I have a question i'd like to ask an intellectual person who was born deaf

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shootershq

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I will try as hard as possible to not let this sound offensive. Thats the last thing i want to do. Its just, i began wondering about this some time ago. I have looked up the answer online, but i still have a hard time wrapping my head around it. Rather than reading what some "expert" delivering 2nd hand knowledge wrote, i figured i'd go to the source.
The question which was posed to me some time ago was, how does someone who was born deaf think? Seeing as they would have no grasp of standard oral language, they wouldn't think as those who hear do. Usually, we think by hearing our own voice inside our heads. (I guess none of us get tired of hearing ourselves speak) The answer i found online was that they would think in whatever language they were familiar with. Most commonly sign. But, i cant quite wrap my head around the concept of thinking "visually" and not "verbally". So, if anyone reads this and doesn't find my curiosity offensive, a little insight would be appreciated. If i were thinking to myself about what i have to do tomorrow, i would hear myself saying something to the effect of . . . "i gotta get up, shower, walk the dog, and go to work." How would that same scenario go for you????
 
shootershq said:
I will try as hard as possible to not let this sound offensive. Thats the last thing i want to do. Its just, i began wondering about this some time ago. I have looked up the answer online, but i still have a hard time wrapping my head around it. Rather than reading what some "expert" delivering 2nd hand knowledge wrote i figured i'd go to the source.
The question which was posed to me some time ago was, how does someone who was born deaf think? Seeing as they would have no grasp of standard oral language, they wouldn't think as those who hear do. Usually, we hear our own voice inside our heads. (I guess none of us get tired of hearing ourselves speak) The answer i found online was that they would think in whatver language they were familiar with. Most commonly sign. But, i cant quite wrap my head around thinking "visually" and not "verbally". So, if anyone reads this and doesn't find my curiosity offensive, a little insight would be appreciated. If i were thinking to myself about what i have to do tomarrow, i would hear myself saying something to the effect of . . . "i gotta get up, shower, walk the dog, and go to work." How would that same scenario go for you????
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My pretty scenrio would go like this ...

'Oh dang, it's monday! *groans as I get out of bed*'
 
there are a lot of other topics asking the same question. do a bit of browsing....theres one topic that has quite a number of pages of responses :aw:
 
Thanks, ill check around and see what i can find. I guess its 25 years of conditioning to do things a certain way. But, ive tried to think in pictures, words (written or typed), or other types of visuals, and i just can't do it. I guess it sounds stupid that I've spent this much time worrying about something that has no bearing on my life. But, I'm the type of person who wants to be able to understand EVERYTHING. I've always sought out knowledge and pride myself on trying to understand where other people are coming from. I've just struggled with this one. lol
 
shootershq said:
Thanks, ill check around and see what i can find. I guess its 25 years of conditioning to do things a certain way. But, ive tried to think in pictures, words (written or typed), or other types of visuals, and i just can't do it. I guess it sounds stupid that I've spent this much time worrying about something that has no bearing on my life. But, I'm the type of person who wants to be able to understand EVERYTHING. I've always sought out knowledge and pride myself on trying to understand where other people are coming from. I've just struggled with this one. lol
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http://www.alldeaf.com/introduce-yo...iews-questions-surveys-please-read-first.html

That link is official instructions from a moderator.

But I can tell you if you look there is at least one thread about it. I think the general mode of thought for most of us born deaf we think in pictures.

Aside from JClarke, who parties too much and has to drag his aching bones off to work. ;)
 
Bottesini said:
http://www.alldeaf.com/introduce-yo...iews-questions-surveys-please-read-first.html

That link is official instructions from a moderator.

But I can tell you if you look there is at least one thread about it. I think the general mode of thought for most of us born deaf we think in pictures.

Aside from JClarke, who parties too much and has to drag his aching bones off to work. ;)
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Dunno about others but I consider myself a hard core intellectual and I think in pictures.
 
deafskeptic said:
Dunno about others but I consider myself a hard core intellectual and I think in pictures.
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The "intellectual person" made me a little worried in case he meant he hoped at least some of us could read and write.
 
That is a good point of asking us about our thoughts. I was born deaf and did not have hearing aid (left ear only) until I was 9 years old. I could not use oral or sign language at all. Usually it is mostly in pictures a lot. When I was in elementary school, I got interested in trying to read words. I did not know that is what make me understand what people in the writing is saying. I got excited about it. When it comes to oral speech or langauge, I had difficult trying to make out sound when I could not hear that well. I only hear environment sounds usually loud noises, not soft. With speech therapy, it was a struggle to communicate and I don't remember using the oral language to communicate with someone like my classmates, teachers or in dreams. I learned that there was a sign langauge at a Deaf school which my mainstream school is not aware of. I want to sign badly than in the mainstream school. I tried to protest to the principal that I do not want oral-only program and I would rather have ASL or sign language. That was about 45 years ago when I want to sign instead of oral language. In my classroom in high school we had about eight deaf students at the time and I thought they want to sign too. But our principal said no to us and thought that sign language is very bad and we should learn speech and lipread. I was mad at him on that. That is why I was not happy in my high school. I can think just like any hearing people, but in dreams I think I still use pictures, even in signs sometimes and other times I used words a little bit, not much. I hope you understand what I am saying. ASL is a big plus and I do really need it very much. :D
 
There was another thread about how congenitally Deaf people think as well but I can't remember what it's called so wouldn't know how to search it.
 
