Introduction: We began developing this website in the summer of 2025. As of October, we believe it has enough lessons and material to be useful for those learning Lao sign language, but there may be occasional bad links, typos, and other errors. Many of the videos and pictures will be replaced, and we are experimenting with the best way to demonstrate signs and sentences. We are continuing to add words and lessons, and to make other improvements.
This guide to Lao sign language was prepared by Big Brother Mouse, for our network of schools in Laos.
When we opened our first school in 2016, we had several staff who were deaf. They taught a small LSL (Lao Sign Language) vocabulary to children, who greatly enjoyed it. Gradually we began teaching more.
As of 2025, we've got 9 schools with 3,500 students. Not only do many of them love learning LSL, it also helps them improve broader language skills. Studies in the USA have found that when small children learn ASL, it prepares them to read because they begin thinking about individual words. We expect the same process happens here, and in fact, many of our children learn to read in kindergarten and nearly all by the end of grade one. (One average, most Lao children cannot read a simple Lao text until grade five. If then.)
With so many schools, often far apart, we needed a better way to keep everyone up-to-date as we expanded the sign language curriculum. The original goal of this site was to help teachers and students at our affiliated schools. But we'd like to see sign language taught more widely. Children enjoy it; it sharpens their language skills; it increases interaction. And of course, most important of all, if more people learn sign language, it means less isolation for those who are deaf, who currently, in many cases, have no opportunity to acquire language skills at all. Learning and teaching sign language brings many benefits, at very little cost.
How you can use this site: In most cases, the best approach is to use our lessons. Each lesson teaches about 10 words. We have a page for each word which shows the sign, with whatever combination of text, photo, and video gets the job done, and define it in English as well as in Lao. Then there are sentences to watch for practice. First watch and try to understand; then read the sentence and try to sign it.
Take a look at one of our earlier lessons:
1 2 3 4 5 6
You'll see a list of the words learned there. You can click on a word to see more detail for that word, or at the end of the list, watch a single video showing the signs for all the words. Below that are several options in Lao but after you understand the system, they should be clear: See practice sentences using these words (with this lesson number), go to the next lesson (with that number), or go to a lesson you choose.
Notes on Lao grammar: Lao sign language largely follows Lao word order, which is somewhat different from English but you should be able to understand the signed examples with little trouble, after you've learned the words. Adjectives in Lao come after the noun, in contrast to English. And Lao words have only one form. There are no plurals, no tenses. If you have one duck or six ducks, you'll use the same noun. If you are eating one of them, or ate one yesterday, or will eat one tomorrow, the verb eat is the same; you can add another word if you need to be clear about whether this is in the past, present, or future.
One other difference should be noted: The Lao language often uses words known as 'classifiers' which refer back to a noun, especially when it is being described with a number or adjective. The best analogy in English is that you say 'I have 4 loaves of bread.' The word loaves functions much like a classifier. Typically in Lao, the same classifiers are used for many nouns that share a characteristic. The classifier for animals is dto, which you'll learn in lesson 2 to say "I have mouse four dto." (Lao doesn't have plurals, neither regular nor irregular.) The word for people (kon) also serves as a classifier, so in lesson 5 you'll ask 'There are children in house how many people?" (Lao villages have lots of children but Lao language has no articles - we have no words equivalent to the, a, or an.)
If you already know some Lao sign language, you may wish to just use the dictionary. Find a word in the English index, and click it to see the sign.
And then, most important, use it! If you're in Laos, you may be learning LSL because you know deaf people, so you have obvious occasions to put it to use. In any case, if you ask friends, you're likely to find some who find this fascinating and are eager to learn it with you.
Helping deaf people learn LSL: Many deaf children in Laos never have an opportunity to learn sign language. They must make do with very simple, limited gestures.Often they are assumed to be mentally slow, are treated as such, and never get an opportunity to fully develop their abilities. You could make an enormous difference in their lives, if you take the time to introduce them to sign language. With younger children it will be easier, they still have an instinct for language learning. It will get harder as they grow older. In every case, it's important that their family and friends also learn it.