First Steps in Sign Language
Start communicating visually from your very first session. Learn core conversational signs, visual grammar, spatial storytelling, and the natural etiquette of Deaf culture.
Like Duolingo, but for First Steps in Sign Language. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
24 levels across 4 sections, about 48 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Starting Your First Conversation, The Grammar of Hands and Face, Speaking with Space and Movement, and Living in a Visual World. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in First Steps in Sign Language
- One hand is designated as your dominant hand for all one-handed signs and leading two-handed signs
- Switching dominant hands mid-conversation confuses the viewer, who tracks the primary hand for meaning
- The non-dominant hand only acts as a base, support, or mirror to the dominant hand
- A steady, consistent rhythm between letters allows the viewer to recognize the word shape
- Bouncing, jabbing, or rushing hand movements makes letters blur together and hard to track
- Holding your hand steadily in one spot at shoulder height beats fingerspelling quickly
- Eye contact must be kept with the other person's face and eyes rather than watching hands
- Looking away or watching your own hands breaks connection and social engagement in Deaf culture
- Handshapes in standard greetings are perceived through peripheral vision while maintaining eye contact
- Head nodding and shaking are essential grammatical markers that affirm or negate a sentence, not optional filler
- A headshake produced alongside a neutral sign turns it into a negative statement without needing a separate word
- Head movements must align directly with the production of the manual sign to set its grammatical meaning
- The standard signing space extends vertically from the waist to just above the forehead and across the chest
- Keeping signs within this zone allows the viewer to see both handshapes and facial expressions in one field of view without moving their eyes up and down
- Reaching far outside this frame forces your partner to constantly look away from your face
- Signing 'AGAIN' asks for an immediate visual replay
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives First Steps in Sign Language the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Why shouldn't you swap your lead hand when your arm gets a bit tired mid-chat?
Get it right to open this lesson and 23 more in the app.
Where First Steps in Sign Language takes you
- 1
Starting Your First Conversation
- Meeting and Greeting
- Clarifying and Keeping the Conversation Going
- 2
The Grammar of Hands and Face
- The Five Building Blocks of Every Sign
- Facial Expressions as Grammar
- Reading and Producing Fingerspelling
- 3
Speaking with Space and Movement
- Setting Up the Visual Stage
- Directional Verbs and Shifting Perspective
- 4
Living in a Visual World
- Visual Etiquette and Everyday Interaction
4 sections · 8 units · 24 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
First Steps in Sign Language is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start First Steps in Sign Language today.
Download Tomo, search First Steps in Sign Language, and play your first lesson in under a minute.