ASL Fingerspelling Games & Activities for Kids

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Learning the American Sign Language alphabet is a great first step in learning ASL. Once kids know the individual handshapes, though, they need opportunities to actually use them!

These printable ASL fingerspelling games and activities give kids a fun way to practice recognizing and forming letters while spelling real words.

Instead of simply reviewing the alphabet over and over, kids can play games, decode mystery words, challenge their friends, go on a fingerspelling scavenger hunt, and more.

What Is ASL Fingerspelling?

Fingerspelling is a way of spelling words using the handshapes of the American Sign Language alphabet.

American Sign Language is a complete visual language used by many Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the United States and parts of Canada. Fingerspelling is one component of ASL and is used to spell names, places, and other words when appropriate.

In ASL, fingerspelling is commonly used for things such as names, places, brands, titles, and words for which a signer does not know or use a particular sign.

Fingerspelling is also a useful skill for beginning ASL learners because it helps them become more familiar with the alphabet and learn to recognize handshapes in sequence rather than only as individual letters.

If your kids are just beginning to learn the alphabet, start with my Free ASL Alphabet Poster and Flashcards.

Once they are comfortable with the individual letters, they’re ready to start putting those letters together!

Learn, Practice & Play

I designed this fingerspelling printable around three simple steps:

LEARN → PRACTICE → PLAY

First, learn the individual ASL alphabet handshapes.

Next, practice looking at several handshapes together and decoding the word they spell.

Finally—and this is the fun part—play with fingerspelling!

Games give kids a reason to use the handshapes repeatedly without making practice feel like another worksheet.

Printable ASL Fingerspelling Games

This printable pack includes 10 different fingerspelling games, so kids can practice the same skill in lots of different ways.

Some of the games focus on recognizing fingerspelled words, while others require kids to think of a word and fingerspell it themselves.

Games include activities such as:

• Roll & Fingerspell: Roll a die to determine the type of word you need to fingerspell.
• What’s My Word?: Draw a word card and fingerspell it for the other players to guess.
• Fingerspelling Race: Choose a category and see how many words you can correctly fingerspell before time runs out.
• Fingerspelling Scavenger Hunt: Find objects that fit different clues and fingerspell their names.
• Last Letter: Create a word chain in which each new word begins with the last letter of the previous word.
• I Spy & Fingerspell: Choose something in the room and fingerspell its name while everyone tries to find it.
• Alphabet Challenge: Work your way from A to Z by thinking of and fingerspelling a word beginning with each letter.
• Fingerspelling Detective: Listen to clues, figure out the mystery word, and fingerspell your answer.
• Memory Fingerspelling: Study a group of word cards, hide them, and see which words you can remember and fingerspell.
• Three-Card Challenge: Choose from three visible word cards and identify which word another player is fingerspelling.

The games work well for two players, small groups, homeschool families, learning centers, or classroom practice.

80 ASL Fingerspelling Word Cards

I’ve also included 80 printable word cards to use with the games.

The cards contain familiar, kid-friendly words of different lengths and difficulty levels. This lets beginning learners start with shorter words while more confident fingerspellers can work up to longer ones.

Use the cards for the games in this pack, or invent your own ways to practice with them.

You could draw five cards and fingerspell each one, race to correctly fingerspell a stack, have one child draw a card while another guesses, or simply keep a small stack available for quick ASL practice.

Because there are 80 different words, you can play the games again and again without always practicing the same vocabulary.

Decode the Fingerspelling

Before jumping into the games, kids may want a little practice reading fingerspelled words.

I’ve included a Decode the Fingerspelling activity page.

Look carefully at each series of ASL handshapes, identify the letters, and write the word they spell.

This is a helpful bridge between recognizing individual alphabet letters and following fingerspelling during a game.

Tips for Teaching Fingerspelling to Beginners

When children first begin fingerspelling, encourage them to work slowly and accurately rather than trying to spell as quickly as possible.

It can help to keep an ASL alphabet chart nearby while they play. There’s no need to memorize every handshape before beginning! Allow kids to refer to the chart as needed and gradually encourage them to use it less often.

You can also begin with shorter words and move toward longer words as their confidence grows.

And don’t forget to switch roles. Reading someone else’s fingerspelling and producing fingerspelling yourself are different skills, so kids benefit from practicing both.

Free ASL Alphabet Printable

Need an alphabet reference to use with the games?

Download my Free American Sign Language Alphabet Poster and Flashcards first.

The printable includes an ASL alphabet poster as well as individual alphabet flashcards that you can use to learn and review each handshape.

Keep the poster beside you while playing the fingerspelling games for an easy reference.

Get the ASL Fingerspelling Games & Activities

Ready to play? Find it in my shop!

The ASL Fingerspelling Games & Activities Pack includes:

10 fingerspelling games + 80 word cards + 1 decoding practice page

These games are an easy way to add hands-on ASL alphabet practice to your homeschool, classroom, learning center, or family game time.

Print the cards on cardstock and laminate them if you’d like to use them again and again.