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Online Baby and Toddler Sessions

Photo: Dad and baby.

Relaxed, online sessions for you and your deaf baby or toddler to enjoy together

Our online sessions are ideal for deaf children to enjoy together with their families. By family we mean parents, carers, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins... the list goes on!

Find out more about Bounce Along to Happy Hands and Baby and Toddler sessions below. 

Bounce Along to Happy Hands

At these interactive, online sessions, you and your little one will have fun while singing well known songs and nursery rhymes and reading some of your favourite stories. We’ll be using lots of toys, teddies and colour to grab your child’s attention and engage them through the screen.

As well as being a fun thing to do together, these sessions can boost your deaf child’s language development and communication skills, partly through enjoying rhythm, pitch and repetition through singing but also by adding some British Sign Language signs to highlight key things we learn about each week. Using signs in this way can add an extra layer to your communication at home and be a fun thing to try with your child.

Happy Hands is not a British Sign Language course but is a relaxed, animated and fun song time designed to boost children’s development in their early years while picking up some everyday signs along the way.

Happy Hands is suitable for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers. Bring the whole family (plus pets and favourite toys) to start learning more about communication in a playful way!

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Happy Hands: Christmas party

  • Friday 15 December
  • 10.30am to 11.30am
  • Recommended for families with 0 to 4 year olds 

Come along to our Happy Hands online Christmas party to get into the festive spirit! Using key signs in BSL, we’ll be singing some of your favourite Christmas songs and reading ‘Hey Duggee: Countdown to Christmas’. You’ll learn some Christmas signs to support your communication at home, like Father Christmas, snowman, reindeer, sleigh, Christmas tree, snow, angel and lots more.

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Baby and Toddler sessions

Baby and Toddler sessions are online singing and storytimes that are fun and informal. They're delivered by our Bright Start team and combine singing and storytelling with child development advice and ideas for deaf children aged between 0 to 3 years old. The sessions also offer an opportunity for parents and carers to talk to each other about topics related to early childhood deafness.

Connecting with other families while having fun with your little one is what Baby and Toddler sessions are all about, so come along once a month and join in!

New sessions coming soon! 

Communication support for our events

We'll have experts on hand to support you in joining the event online. You can also watch or download our guide to joining our online events.

Zoom auto-generated captions and British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters will be available.

If you have any questions or require any other communication or language support, please email [email protected].

Meet your hosts

The Bright Start team will be on hand to answer any of your questions at our Baby and Toddler Sessions.

Our Bounce Along to Happy Hands sessions will be led by expert Kathryn.

Kathryn, Bounce Along to Happy Hands Session Leader

Kathryn has over 10 years’ experience of working with national deaf charities. A parent herself, and with a degree equivalent in BSL, Kathryn offers warm and family-friendly Happy Hands classes. She introduces easy and helpful BSL signs to boost your child’s confidence and early communication though play, singing and stories.

Flo Perlin, Baby and Toddler Sessions

Flo has worked at the National Deaf Children’s Society since 2021. Prior to this Flo was a children’s emotional health and wellbeing worker. She has also worked on adventure playgrounds and forest schools, and has run music workshops for children in deprived areas of the UK. Now her work focuses on supporting deaf children in early years and helping families to thrive. Her role involves delivering in-person and online sessions for families to sing, sign, read and play together, including developing online tools and resources for families.
Flo has a first-class degree in child development and play work. She is an accomplished musician/singer songwriter, trained on cello, piano and guitar.

Razia Azhar, Baby and Toddler Sessions

Razia Azhar has worked at the National Deaf Children’s Society since 2021 and is a Programme Officer for the Bright Start team. She works with families and their deaf children within the crucial early years, promoting language, literacy and communication.

After finding out her own daughter was severely deaf at the age of 3 years old, Razia immersed herself in the deaf world, its culture and community. She aimed to gain all the knowledge she could to better equip herself for giving her daughter the best possible start and support in life. She now passionately passes this knowledge and personal experience onto the families she works with.

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