Ask The Deaf – Sounds Vs Images
Question: If you have always been deaf, what is your experience like with words? I mean, when you think a sentence does it run through your head as “sounded out” words, or is it more the concept of the symbol? This is difficult to describe. It is like the “is the yellow you see, the yellow I see debate.”
Do you feel like you think more in visual imagery than in words?
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My Answer: I do think of words by its sounds, but in a mixture of a visual representative — the shape of the words. Many times, I would stall while writing some words out, feeling that the shape of the word is wrong, so I get fixated on the spelling of the word, and feeling convinced that it’s misspelled, even when it’s not.
I am very much a visual person — I remember people faces, scenery locations, and so on forth. I don’t easily remember names of streets, people, and other stuff. When I do, it’s usually the first syllable — so if I am trying to remember your username, it would degrade to something like Jason. At the worst, I would just simply know it’s a 5 letter word starting with “J”.
Funny enough, I don’t do crossword puzzles.
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Her Answer: I usually think out in words but do occasionally hit images instead of words. Probably because in early childhood in preschool and elementary school, it was strongly emphasized on word reading with spelling and vocabularies.
Images sometimes hit when I know the word but it’s right on tip of my hands. Some of unique ASL words where there are no good literal translations to match it.
Q: For example?
A: “Sick” sign but not sick, and “Train zoom“.
Q: So you think of the action of the sign?
A: Yah more like that, since signing illustrates what you are describing, et cetera.
