joycem137
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I'm a hearing person that has recently begun learning ASL, and I just wanted to share this story with you. Although I *am* hearing and not hard of hearing or Deaf, I do have a condition that causes me to struggle with understanding speech sometimes. If it isn't CAPD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder) then it is something that expresses itself similarly.
From what I can tell, my hearing seems to be just fine. It's just that I have a lot of trouble parsing spoken language into meaningful things inside my head. Thick accents, noisy environments, fast speech, and distractions can seriously impact my ability to comprehend language.
I've gotten a lot of shit for this over the years. Not following conversations that others are having. Speaking out of turn and talking about unrelated stuff. Asking people to repeat themselves over and over and over again. And if I'm not actively paying attention to people, I can completely fail to recognize that they're speaking at all. It all just becomes random, meaningless noise to me.
Anyways... I got into learning ASL for a variety of reasons, including a love of language, a desire for a non-verbal communication tool, interest in learning about Deaf culture. But as I've been studying, I've discovered a reason to keep going that I completely didn't consider: It feels as though ASL may help me with my own auditory processing issues.
The attention thing is a great example. In hearing culture, it's often the case that people just start talking to you without getting your attention first. Or if they do, they get your attention by calling your name, yelling "hey" or something like that. Since I often don't register speech until I'm paying attention to someone, I miss a lot of this. I've even had people take it personally, getting angry and upset with me, throwing things at me to get my attention, etc.
In ASL communication, people use visual waves, vibrations and other non-speech methods of getting someone's attention, all of which work brilliantly for me. Best of all, people *wait* until they know I'm paying attention before starting to sign. This alone is just incredible. It means that the stress of worrying that I'm not hearing someone speak is gone, and I can just relax. Wow.
I'm also finding that using ASL with my friends can help clarify what's being said. Something gets garbled in my head, and I can use ASL to clarify without asking them to repeat themselves using more speech I'm liable to misunderstand. I need more time before I can really tell, but I suspect I may parse ASL better than English, at least when comparing signs I know well against their counterpart words in spoken English.
Anyways... I thought I'd share this story. It's been quite exciting discovering that ASL may be useful for me beyond what I expected it to be.
From what I can tell, my hearing seems to be just fine. It's just that I have a lot of trouble parsing spoken language into meaningful things inside my head. Thick accents, noisy environments, fast speech, and distractions can seriously impact my ability to comprehend language.
I've gotten a lot of shit for this over the years. Not following conversations that others are having. Speaking out of turn and talking about unrelated stuff. Asking people to repeat themselves over and over and over again. And if I'm not actively paying attention to people, I can completely fail to recognize that they're speaking at all. It all just becomes random, meaningless noise to me.
Anyways... I got into learning ASL for a variety of reasons, including a love of language, a desire for a non-verbal communication tool, interest in learning about Deaf culture. But as I've been studying, I've discovered a reason to keep going that I completely didn't consider: It feels as though ASL may help me with my own auditory processing issues.
The attention thing is a great example. In hearing culture, it's often the case that people just start talking to you without getting your attention first. Or if they do, they get your attention by calling your name, yelling "hey" or something like that. Since I often don't register speech until I'm paying attention to someone, I miss a lot of this. I've even had people take it personally, getting angry and upset with me, throwing things at me to get my attention, etc.
In ASL communication, people use visual waves, vibrations and other non-speech methods of getting someone's attention, all of which work brilliantly for me. Best of all, people *wait* until they know I'm paying attention before starting to sign. This alone is just incredible. It means that the stress of worrying that I'm not hearing someone speak is gone, and I can just relax. Wow.
I'm also finding that using ASL with my friends can help clarify what's being said. Something gets garbled in my head, and I can use ASL to clarify without asking them to repeat themselves using more speech I'm liable to misunderstand. I need more time before I can really tell, but I suspect I may parse ASL better than English, at least when comparing signs I know well against their counterpart words in spoken English.
Anyways... I thought I'd share this story. It's been quite exciting discovering that ASL may be useful for me beyond what I expected it to be.
for sharing 