Sign language

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I never had speech delay as a child but when I found myself in social situations with people who were scary looking I would go silent, I kinda do that today being a scary looking guy as well. So I learned a bit of ASL and I made up a sign that stands for troll, so whenever there was someone scary around I would sign, "Hello Mr. Troll!" and start speaking, that bit of humor got me to speak.

In primary school there was a deaf boy in my grade and his helper taught us all the alphabet. He was never in my class so I didn't really interact with him and I never learned any more than the letters, but I would really like to. I still remember the letters, so I could spell things out but it would take a really long time.

I'm not fluent, but definitely conversational in ASL and I can use PSE when needed. I started learning ASL in kindergarten, not because I'm deaf, but because my kindergarten was awesome and had several d/Deaf students. I've had d/Deaf and HoH friends over the years, and when I didn't have a practice buddy, I would watch videos from the library to keep up my receptive skills. Thank goodness for the invention of YouTube! Now, I'm a part of my university's ASL club: Talk to the Hands. Next year, I'll be president, which is really exciting.

As an aspie with significant difficulties interpreting facial expressions and body language, I have not struggled with ASL, which may seem surprising because ASL grammar is largely based in facial expressions and body language. However, I've actually found it easier to figure those things out when signing. Part of that is because it was expressly taught in a classroom, not just assumed, which was wonderful. Another part of it is that I'm very, very visual and find it easier to process information that is ALL visual, not mixed with audio.

For me, the best part of signing is that ASL *does* come naturally for me. The grammar is more in line with how I think than English is. It has more flexibility and it allows me to process from thought to expression more easily. As a friend of mine so eloquently said the other night, I have a voice in ASL. For me, speaking is hard, exhausting, and unreliable. I can always sign though.

Thank you, earthmom! I reread your original post, and wanted to further comment on your questions. In my experience, signs have been very intuitive. The few that I've encountered and didn't understand the reasoning behind, I could easily find out the history of the sign and make sense out of it.

Keep in mind my biases, however: I'm a very visual aspie with a special interest in languages, and my only experience has been with American Sign Language and some limited exposure to Signed English and British Sign Language.

If it's something you're interested in, definitely check out a class. Community colleges often offer them, and some disability resource centers either offer classes or can put you in touch with them. Ask if you can get in touch with the instructor in advance and ask about how classes run. You want to find a small class, ideally with a voice-off policy during class time (that is, no speaking, only signing, gesturing, and writing notes to communicate). If you have eye contact issues, you may want to discuss that with the teacher in advance, as eye contact is a major part of Deaf culture. I have problems with eye contact, but I get by just looking at the person's face without actually making eye contact. It's interesting, because for me, it felt like the NT-aspie playing field was more level in the ASL classroom because none of us were allowed to talk, lol.

Now that I've written far more than I intended, I'll wrap this up for now, haha. I'm happy to answer any other questions you have that may come up, or just generally chat about sign.

Usually, my speaking abilities are just within the accepted range of normality. On good days, in the right environment, I'm just the quiet kid who only really talks much with good friends. Hell, with good friends, I might talk a lot. Of course, with those friends, I'm in the right environment, and able to rock, flap, sign, and do whatever else makes me comfortable. With strangers or in uncomfortable situations, forget it. I try so hard not to stim and to pretend to make eye contact while speaking with the appropriate tone and all that I stutter and my voice goes away. If it's a bad day, I speak in concepts and repeat myself a lot: "no more noise no more noise no more noise no more no more. time for quiet." I know, from somebody who types like this, that seems absurd. But hey, I like to call myself mixed-functioning. Give me the right circumstances, and I'm within the normal-ish range, able to pass as just odd. Signing is good. Signing is consistent for me. I like consistency. Consistency is good.

I'm so glad there are other people on the spectrum who get a voice with sign.

Me too.

I am not fluent in any sign language, however I used some ASL to communicate with my daughter when she was going through speech therapy (daughter isn't autistic, as far as we know... she had a minor speech delay. We used ASL and "baby sign" until she got the hang of actually talking... the signing helped her learn vocabulary... I wish I would have kept up with it though, we had a lot of fun!). My stepmother (she's got no hearing issues or anything) is fluent in ASL, I think she took it as her language credit in college.... she was teaching my daughter whenever she'd go to visit. Kiddo would come home with 2 or 3 new signs that my dad would have to translate for me. She sadly no longer signs. It was a tremendous help to us though. (My stepmother and I do NOT get along so her teaching me is out of the question.)

I'm considering doing the "baby sign" stuff with my next child, but I am not sure how well I'll be able to learn and remember the signs. (the "baby sign" stuff really helped my first child learn to talk.)

Deaf PSE user.

I'm really interested in signed languages. I don't know if I want to learn BSL (British Sign Language) or SSE (Sign Supported English) - what I can do now is more like SSE (most signs are the same in BSL and SSE, but SSE has English grammar) because it takes more time and effort to learn the grammar of BSL so I can only construct very simple sentences in BSL. If I learn SSE properly, it would probably be a help in day to day life as I can use it when talking and if others use it back at me I have more chance of understanding what they were saying. It'd be a big help in noisy areas. I used it a bit in a pub once because the guy I was talking to knew some signs and it was much easier than trying to filter out all the sound to hear everything he was saying.
BSL is good though, like Age1600 says, you can convey some things much quicker/better in a proper Deaf language. But yeah, the facial expressions are hard. I've heard BSL relies even more on facial expression than ASL! I find BSL more interesting, and like the idea of being able to have conversations with Deaf people in their language. Perhaps I'll try and learn both BSL and SSE !

Has anyone seen lovesbth on YouTube? His name is Lee and he does 'Lee's BSL Songs' He is an Aspie and he translates songs into BSL and signs along with them! I love it! Here's him doing 'Friday, I'm in Love' by The Cure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sh0iYynMLw

I also know a few signs in Makaton. I find it interesting to compare to BSL - some signs are the same and many are similar. I know Makaton 'yes' and 'no' and hope they might be useful for when I have bad shutdowns and won't talk or move my head.

I've been told the ASL for 'Deaf' is the same as the BSL for 'Hearing'! Can anyone confirm this? BSL for 'hearing' is using the index finger to point to one ear, and then moving down in a smooth movement to point to the mouth.

When I was in junior school there was a sign language club and in year 4 I went there after school to learn BSL and I still remember the alphabet and a couple of transport signs. I know a few from that Cbeebies program lol

Kajjie, that's really funny, because yes, one of the most common ASL signs for Deaf is exactly what you just described as the BSL sign for hearing! The ASL sign for hearing actually refers to speech, which becomes interesting when an individual can hear but not speak. It's one of those cultural evolution quirks. How does one sign Deaf in BSL?

I didn't speak or even understand verbal language until about four so my parents had to use sign language to communicate with me. I still remember "no" and "stop".