I have congenital deafness and that my parents were very aware of the issues around how we deaf people hear. I remembered quite well that I was watching my parents lips quite intently and nothing was coming out but was able to match lip movements to an object that I would mimick it but without sound. And also discovered if I touch my parents chest there was something there but could not figure it out as to what it was. Until I was fitted with bodyworn hearing aids at 6mths old that I realised it was sound. These are my only earliest memories albiet very very vague but it was such a moment that I remembered it at all. I have asked my friends hearing and deaf about their earliest memories and they were only from 3yrs and above.

Reason I remember this is because speech development starts at an early age from 6mths onwards. My mother knew this and encouraged me to talk and she would teach me to talk via the balloon method and use of objects like - sheep object to say the sheep and ba ba sounds.

Not sure how beneficial that was but I'm sure it helped me in terms of speech discrimination and speaking well. I know that my speech will never be 100% perfect but understood well by my peers etc...
 
shootershq said:
I will try as hard as possible to not let this sound offensive. Thats the last thing i want to do. Its just, i began wondering about this some time ago. I have looked up the answer online, but i still have a hard time wrapping my head around it. Rather than reading what some "expert" delivering 2nd hand knowledge wrote, i figured i'd go to the source.
The question which was posed to me some time ago was, how does someone who was born deaf think? Seeing as they would have no grasp of standard oral language, they wouldn't think as those who hear do. Usually, we think by hearing our own voice inside our heads. (I guess none of us get tired of hearing ourselves speak) The answer i found online was that they would think in whatever language they were familiar with. Most commonly sign. But, i cant quite wrap my head around the concept of thinking "visually" and not "verbally". So, if anyone reads this and doesn't find my curiosity offensive, a little insight would be appreciated. If i were thinking to myself about what i have to do tomorrow, i would hear myself saying something to the effect of . . . "i gotta get up, shower, walk the dog, and go to work." How would that same scenario go for you????
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same thing as you see the Latin word for a body part, you know what it mean, you know how to spell it, but you never heard it being said.
 
Lighthouse77 said:
same thing as you see the Latin word for a body part, you know what it mean, you know how to spell it, but you never heard it being said.
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Yup. I know a lot of words but I have no idea how to pronounce them because I've never heard anyone use them.
 
deafskeptic said:
Yup. I know a lot of words but I have no idea how to pronounce them because I've never heard anyone use them.
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Same here.

I get criticized for not writing like I talk... well.. why the hell would I want to say a word I would goof up on if it's longer than three or four syllables? Let alone... the dictionary doesn't always match up with the regional accents.

So yeah, for some reason... hearing people figure you need a much more extended spoken vocabulary than written ones.
 
souggy said:
Same here.

I get criticized for not writing like I talk... well.. why the hell would I want to say a word I would goof up on if it's longer than three or four syllables? Let alone... the dictionary doesn't always match up with the regional accents.

So yeah, for some reason... hearing people figure you need a much more extended spoken vocabulary than written ones.
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:lol: yep.. I never use the big words when I speak to the hearing because I usually get the pronunciation wrong.


I remember reading the Bellefleur Mysteries by Joyce Carol Oates. I had always thought the name Xavier was pronounced X-fair. Uh no. I noticed my pronunciation of his name clashed badly with Joyce Carol Oates' prose so I looked up the pronunciation in the dictionary. Based on the prose by Oates, I thought it likely was pronounced Kay-vere. Not quite. It's pronounced Zay-vere.
 
deafskeptic said:
:lol: yep.. I never use the big words when I speak to the hearing because I usually get the pronunciation wrong.


I remember reading the Bellefleur Mysteries by Joyce Carol Oates. I had always thought the name Xavier was pronounced X-fair. Uh no. I noticed my pronunciation of his name clashed badly with Joyce Carol Oates' prose so I looked up the pronunciation in the dictionary. Based on the prose by Oates, I thought it likely was pronounced Kay-vere. Not quite. It's pronounced Zay-vere.
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A small correction here: I am referring to both Bellefleur and Winterhurn.
 
The "intellectual person" made me a little worried in case he meant he hoped at least

I didn't mean anything of the sort. I just meant that i hoped someone would answer that might be able to explain it better to me than the things i had read online. I would never suggest that the deaf can't read or write. I have a friend who is deaf but he didn't lose his hearing until his early teens. Therefore he still thinks orally. And speaks orally. He actually told me he has a hard time grasping the idea of thinking in sign. But, he said it took him a long time to pick up on it because he was relluctant at first. He wanted to read lips and talk to people as "normally" as possible. He didn't attempt to learn sign for a number of years after. He did say that his dreams go either way. Sometimes he is hearing people talk, and sometimes he cannot and they are using sign or he compaired it to closed captioning sometimes. I meant no offense at the intellectual comment. Just that i haven't been able to grasp the idea. and cannot communicate with the hearing impaired anyway but on here. And wanted the thoughts of people who have thought about the differances in the way we think and wondered how it works for the other half as well. And someone who wouldn't mind openly discussing it with me and not think i was trying to offend them. I had been worried about approaching the subject with someone hearing impaired in person, for fear that i wouldn't choose my words carefully enough and might say something they took offensively. Turns out apparently i did it anyway. lol. Not at all what i meant though. I assure you. The only 2 hearing impaired people i've spent much time with in my life taught me well enough that they worked double hard to learn everything they could so that no one could ever call them "deaf and dumb" . They may be deaf but certainly are not dumb.
 
So those of you who do think in pictures. Would you compare it to the way you dream, or day dream for that matter. I can only do so if i close my eyes. Is that the case for you? Or, do you have the ability to do so during everyday moments?
 
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