Thinking in ASL or other Sign Languages

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Vaughan

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Hi there. :wave: I have a question that my friend and I were discussing regarding first languages and thinking in one's native language. I don't know if anyone can give a definite answer, but we're pretty curious.

If you are Deaf and your native language is ASL (or any other sign language), how does the thinking process work inside your head?

I can see this might be seen as an offensive inquiry, so I'll clarify. I'm hearing, and my first language is English. When I have to think analytically and consciously, inside my head it is as if I'm hearing my own little voice say "If I go here...then I'll pick this up...etc." It's the same if I think in French (second lang.)--- I hear my own voice speaking in a low volume inside my head.

If you are Deaf, and you are thinking about something, do you have the tactile sense of how it feels to make that sign (for example: signing mother, you would think about the pressure of the thumb on your chin and how it feels to have your fingers spread) or do you visualize yourself making the sign for mother?

Does anyone here dream in ASL or another sign language?

I hope this make sense. :)
 
Vaughan said:
Hi there. :wave: I have a question that my friend and I were discussing regarding first languages and thinking in one's native language. I don't know if anyone can give a definite answer, but we're pretty curious.

If you are Deaf and your native language is ASL (or any other sign language), how does the thinking process work inside your head?

I can see this might be seen as an offensive inquiry, so I'll clarify. I'm hearing, and my first language is English. When I have to think analytically and consciously, inside my head it is as if I'm hearing my own little voice say "If I go here...then I'll pick this up...etc." It's the same if I think in French (second lang.)--- I hear my own voice speaking in a low volume inside my head.

If you are Deaf, and you are thinking about something, do you have the tactile sense of how it feels to make that sign (for example: signing mother, you would think about the pressure of the thumb on your chin and how it feels to have your fingers spread) or do you visualize yourself making the sign for mother?

Does anyone here dream in ASL or another sign language?

I hope this make sense. :)
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It has been discussed here more than once. It is called inner voice and it is generally agreed that deaf people's inner voice is more images.

Not making signs but the concrete images of going to the store, going to bed, etc.
 
I don't think hearing people really tell themselve "I'm going to sit down" They just sit down.
 
if I am having a voice off day--I am totally thinking in images and will have a hard time forming words if i have to.

I love learning about peoples dreams involving their native language. I have only ever had one dream with all signing. Any one dream with only signs
 
A said:
I don't think hearing people really tell themselve "I'm going to sit down" They just sit down.
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True. It would be odd if we did.

I'm talking about when you have to really think about something. When I'm doing problem solving or some such thing (like figuring the best way to get all my errands run without having to backtrack, or working on school work) I really have to think about it consciously, with words.
 
Sign language users see the signs in their mind's eye the same way spoken language users hear the words in their mind's ear. When I think in sign language I can feel the signs inside my hands.
 
LOL

I have to admit that even though my native language is English, and I am hearing. I do sometimes see ASL signs in my head. I hope this comes to me more often.
 
I had some hearing for most of my life, but since going total deaf, I see things in ASL. I'm the person that when dreaming, I had the credits "rolling" at the end of the dream, just like a movie. :giggle:
 
Vaughan said:
Hi there. :wave: I have a question that my friend and I were discussing regarding first languages and thinking in one's native language. I don't know if anyone can give a definite answer, but we're pretty curious.

If you are Deaf and your native language is ASL (or any other sign language), how does the thinking process work inside your head?

I can see this might be seen as an offensive inquiry, so I'll clarify. I'm hearing, and my first language is English. When I have to think analytically and consciously, inside my head it is as if I'm hearing my own little voice say "If I go here...then I'll pick this up...etc." It's the same if I think in French (second lang.)--- I hear my own voice speaking in a low volume inside my head.

If you are Deaf, and you are thinking about something, do you have the tactile sense of how it feels to make that sign (for example: signing mother, you would think about the pressure of the thumb on your chin and how it feels to have your fingers spread) or do you visualize yourself making the sign for mother?

Does anyone here dream in ASL or another sign language?

I hope this make sense. :)
Click to expand...

I am hearing but I don't think the way you do.

When I need to really think things through I need a pen, paper, or computer and I do the mind map thing.. I call it mental spider webbing.

When I think about doing one thing over another I don't think "If I go here..." I picture myself doing it and the result.. then I picture the alternative. But mostly I don't bother to think about things like that..I just do.

Some things are easier to think in words other things are easier to think in sign and a lot of things are easier to just picture.

I dream in all the languages I know and sometimes without language at all.

Perhaps to satiate your curiosity you need to expand your own mental toolbox.
 
I am hearing but I never dream and hear things, most always whatever I do or see in a dream has a feeling is attatched to it...so it's like an inner understanding of something but without verbally clarifying it. like when you look at a picture or watch a scene in a movie without sound, you just Know what's going on.

But I have wondered about the inner voice too...if it is more complex, than signs, like more a sense of knowing than visually seeing the signs for things?
 
Juli-terp-to-be said:
LOL

I have to admit that even though my native language is English, and I am hearing. I do sometimes see ASL signs in my head. I hope this comes to me more often.
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It has more to do with what language you're thinking in than your hearing status. Anyone who learns ASL will see or feel the signs in their head if they think in ASL.
 
