It is recognized by the Swedish government as the country's official sign language, and hearing parents of deaf individuals are entitled to access state-sponsored classes that facilitate their learning of SSL.

[1] Finnish Sign Language can be traced back to the mid-1800s when Carl Oscar Malm, a Finnish deaf individual who had studied in Sweden, founded Finland's first school for the deaf in Porvoo in 1846.

By the late 1800s, oralism, or the speech method, began to be favored in the education of the deaf in Finland.

Despite the ban, students in deaf schools continued to use sign language secretly in dormitories.

[11] The Finland-Swedish Sign Language, also known as FinSSL, was created by the deaf community of Swedish backgrounds inhabiting the coastal areas of Finland.

[13] Through contacts between Swedish deaf individuals and Finland-Swedish deaf individuals, the Finland-Swedish sign language has borrowed many words from Swedish sign language.

Additionally, the visual phonology with facial expressions follows the sounds of the Swedish language.

[17][18] The Portuguese Sign Language has its origins from the Swedish Sign Language (LGS), as in the 19th century, the king called to Portugal Pär Aron Borg, a Swede who had founded an institute for the education of the deaf in Sweden.

It is descended from Portuguese sign language and is mutually integible with it, although it contains some local adaptations.

[26] Since 2005, the Eritrean National Association of the Deaf has made linguistic purification attempts to replace Swedish and Finnish signs from the EriSL lexicon by 'Eritrean' ones in an effort to create a more distinct, "indigenous" language.