Little Hurrahs

Little Hurrahs has been teaching BSL-based Baby and Toddler sign for over 5 years, working with families, carers, Pre-school and Nursery Setting and many other groups and organisations. Little Hurrahs is the Brain Child of Jo Emmerson. ​ Now a mum of two, I have worked in all kinds of roles, from PR Director to Housing Manager, from Weight Loss Consultant to Quality Control in a Chocolate Factory, and more recently as both student and teacher of British Sign Language. My love of BSL started five years ago when we started taking BSL-based baby signing with our 6-month-old son. I utterly fell in love with how transformative it was. The gift of being able to communicate meaningfully with this small shouty human was mindblowing. It completely changed my experience of parenting, gave me the tools and techniques to begin to bond with the little squish, and start to trust my instincts. ​ ​ Fast forward a few years and my son was diagnosed with bilateral middle ear effusion (or 'Glue Ear' as it's commonly known) and he has significant hearing loss in both ears. Without his bone-conduction hearing aid, his hearing is similar to putting your fingers in your ears and putting your head underwater. Thankfully, we've been signing with him for years now. ​ This diagnosis prompted me to move my BSL forward, completing Level 2 during Lockdowns in 2021 and completing my Level 3 in 2022, with a plan to start my training to become an n interpreter and gain my Level 6 qualification from 2023. It has also changed the focus of my work, moving me away from solely working with babies and toddlers to working with nurseries, schools, and colleges as well as parents with D/deaf and Hearing Impaired children. I am also pretty active in my local D/deaf community, volunteering and socializing - I'm proud of my signing son, and I want him to grow up feeling proud to be part of the BSL community. ​ I now work directly with parents and carers, teachers, school staff, and children, delivering a range of courses, from self-led 90-day courses for parents, carers and EYFS settings, to School-year based 'train the trainer' online courses for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. These courses are primarily delivered online and are designed to ensure that my students get real, impactful results that can be measured informally, either through improved communication and understanding in the home or through in-class monitoring to ensure children meet formal education goals and expectations. ​ I am also working with a Primary School to develop a new course, enabling staff and pupils to meet the Progression Steps for BSL as an International Language under the new Curriculum for Wales. ​ I LOVE my job, and I will happily talk about it until the cows come home, so if you're interested in what I do, or would like to know if I can help you, your family, or your organisation in some way, then get in touch.