74

I must admit I have no deep knowledge of stuttering, but I always thought it was a psychological thing. So if you teach someone a sign language, will they continue stuttering? On the same note, are there native sign language speakers who stutter?

top 12 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 2 months ago

Maybe if you sign with Parkinsons...

[-] spittingimage@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I was thinking maybe some kind of hand/arm injury, but Parkinsons makes more sense.

[-] Atin@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

That was my first thought too

[-] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I suspect they do but don't know for sure. The reasons I would think they do are because they use a lot of other linguistic concepts almost eerily similarly to the point that when you account for the sensory difference there's not many differences left. I've also seen some fascinating clinical examples (some of them actually from discussing the patients' ~~speech~~ sign? qualities with the interpreter since that's part of my assessment).

One of the coolest things I ever saw was a patient who signed ASL as a first language and couldn't write well. So where a hearing person might sound a word out even just silently feeling your lips move, they were fingerspelling off to the side to "feel out" how the words were spelled! It might seem really dumb of me but it really blew my mind to think about at the time.

I forget where I read about this one, but deaf schizophrenics tend to visually hallucinate disembodied signing hands or moving lips, instead of hallucinating auditory voices.

In another case I saw the patient had a lot of weird, wide jerky arm movements that could be really alarming to an unexpecting passerby. We knew the patient was deaf and signed, but we also weren't certain it was ASL (long story). The interpreter then told us that whether or not the patient was typically able to speak ASL, they were not doing so at that time. I don't recall if or how they would have checked for any of the other sign languages). But it turned out when they cleared up that they did in fact speak ASL, which means that was sign-salad! Word-salad is a classic symptom of psychosis and is exactly what it sounds like- seemingly random words and syllables just all mashed in together. AND IT HAPPENS IN SIGN LANGUAGE TOO BECAUSE IT'S ALSO A LANGUAGE AND THAT'S FASCINATING!

Also I suspect it would either manifest as shakiness in the hands or something else entirely that isn't intuitive from a hearing perspective. For instance I found out that to show double letters in fingerspelling you slide, you don't bounce. I wouldn't have thought of it that way but it makes sense now that I know I guess.

Anyway I really should go to sleep I work tonight!

[-] Blyfh@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Thanks for telling these anecdotes! Sign languages intrigue me, as their modality is so different. But when you actually look at it closer, you see how they're not really all that different to phonetic languages. It's mostly the interface that's different. The concept behind it is the same.

My guess was that teaching a stuttering person a sign language could be a possible solution to overcome that psychological barrier since the way you produce communication is fundamentally different. If the subconscious can't figure out how to stutter with hands, might it drop it when signing? Anyways, I do think that stuttering for native signers exists, as it seems only natural. I don't think that phenomena is bound to articulatory-auditory languages. But maybe as a nonnative this might not be so intuitive...

[-] BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

βœŒοΈπŸ–•πŸ–•πŸ–•πŸ‘Š means nnnnno. Joke aside idk... It would be hesitation rather than stutter

[-] sznowicki@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Stuttering is a failure connection between brain, lungs and mouth. Has nothing to do with hands so no, sign language people don’t stutter.

Source: I stutter since 4yo and spent a lot of time with other stuttering people helping them.

[-] azulon@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I imagine that a failure of connection between brain and hands is possible though. We wouldn't call it "stutter" normally (it would probably surface as some kind of tremors), but effectively it would be a sign language alternative to stuttering.

[-] some_guy 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Reminded me of the podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking called T-T-T-Today, Junior. I couldn't find it on the official site cause it's not very well designed for search. I'm assuming my link will give the same content I originally heard. It was pretty heartbreaking.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

My brother had a stutter. It's a bit psychological and a bit just technique. A lot of people can learn to drop their stutter with physical therapy and speech training, like my brother did. I doubt a stutter could even manifest in sign language with the exception of other issues that cause involuntary hand movement (like tourettes or other disorders that come with tics or muscle spasms), considering it's not a problem in the brain but somewhere between the brain and your mouth/lungs. But nobody would call that a stutter.

[-] Blyfh@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Oh I see. Thanks for the insight! So that means no stuttering.

[-] Lath@kbin.earth 2 points 2 months ago

If it's psychological, it might happen sort of. We are quite prone to subconscious suggestions, so someone in a susceptible state of mind could perhaps convince themselves to unintentionally create such a type of stutter.

this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2024
74 points (95.1% liked)

No Stupid Questions

34336 readers
933 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS