Do deaf people write differently?

ash_scotland88

ash_scotland88

ash_scotland88

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Bit of a bully/debate on an other forum, with one guy being deaf his written language is atrocious.
People have claimed it's due to being deaf and there for sentences when signed, don't follow the same rules as our own and as such it's a pile of steaming WTF.
Fellow deaf uses claim this is all BS and they can write perfectly and why can't he.

Anybody have any experiences or facts to back this up or deny it.

I don't know what boat I am in. I can see both sides but maybe I can't appreciate or understand the differences in sentence structures (I struggled with French at school but this is both reading, writing and speaking where he is only reading and writing). But then surely reading other people's post he would then be in the same boat as us going "this is all wrong and doesn't make sense?"


Before Grammar Nazi's hate, yes I know I am not perfect, I am just trying to get an insight into this and some facts, possibly.
 
I think this guy could be completely deaf, as in no hearing implants are current surgeries can fix it.
Are you the same?

It may be worth while for myself to copy one of his posts to read.
 
In my experience (a fair amount of contact with deaf and hearing impaired) some do indeed write/type noticeably differently. At first glance it can sometimes almost look like text speak but is in fact different.
 
I don't think there would be many problems with writing long-term, although I have worked in a school which was a specialist centre for children with hearing impairment (I'm a teacher) and you tend to find that they struggle to start with with reading, and also spelling, because they can't hear the sounds that make up words. Having good phonic knowledge is a basic skill needed for both reading and writing and deaf or hearing-impaired children find this more difficult to learn as they can't rely on their hearing. Tends to take them longer to learn to read and write as a result.

Once they get that, there shouldn't be any reason why they can't write normally. Sentence structure can be picked up from reading as well as speaking.

How many times did I use the words "reading" and "writing" there? Apologies!
 
This is his "don't bully me" post:

because on my ***** blog BAD BOYS make tear at me and u are not nice, u not be like child you must grow up don't tear at me u very 16, 17, 18, or older must be grow up please u make nice send me not word for me u know im heard nice boys said leave tom alone he is special deaf our know about me that why mean NICE BOYS vs BAD BOYS BE FIGHT im dunno it ok please u not bully for me because im don't please please u must be nice boys for me
 
Sounds like he's retarded, not deaf. He's got a tragic case of LOL TXT SPK meets lack of brain.
 
ash_scotland88 said:
This is his "don't bully me" post:

because on my ***** blog BAD BOYS make tear at me and u are not nice, u not be like child you must grow up don't tear at me u very 16, 17, 18, or older must be grow up please u make nice send me not word for me u know im heard nice boys said leave tom alone he is special deaf our know about me that why mean NICE BOYS vs BAD BOYS BE FIGHT im dunno it ok please u not bully for me because im don't please please u must be nice boys for me
Click to expand...

??? That quote puts me in mind of "Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like"
 
I would say that is a mix of text speak and grammar of a deaf person. There is plenty in that paragraph that looks very similar to what I have seen before.
 
I'm deaf and have been since I was about 2 and a half years old. My English is pretty good, I got 2 A's at GCSE for English. The idea that someone is deaf and therefore automatically rubbish at English is preposterous. I have never learned how to sign however, but I can't see how that makes the slightest bit of difference. :)
 
I have a heavily dyslexic friend, where there's similiar style of writing going on:

"that it all my write work done do paniting pulic art do rest morro most need photo copy :P need get stay for my great day morro pics then gettin ****ed"
Helps if read with a heavy glaswegian accent. She isn't "retarded" just heavily, heavily, dyslexic (could be more but that's all she admitted to me) and talking to an other freind and it's a case of asking her to think about what she is trying to say and taking the time to say it more coherently - some stuff is completely WTF. And looking over her past Fb statuses this is the worst by far!

Could there be a case of something like dyslexia as well?
 
ash_scotland88 said:
This is his "don't bully me" post:

because on my ***** blog BAD BOYS make tear at me and u are not nice, u not be like child you must grow up don't tear at me u very 16, 17, 18, or older must be grow up please u make nice send me not word for me u know im heard nice boys said leave tom alone he is special deaf our know about me that why mean NICE BOYS vs BAD BOYS BE FIGHT im dunno it ok please u not bully for me because im don't please please u must be nice boys for me
Click to expand...


Looks to me almost like some kind of computer program, although I don't know what...
 
MarcLister said:
I'm deaf and have been since I was about 2 and a half years old. My English is pretty good, I got 2 A's at GCSE for English. The idea that someone is deaf and therefore automatically rubbish at English is preposterous. I have never learned how to sign however, but I can't see how that makes the slightest bit of difference. :)
Click to expand...

Please don't misunderstand if you think I am stating all deaf people type like that. I absolutely am not stating that. I am however stating that I have had plenty of contact with deaf clients and colleagues to recognise the grammatical irregularities.

Not all deaf people are afforded the same attention in school and of course there are plenty of people on these forums who have a definite lacking when it comes to grammar, so it is by no means exclusive to the deaf community.
 
MarcLister said:
I'm deaf and have been since I was about 2 and a half years old. My English is pretty good, I got 2 A's at GCSE for English. The idea that someone is deaf and therefore automatically rubbish at English is preposterous. I have never learned how to sign however, but I can't see how that makes the slightest bit of difference. :)
Click to expand...

Are you completely deaf? How do you communicate with others of you don't sign? I always thought it would be crucial to learn to sign if you were deaf.
 
I am deaf from birth too, however being brought up in a hearing family I never really bothered with signing and prefered oral communication though signing has it uses such as in busy / noisy environments where I just can't hear (distinguish words) in.

I do have some sign langauge though (bit of a hybrid sign which I learnt during secondary school and picked up again more recently) I feel more comfortable understanding it than 'talking' using it (find that reading something is often easier than speaking, at least my GCSE French was like that :P).

That said a few things to consider BSL (British Sign Language) does not form full sentences like English would. As a result deaf people who use it as their first language and often those that have more severe deafness will write more like the BSL signs would be i.e. with gaps and a lot more direct. If you have met deaf people you might have thought they were often very direct, and straight to the point, which sign langauge tends to be focussing on key things rather than all the words inbetween that join those key words up.

Also in BSL the signs can be arranged differently to the English for instance asking someones name in English would be 'What is your name?' A literal translation of the BSL sign (if I get it right :P, like I said it's more a second language for me that I acquired to communicate with deaf friends, would be something along the lines of 'Name what you?'
 
apparently people with full hearing do a bit of subconcious lip reading anyway so i can see why a deaf person may take a different approach to writing something due to the brain working slightly differently to get the message down
 
I am deaf in both ears, wear a hearing aid in one ear... I seem to cope fine (apart from when I can't hear :p).
 
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