Thinking in ASL or other Sign Languages

My daughter clearly thought in ASL. She would sign in her sleep! We knew she had become bilingual when she started talking in her sleep too.
 
Isaac said:
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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What would help would be if you stopped thinking "This is the sign for the word chair". No it isn't. It is the sign for the idea, not the English word.
 
faire_jour said:
What would help would be if you stopped thinking "This is the sign for the word chair". No it isn't. It is the sign for the idea, not the English word.
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hrm yah, THank you :) that's a good point...it's a transition to change how you relate to language. it's hard because I'm teaching myself, trying to figure it out as i go. And it's laid out with WORDS Chair, then the sign.

I guess i have to put the Concept of chair in my head then associate that with the sign for chair, if I am going to become fluent or at least very good :)

If you think about it words are worthless on face value, it's the image/feeling associated with them. So signs are to be related to the image/feeling not the word. COOL you sparked my brain to look at this different THANKS
 
Vaughan said:
If you are Deaf and your native language is ASL (or any other sign language), how does the thinking process work inside your head?

Does anyone here dream in ASL or another sign language?
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I usually think in pictures and this was because of how I was taught ASL. My native language is spoken English and very elementary ASL and Spoken French. Yes, sometimes I have a "inner voice" for "telling" me quicker actions like "chair", or to phrase together a sentence. But Dreams are usually silent and my higher levels of thinking require some imaging techniques. I don't know how much deaf or hearies relate to this kind of thinking.

Usually at work, I use a lot of pictures to help me explain ideas to people (manager hates it; auditory learner). Sometimes, there's a train of images instead of a hour long research trail documented into customer service level written language (which I find that I get fewer phone calls later because vendors don't want to deal with the guy who can figure the problem out and not get walked over). If they don't get the ideas in the e-mails, I'll sit down with them in person and tell them my thought process.
 
I am new hoh and tend to think in pictures. Although I have had dreams in English, I have had a few dreams in ASL and I've had dreams in Spanish. I'm an extremely visual-tactile person in learning style. I really have to picture it something to understand it. Often I may just see sets of images in my head as part of decision-making process or idea.
 
Anij said:
"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.
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Good way to describe it! I get the same when thinking in ASL.
 
CJB said:
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.
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this seems like it should be a line from a poem. it's a beautiful thought :)
 
dogmom said:
I am new hoh and tend to think in pictures. Although I have had dreams in English, I have had a few dreams in ASL and I've had dreams in Spanish. I'm an extremely visual-tactile person in learning style. I really have to picture it something to understand it. Often I may just see sets of images in my head as part of decision-making process or idea.
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When you weren't HOH, did you have this "style" of thinking?
 
Interesting question.

When I am signing (no voice) I think in context, but if I am mixing the two sign/voice I become horribly pigeon
 
:craigm26 wave:I've always had this style of thought. As a kid I had speech delays. Part of my learning disability is that I have difficulty understanding things if someone just tells me. While I still may have trouble with visual understanding, I have a far greater chance to comprehend if someone shows me and I repeat. But have always thought in pictures. For quite some time I just assumed everybody did.
 
I'm hearing, and will soon be in school for asl interpreter.
I've noticed that sometimes I can think better in sign. I've always been a very visual person, so sign comes pretty easily to me.
Yesterday, I was talking with a coworker about my college major, and couldn't think of the word "interpreter". But I could see the sign in my head, and actually started signing without thinking.
Good thing everyone at my work already thinks I'm strange lol!
 
I was sound asleep. My wife asks, "Honey, are you talking to yourself?"

"Ummmm. I don't think so. I was asleep. What was I saying?"

To which my wife replied, "I don't know. It was dark and you were signing it."
 
To answer the original question. Just like hearing people hear themselves talking while thinking, Deaf people see themselves signing while they're thinking. Same goes for dreaming.
 
ValeriePerez said:
To answer the original question. Just like hearing people hear themselves talking while thinking, Deaf people see themselves signing while they're thinking. Same goes for dreaming.
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Not true. Dreaming is like telepathy for me, and several other deaf people I know. :wave:
 
Bottesini said:
Not true. Dreaming is like telepathy for me, and several other deaf people I know. :wave:
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Oh thank you for your insight. This topic was discussed in a Deaf Culture class I took that was taught by a Deaf professor. I'll take note that everyone is different when other curious hearing people ask me a question pertaining to this
 
ValeriePerez said:
Oh thank you for your insight. This topic was discussed in a Deaf Culture class I took that was taught by a Deaf professor. I'll take note that everyone is different when other curious hearing people ask me a question pertaining to this
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You are welcome. Good thought as we are definitely as much individual entities, just like hearing.
 
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