For those who sign

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The only friends I have are deaf (long story), and my signing's pretty good...I started signing last December and within about 3 months other deaf people were starting to ask me if I was deaf or hearing. My language acquisition's always been pretty good, but I've been having major difficulties understanding sign. I can fingerspell faster than some deaf (I've been "talking" to myself in fingerspelling ever since 4th grade as a nervous tic almost) but when other people are fingerspelling to me, they must...go....very....slowly....for me to understand. Same with words. I can be very familiar with a word, using it at least 3 or 4 times in a sentence, and then literally 2 seconds later not recognize it at all when the person I'm talking to uses it. I thought, when I first starting signing, that this was a simple issue of learning to visually recognize the sign (as opposed to using the sign myself) but as time goes by it's becoming more and more evident that this is not how it works for most people at all. When learning spoken languages, I'm able to speak and understand fairly equally, but for some reason I don't seem to be progressing in sign.

Any other autistic signers have the same problem, or an explanation for this?

I think it just takes practice to be able to recognize a sign in the fast flow of a conversation. It's one thing to know a sign, it's another to be able to pick it out of a rapid flow and understand it without losing everything else around it. It's the same thing as learning any other language. It just takes practice. More for some people, less for others. Give yourself some time. You haven't been studying sign very long.

I've actually been seriously studying for 2 years now...and I see these people on a regular basis. When I hang out with friends, I sign, not talk, so in this context it's pretty unusual that I've made virtually no improvements on recognizing sign

An uncle from my mother's side is deaf, and I'm bad with signing when I need to comunicate him something. I'm not very close to my uncle because I rarely meet him, so I don't have the practice that I need.

Sometimes I think my uncle is aspie, for a lot of reasons, but that's another story

It does, tremendously...I can sign almost as fast as I talk but when my friends respond they have to sign as slowly and deliberately as a teacher would on the first day of ASL 101 class. It's incredibly frustrating and embarassing, for both me and whoever I'm speaking to, since I'm able to express myself so freely but have such difficulty understanding them. That's why it's such a problem and I can't seem to fix it.

Maybe you're focusing too hard on the individual signs. Maybe you just need to relax and watch the flow. I've found that my comprehension of Spanish dramatically worsens when I focus too much on understanding each individual word. Just try to grasp the overall meaning of what they're saying, even if you don't get everything.

Just like learning any language, the only way to become truly proficient is to immerse yourself in it, by spending a lot of time observing people who speak that language fluently.

As an example: I studied Spanish for four years and was so good at it, I set a record on a national Spanish exam. But when I went to volunteer in Central America for a year, it took several weeks before I was able to understand a fast-paced conversation between native speakers, despite the fact that I already knew all the vocabulary. One night it all clicked and I began to understand, but before that I could hardly pick out two words from a sentence. I felt so lost at first, and I thought I would never get it! But it did get better... so don't give up!

I am new on this forum. I have known I have AS since Friday, April 12, 1996 @ 1:47PM. I was diagnosed by Dr. Brian McConville, MD neuropsychiatrist @ Cincinnati Children's Hospital. I am a very good signer, but the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing have lied on me a great deal in the past 3 years about "being @ work 24/7". Plus the Deaf-Blind want nothing to do with me even though they were my BEST FRIENDS in 2003. I am very good at TACTILE signing (feeling the signs with my hands instead of reading them visually). But it seems only the Deaf-Blind want to let me read their signs tactually. When signing at a comfortable pace for tactile signing, I really understand. But faster...I don't think so! But I just feel like I'm screwed for finding new tactile signing friends. The Deaf-Blind just won't tell me what I said/did on 12/13/2003 that got me kicked out of OADB (the Ohio Association of the Deaf-Blind). OADB really CAN'T give me enough contact with the Deaf-Blind. I need them by my side every weekend. I need their touch so bad and I just can't find any Deaf-Blind people who are willing to get with me and be my friends. That is a damn shame! I'm a very likeable guy. I've known American Sign Language for 10 years and I'll know it till the day I die. I'm a very proud signer. I really don't cuss all that much. Whenever I do I usually censor myself.

I have the most difficulty with spoken English. I'm fine with WRITTEN English. I own & use a TTY for most of my telecommunications. Too bad the Deaf & Hard of Hearing are throwing away their TTYs. If there came a day when I could no longer use my TTY to contact government offices & utility companies that would *SUCK*!

Any questions for me please do NOT hesitate. Especially all you Aspie signers. If we can't seem to have a sense of connectedness with the Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, & Deaf-Blind, why don't we try to have a sense of connectedness with each other? Isn't that what these forums are for?

not deaf but often non verbal,am use a basic sign language and am slowly learning makaton.
signing of any sort can take a long time to learn,keep at it.

That's interesting!

Why is that?