Advice about dominant hand use in signing.(Leftie)

Helene

Helene

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Yesterday was my very first class at College and the teacher asked what our dominant hand was, 3 of us are lefties.
He stated that it was perfectly fine to use our dominant hand for signing.
Up to now I've signed my very limited ASL with my right hand, I know maybe 10 signs I have used with my son when he was small.

I'm very left handed with regards to writing but in other fields I'm somewhat right handed because I was forced to.
I went to Culinary School where the left hand is used for carrying and I also learned to stir right and left-handed when cooking.

I'm not sure what to do, during class we went through counting up to 30 and the Alphabet and some of it I tried to look at the kid in front of me and got confused a few times.
Well, a LOT of times :shock: so much so that I'm debating if I should learn it right handed just for ease sake.

Are there any lefties on board that went right handed and it was fine?
I'm thinking this is a new skill and starting from scratch shouldn't make it too hard to learn?
Or should I just stick with being a leftie?
 
Using either hand as your dominante is fine.
But...
Dont switch it up in conversation....
Use which ever hand is best for you...be consistant..
Is your teacher Deaf?
 
Use whichever hand is most comfortable for you to use.

It's also OK to use both hands--just don't switch back and forth during one conversation because that would be confusing.

If you want to switch to left hand, now's a good time to do it while you're still new at signing.

Don't learn your signs from the other students--they might be doing it wrong themselves.
 
Helene said:
Yes he is deaf, he has 2 interpeters with him.
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Seriously? It would help you to learn with no interpretation better. Then you must work to communicate with the teacher.

What school is this?
 
Week 3 we don't use voice, we don't see the interpeters, they are sitting with their backs to us.
I assume by week 3 they'll be gone.
 
I echo the above-- use which ever hand feels more comfortable to you....you even could start working with the 'weaker' hand now while learning. I know quite a few ambidextrous signers (me among them)- comes in handy when you are holding something in one hand :D. Interestingly my dad is a lefty but I've seen him use his right hand for signing- well fingerspelling (slowly) to me. I'm trying to encourage him to use his left since his right hand hurts now (age I guess).
 
I had the crazy thought to learn right handed in class and then teach myself to do it left handed as well.
 
For now, I would recommend learning ASL well with one dominant hand, and then later using both (if you become fluent on one hand, you won't need to "teach" yourself the other hand; you'll just need to practice it).

Learning a new language can be confusing enough without adding more to it. Just get fluent first, then take on new challenges.
 
because of hand injuries I have no dominant hand anymore plus I find ASL alphabet hard on my hands which just aswel I don't use it. BSL lot better...my husband lefti I right at home we bit ad-hoc but that many years..
I would think use the hand you comfortable with
 
I am ambidextrous. I learn't ASL using my left hand even though my dominant hand is my right hand! Why you may ask? Simple! I like to challenge my self and do things I think I am not able to do!

As others have said, either hand is perfectly fine my dear. Simply use one hand signing in a conversation. But, switching hands won't confuse the one your talking to because regardless of what you sign with your left hand or your right hand, the other person is going to understand what you are saying. People aren't that dumb to not articulate what is/being/trying/meaning/meant to be said.

The only ones to be confused if you switch up in conversations are the ones who don't understand/articulate ASL good enough to know what is being signed. Native long time signers, do not get confused, unless your a bad signer.

Explore your possibilities.
 
Switching hands could confuse a low vision/blind deaf person- even one who is fluent and skilled. I know a few with tunnel vision. So they focus on the hand that is being used for finger spelling. If the other person suddenly switches in the middle the deafblind person is wondering what in the blue hell is going on and missing portions of the conversation.
 
Doesn't matter. Like someone said which is ever feels more natural. I'm left handed but sign with the right.
 
DeafDucky said:
Switching hands could confuse a low vision/blind deaf person- even one who is fluent and skilled. I know a few with tunnel vision. So they focus on the hand that is being used for finger spelling. If the other person suddenly switches in the middle the deafblind person is wondering what in the blue hell is going on and missing portions of the conversation.
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Well, everything has it's Pro's & Con's as they say, so some deafies may get confused whilst others do not. If I know that the person is HOS (Hard Of Seeing), then I will not sign/spell with both hands.

Try spelling my name as fast as you can with your dominant hand. Then, spell it as fast as you can while using both hands! You'll see that being ambidextrous in ASL is quite handy indeed!

I've always thought of it like this. I always wanted to be a butterfly! In my dreams, I became one but only one of my two(2) wings would work so when I tried to fly, I would swirl around and get no where.

The meaning of the butterfly is when you can use both wings and the meaning of being ambidextrous, it opens up more possibilities then you originally thought. I personally, rigorously push my self all the time.
 
Ha Hard of Seeing! That's an interesting turn on Low vision.

Speaking of- the bright blue you use is difficult to see on the dark theme of AD- I use the dark theme as I see white/light color text better on black/gray background and not so hurty on the eyes. I'm not asking/demanding anything- just pointing it out as I don't mind an occasional bright blue post :). I get around it by highlighting the blue (of course when highlighting on a dark theme it comes out white background and blue text- oh the irony...). There may be a few others who do also.
 
DeafDucky said:
Ha Hard of Seeing! That's an interesting turn on Low vision.

Speaking of- the bright blue you use is difficult to see on the dark theme of AD- I use the dark theme as I see white/light color text better on black/gray background and not so hurty on the eyes. I'm not asking/demanding anything- just pointing it out as I don't mind an occasional bright blue post :). I get around it by highlighting the blue (of course when highlighting on a dark theme it comes out white background and blue text- oh the irony...). There may be a few others who do also.
Click to expand...

Yes. I have a very hard time with that also. Just the plain black font is vastly better for low vision members.
 
I would add if doing exam stick with dominant hand..I assuming exams same format as ours.if you asked read a map then sign directions have a dominant hand.to this day I still bad at directions
 
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