Deaf awareness games and activities for children and young people
Try these games and activities with children and young people in your class, group or at home to encourage deaf awareness.
Tips for including deaf children and young people in games and activities
- Turn any music down or off before the game begins.
- Make sure games don’t rely too heavily on sound or listening.
- If you’re playing a guessing game, take turns taking a guess. Make sure deaf players are aware of any guesses that are made.
Fruit salad British Sign Language (BSL) game
Sit the children on chairs or cushions in a wide circle and assign each child the name of one of three fruits. For example, orange, banana and apple. Choose one child to be the signer and ask them to stand somewhere visible. Remove their chair or cushion from the circle.
The standing child signs one of the three fruits using the signs included in the video below, and each child with that fruit name must stand and move away from their seats. All the children, including the child who was signing, must then find an empty chair or cushion in the circle to sit on.
The last child standing must now take the place of the signer. Once the children have got the hang of the game and have gained confidence with the signs, get the signer to sign a ‘mix up’ of fruit from the video and all the children have to change places and find a new seat.
Fingernary
Suitable for children of reading age and above.
Watch our fingerspelling videos or download our fingerspelling postcards if you need a reminder of the fingerspelling alphabet.
- Write words and phrases on slips of paper. Fold up the slips and put them in a bowl.
- Split the group into teams and choose a games master to give out the words and take score.
- A player from each team goes up to the games master and is given a word.
- When the games master says go, a player from each team will fingerspell the word on their piece of paper.
- The team that guesses fastest gets a point.
- Continue the game with players taking turns to fingerspell different words.
Gestures and facial expressions activity
Try this activity to show children and young people how using gestures and facial expressions can help deaf child to understand what someone is saying.
Ask the children to suggest different ways they can communicate without using their voice.
If needed, prompt them with examples like waving to say hello, or shaking your head to say no.
Then get the children into pairs, and ask them to take it in turns with their partner to use gestures and facial expressions to communicate the following phrases:
Person A
- It's hot
- I'm hungry
- They're silly
- It's cold
- I don’t know
- It's noisy
Person B
- I'm late
- Good, well done
- I'm tired
- Where's my drink?
- Do you want a sweet?
Ask children to discuss with their partner or in groups how they found the activity.
Post-activity discussion
After the activity go through some of these questions:
- How do facial expressions help you to understand what the other person is communicating?
- Which phrases were the easiest to understand?
- Which phrases were the hardest to understand?
Lip-reading activity
Try these lip-reading activities with children and young people to show them how challenging lip-reading can be, and how much practice it takes to learn how to do it.
Explain to them that when we speak our lips move and make shapes to form the words.
Some deaf people watch your lips when you talk, and doing this can help them understand what you are saying. This is called lip-reading, or speech-reading.
Deaf people rarely rely on lip-reading alone to help them understand what is being said, but it can be useful when combined with gestures and facial expressions.
Get the children into pairs. Label them A or B.
Tell the children that A will be mouthing the words without using sound, and B will be lip-reading.
Person A
Mouth the following instructions to your partner without using your voice! Can your partner follow the instructions?
- Clap your hands.
- Touch your toes.
- Stick your tongue out.
- Blink your eyes.
- Scratch your chin.
- Wriggle your fingers.
Then swap roles so that B will be mouthing the words and A will be lip-reading.
Person B
Mouth the following phrases to your partner without using your voice! Can your partner repeat or write down what you have said?
- I have eight green apples.
- Benny has 18 mugs.
- Penny has 18 bugs.
- I’m going to take a bath.
- I’ve got to take that path.
- I have five red apples.
The children could also make up simple sentences and try them with their partner.
Tips for communicating with a deaf person who's lip-reading
- Face the deaf person so they can see your mouth to lip-read.
- Make sure you don’t cover your mouth with your hands or any other object.
- Speak clearly and carefully but normally. If you change how you speak it may make you more difficult to understand.