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Ways to Practice Your ASL

Daily Practice Ideas

  1. Mirror practice – Sign in front of a mirror to check facial expressions and hand movements.
  2. Fingerspelling drills – Practice the ASL alphabet with random words (try street names, brands, or your grocery list).
  3. Sign your daily routine – Narrate what you’re doing in ASL (e.g., “I eat breakfast,” “I go to work,” etc.).
  4. Label objects around the house with their ASL sign or fingerspelled name.
  5. Use ASLdeafined.com or another ASL platform for guided lessons, retention games, and expressive practice.
  6. Sign a song or poem – Interpret lyrics or poetry using expressive ASL.
  7. Record yourself signing and review to self-correct or compare with models.
  8. Sign along to TV with captions (mute it, then check accuracy).
  9. Pick a “Sign of the Day” and use it at least 5 times throughout the day.
  10. Keep a visual ASL journal – Record short daily signed video entries.

Practice With Others

  1. Practice with a friend or study group – Set up regular sessions to sign together.
  2. Join a Deaf event or Silent Dinner – Practice in immersive social settings.
  3. Attend ASL Meetups – Find or organize informal gatherings with other signers.
  4. Take turns signing a story – Each person adds a part in ASL.
  5. Use video chat with signing friends or tutors (Zoom, Marco Polo, Glide).
  6. Teach basic signs to family or roommates – Practice with them daily.

Classroom or Study-Based Practice

  1. Use flashcards (physical or digital) with signs, definitions, and example sentences.
  2. Do expressive and receptive exercises – Watch signed videos and answer questions in ASL.
  3. Practice classifiers, NMMs, or rhetorical questions with themed prompts.
  4. Play ASL games (e.g., charades, ASL Bingo, Go Fish with signed numbers/colors).
  5. Create glossed scripts of conversations and perform them.

Creative Practice

  1. Storytelling in ASL – Retell a fairy tale or real story using classifiers and NMMs.
  2. Make ASL TikToks or Instagram Reels – Share short clips to get feedback.
  3. Create ASL comics or captioned photo stories with drawn or signed characters.
  4. Translate children’s books or signs around your neighborhood into ASL.
  5. Sign recipes as you cook – Narrate steps using signs.

Technology-Based Practice

  1. Watch Deaf creators on YouTube or TikTok – Observe authentic use of ASL.
  2. Use ASL apps (like ASLdeafined, The ASL App, or SignSchool, ).
  3. Watch stories and vlogs in ASL and try to summarize them.
  4. Play ASL-based games online – memory match, flashcard challenges, etc.