How to Start Learning ASL on PocketSign

Updated

Start with the Free Daily Lesson on the Lessons page. It is the featured entry point: a 17-minute beginner lesson covering 29 everyday signs for food, drinks, and simple meal phrases. From there, work through the All Lessons list at your own pace — PocketSign tracks the signs you've learned and the percentage you've completed in each lesson, so you can stop and pick up where you left off.

What you need before starting

Nothing beyond a browser and a few minutes a day. PocketSign's lessons are video-based and labeled Beginner, so no prior signing experience is assumed. The lesson page shows a running count of "Signs Learned" and "Rewards" at the top, which reflects your activity across lessons.

Step-by-step: your first session

  1. Open the Lessons page. The featured lesson appears first, labeled "Free Daily Lesson."
  2. Start the Free Daily Lesson. It runs about 17 minutes and covers 29 signs around food, drinks, and meal phrases — chosen so you can use them in a real conversation the same day.
  3. Work through the video prompts. Each lesson is built from short video segments; you watch a sign and practice recognizing or reproducing it.
  4. Check your progress markers. After finishing, the lesson shows a completion percentage (starting at 0%) and your total "Signs Learned" count increases.
  5. Return to All Lessons and pick the next one. The page shows a "Start Next Lesson" option, and the full catalog lists 76 ASL lessons.

Choosing your next lesson

The catalog is organized by theme, and every listed lesson is marked Beginner. Early lessons build on each other, so the order below roughly follows the sequence shown on the page:

Lesson Focus Length Signs
Free Daily Lesson Food, drinks, meal phrases 17 min 29
Food 2 Snacks, meals, restaurant signs 12 min 20
5 Ws Who, what, when, where, why 7 min 12
Actions Want, go, stand, look 7 min 12
Play Play, walking, biking, jumping, dancing 7 min 12
Responses Yes, no, maybe, know, good, bad, sorry 14 min 23
Positioning On, off, in, out, open, close, near, far 11 min 19
Sizes Small, medium, large 5 min 7
Emotions Happy, sad, cold, tired, surprised, excited 11 min 19
Objects Scissors, tree, list, flower 10 min 17
Time Morning, afternoon, hour, minute 11 min 19
Clothes Shirt, dress, clothes, pants 10 min 16
Vehicles Boat, airplane, motorcycle 5 min 8
Family Boy, girl, mom, dad 10 min 16
Family 2 Baby, age, marry, children 8 min 14

If you want conversational payoff fastest, the 5 Ws and Responses lessons pair well with the daily lesson — question signs plus yes/no/maybe answers cover a lot of ground in about 20 minutes combined.

How progress tracking works

Every lesson displays a completion percentage and a sign count. On the catalog page, lessons you haven't opened yet show Locked with 0% progress, while the next recommended lesson is surfaced as "Start Next Lesson." Your saved progress persists, so you can leave mid-lesson and resume later without restarting. The header counters ("Signs Learned" and "Rewards") give you a cumulative view across everything you've completed.

Common snags

  • Locked lessons aren't a paywall signal in the page data — the catalog simply marks unstarted lessons as locked at 0%. The page itself doesn't state pricing or account requirements, so treat access terms as something to confirm on the site.
  • Don't skip the daily lesson to jump ahead. It's the only lesson explicitly marked "Free Daily Lesson" and is positioned as the starting point; later lessons assume the everyday vocabulary it covers.
  • Short lessons aren't necessarily easier. Sizes (5 min, 7 signs) and Vehicles (5 min, 8 signs) are quick, but they still assume you can follow video prompts, so they work better after you've done a few longer sessions.
  • Progress percentages reset visually per lesson. A 0% on a locked lesson doesn't mean your overall progress was lost — check the header counters for the cumulative total.