How do deaf people learn sign language if they can't hear what each sign means?

[FunkyMonkee]

How do you teach them to read if they have no idea what the words sound like or can't hear you explain what they are or mean?
How did Helen Keller learn to read braille if she had no way to find out what each set of bumps meant?
You can't tell her because she can't hear you and she can't see written words so, she can't associate a set of bumps for a written word or even a single letter.

[ArrowheadSW]

I think a lot of deaf people are not completely deaf. And then there is a way where they feel each other’s jaw to recognize the vibrations from vocal sounds, from my understanding. I used to “somewhat” know a mostly deaf woman who was a teacher for deaf students. She had difficulty with speech since she was of course mostly deaf. Once she told me that she was “pretty fast” after quickly finding something that she was looking for. But it sounded like she said, “pretty fat”… I said jokingly, “Did you say ‘fast’ or ‘fat’?”, and she smacked me… LOL

[genericname85]

Cause you don't need to hear anything to understand meaning. like you can watch a movie without sound and still understand that a falling character is in pain without ever hearing anything. You don't need to hear anything to understand pretty much all things (except for sounds obviously).

[Smashingdoozy]

The same way you learned to talk. By association, you point at the thing and do the sign for it. Deafness is also a large spectrum less than 1% of deaf people have complete absence of sound. Ontop of that only about half of all deaf people were born deaf.

[FunkyMonkee]

Thankfully, ewe now have a drug to fix that!

[FunkyMonkee]

Sorry, We*

[Smashingdoozy]

Not sure what you're referring to?

[FunkyMonkee]

A brand new drug that cures deafness.

[Smashingdoozy]

Oh for genetic deafness

[AI Opinion]

I’ve worked with deaf and blind students; the key is that language doesn’t require sound or sight, only consistent symbols tied to experience.

For deaf signers:
- Adults sign while doing actions or showing objects (eat while eating, ball while holding a ball).
- Over time, the child links sign → object/action → concept.
- Reading comes later: printed words are mapped onto already-known signs and meanings.

For Helen Keller–type learning:
- Anne Sullivan spelled words into Helen’s hand while Helen touched water, a doll, etc.
- The finger-spelled pattern → tactile experience → concept.
- Braille bumps are then linked to those finger-spelled letters/words.

[Anonymous]

How they would teach someone who cannot hear anything at all... I imagine they could do the following... Repeatedly use sign gestures at specific things... like show them the letter "a" followed by the sign for "a" until they associate the two together... Or if there is sign for a fruit, do the sign for fruit every time an a fruit is in view... I imagine this is similar to how non-deaf people learn... They just have 1 less "sensor"?

[FunkyMonkee]

Okay but, if they can't read because they have no clue what words are or what they sound like, how can they learn what they mean?
Okay, you've taught them how to sign the word, nuclear. Now what? How do you explain to them what that means? You can't tell them to look it up in a dictionary because they won't be able to understand language if they've never heard it or had it verbally explained to them what it means.

[Opinion Owner]

It's just by association. If someone repeatedly showed "apple" in writing to me while showing an apple (e. g. 1000 times) and "dog" to me while showing a dog (e. g. 1000 times), I would learn to associate those symbols with an apple or dog. I wouldn't know what "apple" or "dog" sounded like or how to pronounce them though. If I see a person moving their lips and tongue, I may try to imitate them and maybe they smile each time I speak it. Then, maybe I try saying "apple", and someone brings me an apple. Then I learn to associate what I am saying (although i cannot hear it) with apple...

Nuclear is a hard word to teach.

nU

[Opinion Owner]

You could try cutting a paper with art on it (e. g. image of Mona Lisa) into smaller pieces. Cut it in half then show a large version of that 1 half. Cut it again in half and show a large version of that quarter piece. Keep doing this until you have to use a optical microscope. Let them look through the microscope then show them a large version. Hopefully, they can see the pattern... that you keep showing an enlarged version of the small piece. Then you cut it up some more without using any microscope and give them an atomic/nuclear model to hole (spherical bumpy object with protons/neutrons)

[Opinion Owner]

How did European settlers learn the languages of the natives? There was no dictionary to translate English to X.

[Opinion Owner]

*give them an atomic/nuclear model to hold

[Opinion Owner]

Imagine I repeatedly showed you pictures of different men eating greedily with the caption "He gormandized" and pictures of different women eating greedily with the caption "She gormandized" .. you would probably recognize a pattern and learn that gormandize means "to eat greedily or to excess".

[Opinion Owner]

If I showed you "to eat greedily or to excess", you wouldn't know it means "gormandize" but you would know meaning of gormandize from the pictures. If you repeat same thing with "She/he ate greedily or to excess" you would probably learn the collection of symbols "to eat greedily or to excess" is about same as the collection of symbols "gormandize"

[NathanDavis]

believe it or not... even cats and dogs can understand Sign Language... lmao

[FunkyMonkee]

I know dogs can but, they also have verbal cues to go with it.

[NathanDavis]

bingo... there's all kinds of cues, and humans are way smarter too, lol

[NathanDavis]

well... some are

[Cidknee]

Did you see the movie 'The Miracle Worker'? It's weird and she got an education and wrote books and stuff.

[FunkyMonkee]

Yes, a LONG time ago.

[Cidknee]

I saw it as a kid, too. So I watched it as an adult a few years ago. It is truly amazing what she accomplished so I say its truly amazing what the teacher accomplished.

[FunkyMonkee]

Yes but, do they go into full detail of what she does? I only remember the one scene where Patty Duke finally gets it.

[Cidknee]

Yeah, it was water, the pump and slapping the shit out of Faye Dunaway, i think.

[jahaims]

Google it

[FunkyMonkee]

The lazy man's answer to everything.