscle movements needed to speak (Petitto and Marentette 1493-1496).
Do parents need to know ASL to teach it at home?
No. Many successful ASL homeschool environments use a co-learning model, where parents and children learn together (Humphries et al 595-598). Hearing parents of Deaf children often start by learning 5-10 key terms, like eat, more, milk, help, and build from there.
Also, when a child sees a parent look up a sign in a video dictionary, they model good language-curious behavior. Research shows that parents don’t need to be fluent to have a positive impact on their child’s development (Chen-Pichler 147-149).
How much time is needed for ASL to count as a homeschool credit?
Requirements for homeschool credits widely vary by state, and many states don’t mandate specific high school credit requirements for homeschool language study. In these cases, parents decide what qualifies as a credit on a student’s transcript.
That said, families who want their ASL coursework to align with traditional high school expectations often use the same benchmarks applied to spoken world languages. Under these guidelines, one high school credit typically represents 120-150 hours of instruction, practice, and assessment, and two credits typically reflect two years of study.
Parents should always review their state's homeschool laws and guidelines when determining whether and how ASL can be used for credit.
The same requirements for earning high school credit for spoken world languages often also apply to learning ASL at home. In most states, students must earn two credits, equivalent to two years of study, to meet their world language requirements for graduation. One credit can be anywhere between 120-150 hours of instruction, practice, and assessment (National Association of the Deaf 12-15).
Signs of the Times
There’s a good reason that ASL has become such a popular subject for students of all ages. Besides being a vital means of communication for people who are Deaf and their families, it can also be a way to learn kinesthetically, earn world language credits, and prepare for bilingual careers. Plus, learning ASL is engaging and fun! By following the practices we’ve covered here, you can build a strong, effective ASL program in your homeschool setting.
Sources
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