I wonder what a person would think, or how they would register thoughts and questions in their mind if they did not ever learn a language.

like raised by animals in a jungle or something. Hrmm:hmm:
 
Isaac said:
I wonder what a person would think, or how they would register thoughts and questions in their mind if they did not ever learn a language.

like raised by animals in a jungle or something. Hrmm:hmm:
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There have been several cases of feral children like this. I'm really not sure. They only have a few pure cases (where a child became feral and was never around humans before living wildly) and building communications after that have proved difficult if not impossible. I saw a documentary about a woman who was raised by dogs.....and she could communicate with them through barks and howls. Go figure. The human brain is amazing at absorbing that sort of thing when young.

My ASL teacher is instructing a 17 year old girl who has no language. She is deaf, was born in Africa, her parents could not sign or read/write, so she never had any language at all. They're teaching her ASL now, but as for how her though processes work, I can only speculate that they are visual. I'm not really sure.

I just can't imagine not having any language. It would be beyond frustrating for me to not be able to communicate with other people somehow.
 
I'm HOh/Deaf - my first language is English (and it tends to be my daily language, living in a hearing family)

I have both an inner "English voice" & and ASL voice

My inner voice is I'm aware of when processing things in the English language - be it read or spoken (my inner voice doesn't sound like my own voice, in fact it's almost a "soundless voice" ... it's hard to explain really, because I think it's a voice but I can't identify any sound traits about it ie - is it male or female, high or low pitch).
In some cases my "inner voice" is actaully more visual pictures of the written word, or a feeling like muscle memory of how to form the words in my mouth etc. I very very rarely dream in aural English.

My ASL inner voice is more like pictures of objects, or visualizing doing something (swinging on a swing, walking to the store, driving into a parking spot, picking up groceries etc) - however I also have almost like a "phantom signing" feeling in my hands sometimes ... like they are remember signing the various signs. This muscle memory feeling is most common when I'm reciting a list of items such as a grocery list, things-to-do list or other individual items/words/signs that aren't connected in a phrase or sentence. It's common for me to experience muscle memory & imagined pictures of the item at the same time.

Most of the time I dream in either ASL (just as if I was immersed in the dream watching an ASL conversation) or I dream where people are simply able to understand and communicate with each other ... sort of like a inner voice that is understood by others, I guess .... it's hard to explain. The exception to this would be if I'm dreaming about something in which communication difficulties are an actual component of the dream, for example dreaming about not being able to get through to someone who doesn't sign, or trying to learn a foreign language etc.
 
I know it is alot hard on hearing people to get a hang of ASL because they like to hear words in their head. ASL is a visual language.

Anyway, I think everyone think in picture before they know the name of it.

growing up, I always daydream, but in storypictures, but rarely in words.
 
A said:
Anyway, I think everyone think in picture before they know the name of it.
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True. That's why babies have such good skills at recognizing differences betweens similar things--they don't get caught up in the words, they get caught up in the visual details.

I've seen some studies that show as adults, we see things less vibrantly if we get caught up in attaching words to it. For instance, when adults see a color, they're more than likely going to look at and think "green", and then move on. A child will look at the actual shade/hue/deepness/pigment variation rather than labeling it and moving on.

Anji-- it's neat that you dream in ASL. And the way that people in your dream can just understand each other seems like it could be something out a Star Trek. :lol: Like how the Betazoids are telepathic.
 
Yes, that is a way to tell if a person is true deaf. If the person almost always dreams in ASL, then that person can be considered deaf. On the other end, if a person almost always dreams in spoken workds, then that person can be considered a hearie, even if there is hearing lost.
 
Vaughan said:
There have been several cases of feral children like this. I'm really not sure. They only have a few pure cases (where a child became feral and was never around humans before living wildly) and building communications after that have proved difficult if not impossible. I saw a documentary about a woman who was raised by dogs.....and she could communicate with them through barks and howls. Go figure. The human brain is amazing at absorbing that sort of thing when young.

.
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I think i saw that too her name was Oksana? from Russia or Bulgaria..not sure

she had all the mannerisms of a dog..so she learned to think like a dog...but is there a point where the potential of the human brain would naturally try and reach beyond what the dogs teach her...

it's really interesting to think about this because there is no way to know for certain.
 
A said:
I know it is alot hard on hearing people to get a hang of ASL because they like to hear words in their head. ASL is a visual language.

Anyway, I think everyone think in picture before they know the name of it.

growing up, I always daydream, but in storypictures, but rarely in words.
Click to expand...

it's not that we like to...it's more that's all we know and it's easy to lose track of Picture images.

I just started learning ASL a week and a half ago (im 2/3 through a semester lol) but the biggest challenge I'm having is associating signs with words.

Im finally not mouthing words as I sign them as much but they still are SPOKEN in my mind.

I think I will make flash cards with Images, and concepts...maybe that will help.

I want to learn ASL for what it is, A Unique Language of Its own, not another way to express English.
 
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