4 Surprising Superpowers Fluent ASL Signers Have
According to Gallaudet University, ASL is the sixth most common language in the United States. The Deaf community is expanding faster and faster every year, and one awesome result is the growing number of hearing signers—both native signers and hearing sign language interpreters.
The astounding benefits of knowing sign language are pretty obvious if you’re deaf. But what about the benefits for people who can hear just fine?
There’s a fair amount of research out there on how learning ASL when you’re young affects your brain for the better. In particular there are four fascinating benefits that have the science and the experts to back them up. So if you’re fluent in ASL or you’re thinking about teaching your kids to sign, here are four mind-blowing reasons why you definitely should:
1. Native ASL signers have incredible spatial reasoning
Did you know that ASL natives have advanced visualization skills? And these skills are exactly what a person needs to process complex spatial information?
Professor Michele Cooke from the University of Massachusetts Amherst had no idea about this until fluent ASL signers started taking her geology classes. Most graduate-level students struggle with structural geology, which requires students to visualize plate tectonics and the processes of rock formation. The average college student has a hard time with this type of science, but Cooke noticed again and again that the ASL students in her classes were outperforming everyone else. Why?
Cooke theorized that native ASL signers appear to have above-average spatial reasoning skills. Their language is visual and happens in 3D. As a result, they have the mental capacity to picture the “movement” of rocks that are normally stationary.
Intrigued, Cooke put her theory to the test by visiting six different high schools for the deaf around the country. She taught each class a mini course on structural geology to see how they would respond, and sure enough these high schoolers were outperforming her grad students right from day one. She was shocked how quickly the results emerged and how consistently well all these native signers devoured her subject matter.
Researcher Marc Marschark from the Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf has noticed this phenomenon too. There’s a ton of research out there that has unearthed native signers’ ability to mentally generate images with ease. So if you’re a native ASL signer, chances are good that you would excel in a career that requires advanced visual thinking: photography, physical therapy, mechanical engineering, or design for example.
