Hooray for summer. It is august, the temperature is approximately hotter than the sun and I am enjoying spending mornings at the lido/eating ice cream/pretending that I’m not melting/doing boring adult things like worrying about my new flowers in the garden. And I have time to do these things because third year is done. Exams went pretty well and I even got a prize (which was a lovely, emotional surprise). I’ve started volunteering at my local hospice and am managing to squeeze in some time to work

Summer this year means getting going with thinking about our research projects, like our dissertation, it’s an 8,000 word write-up of a research project we’ve been allocated to, that one of our tutors is leading. I was lucky to get my first choice- we’ll be looking into blogging and vlogging by and about people with selective mutism….but more about that in the coming months.

One of the main things I’m doing in August is an intensive (3 days a week for 4 weeks) British Sign Language (BSL) course. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while and have finally been organised to fit it in. So far, it’s been wonderful and very intense… as suggested by the name. In class, no voices are allowed- only signing- so it’s a really immersive language-learning experience. Every letter of the alphabet has a sign, and if you don’t know the sign for something, you have to fingerspell it out and our lovely teachers will show us the sign. The teachers are all deaf and native signers, so really excellent at helping us to keep to BSL etiquette; no speaking/whispering, but using lip shapes to mouth what you’re signing, and tonnes of facial expression to convey meaning, as the same sign can be used for multiple meanings in different contexts.

BSL qualifications are not something we have to do as part of our course, and aren’t necessarily essential even if you work as an SLT with people who have a hearing impairment. But as with several things I’m trying out/doing at this stage of the course, it’s about gaining skills that might mean more avenues are open to me once I qualify.

I’ve also made a little video this month, showing you a few of things we’ve learnt about in the first three days- can you figure out what they are?*

*Apologies to any native/fluent BSL users. I know my finger spelling is not great right now. Am working on it, promise!