Non-verbal communication photos
12 photographs showing forms of non-verbal communication.
All lesson plansLesson plan
Say It Without Speaking
A 45–60 minute introduction to communication without speech, BSL fingerspelling and a few beginner British Sign Language signs. Structured around four classroom activities and four downloadable PowerPoint or PDF resources.
BSL is a complete language used by the Deaf community, with its own grammar and structure. This short activity is simply a starting point for thinking about communication without speech, not a representation of BSL itself.
Resources for this lesson
Download the slides before you begin.
Each resource comes as both a PowerPoint (to project and annotate) and a PDF (to print or share). All four are free to use in class.
BSL fingerspelling alphabet slides
Each letter of the BSL fingerspelling alphabet on its own slide.
Three beginner BSL signs
‘Hello’, ‘good’ and ‘drink’ for the guess-the-sign activity.
Guess the Signs
A slideshow that pairs an English word with its BSL sign.
Introduction
What the class will explore.
In this lesson, students explore different forms of non-verbal communication, think about how people communicate in different ways, and learn the BSL fingerspelling alphabet plus a few everyday signs.
Starter activity
Birthday-order line-up (3 minutes).
Set a three-minute timer. Ask the class to position themselves in a line along one wall, in order of their birthdays through the year (January at one end, December at the other) – without using spoken words.
While the activity runs, give no prompts other than the time remaining. Observe the strategies they use. When the timer ends, ask each student to call out their birthday in order to see how successful the line-up was.
Discuss the techniques they used and what other non-verbal strategies could have worked. Expect to surface:
- Holding up fingers for months and dates
- Mouthing or lip-reading
- Writing in the air or on paper
- Pointing to a calendar
- Gesture or sign language
Introduce the term non-verbal communication. For this lesson, we mean communication that doesn’t rely on spoken words – facial expression, gesture, body language, writing, symbols and sign language all count. Add one important note for the class: BSL is different from casual gesture, because it’s a full language with its own grammar.
Main activity 1
Non-verbal photos slideshow.
Open the Non-Verbal Photos slideshow from the Resources section. Twelve photographs each show a person using a form of non-verbal communication. For each photograph, discuss:
- What aspects of the image show non-verbal communication?
- What role do facial expression and body language play?
- What might the person be trying to say?
The final image shows two people signing. Use it to open a conversation about who uses sign language and why. Important points to land:
- Many people with hearing loss use spoken language, hearing aids, cochlear implants, lip-reading, captions or other support, and may not use sign language.
- BSL is used by many Deaf people, and also by hearing family members, friends, interpreters, teachers and others who communicate with BSL users. Some people grow up using BSL as a first or preferred language. Others learn it later for family, work, study or communication access.
- BSL is a complete language with its own grammar, not a signed version of English. Other countries have their own sign languages – BSL is different from American Sign Language (ASL) and Irish Sign Language (ISL).
- In the UK, the British Deaf Association estimates around 87,000 Deaf people use BSL as their preferred language, and roughly 151,000 people use BSL overall.
Main activity 2
Learn the fingerspelling alphabet.
Explain that BSL has its own signs and grammar, and that fingerspelling is used for names, places, unfamiliar words, or words where the sign isn’t known.
Print a copy of the alphabet chart for each student (see Resources) and project the BSL fingerspelling alphabet slides. Go through the alphabet as a class, demonstrating each letter. Mention that the chart has a right-handed and a left-handed version – pupils use whichever matches their dominant hand (the hand they write with).
Then split the class into small groups. Each student practises fingerspelling their own name, then tests the others by spelling a name for them to read. Finish by inviting a couple of volunteers to fingerspell their name to the whole class.
Main activity 3
Guess three everyday signs.
Ask if anyone already knows any BSL signs. Then introduce the Three beginner BSL signs slideshow, which demonstrates the signs for hello, good and drink. Ask the class to guess what each sign means before revealing the answer. Some signs may feel intuitive, while others may be completely new – remind pupils that BSL is a real language, not a set of universal gestures, and that signs can vary by region.
Optional extension: project or print the BSL greetings signs poster and learn a handful of greetings as a class.
Plenary activity
Guess the signs.
Run the Guess the Signs slideshow. Each slide shows an English word (e.g. ‘cow’), followed on the next slide by the BSL sign for that word.
Before revealing each sign, ask pupils what gesture they might naturally use for the word. Then reveal a commonly used BSL sign and discuss how it’s similar or different. Remind pupils that BSL signs belong to a real language and can vary by region.
Continuation ideas
Keep the momentum going.
- Encourage the class to use one of the BSL greeting signs each day at the start of the lesson.
- Print and display the free BSL resources around the classroom.
- Try the fingerspelling quiz as a regular warm-up.
- Use the print-a-word tool to make fingerspelling labels for items around the classroom.
- Browse the free BSL dictionary to find signs linked to current topics.
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