Do you find yourself like a deer in headlights when trying to catch the ASL fingerspelled word? In this video, you will learn the #1 thing you must have to be an ASL fingerspelling pro where you can easily read fingerspelled words. Want to improve your ASL fingerspelling skills? Want to work with Deaf professionals who can teach you fingerspelling tips and strategies on getting better at reading fingerspelled words? Check out our Fingerspelling course:
Transcript:
One of the top fears for ASL students is fingerspelling. It doesn't matter if you have been fingerspelling for one week, one year, five years, all your life such as CODAs, fingerspelling is a challenge. In fact, it's one of the most coveted skills to be able to master reading fingerspelled words. There are many tips and strategies on how you can improve your chances of capturing the fingerspelled words. But the main reason why most people struggle is because of CONFIDENCE.
Many say "I'm lousy with fingerspelling.", or "I am not good at fingerspelling as I always miss the word.". Well, if you are constantly negative about your ability to understand fingerspelling, then guess what shows up? More negative experiences related to fingerspelling. Let me give you an example. When I fingerspell something, and the person missed it, they become visibly stressed asking me to fingerspell it again. Well, if you are already stressed, you probably won't get it the second time either. Once you are mentally blocked, you can't process anything. You need to change how you perceive the situation. Instead of saying that you missed it, change it to "what did understand?: "What did I catch?", and "Do I understand the context?". Let the person know what letters you saw and they will provide the rest of the information. Or, you can say, "Did you just fingerspell a name?" This helps you identify the context. The truth is, if you don't know the context or you lost it during the conversation, you will have a much harder time capturing the meaning. Again, ask yourself what you understood. Sometimes you understand more than you think. If not, just simply ask the person to repeat. And, make sure you understood the context. Those are the two main things you need to have in order to increase your skills in capturing the fingerspelled word.
People ask us how they can improve their fingerspelling skills. We will cover that in our online fingerspelling course.
But the number one thing is, work on your mind. Your mind is key. Change the way you talk to yourself about your fingerspelling skills. Just accept that it's simply a challenging skill to master. It will take a lot of practice. And hey - even Deaf people miss too. Sometimes the handshapes are not executed correctly, it was signed sloppily, or the context is lost. There are so many fingerspelled words so sometimes it's hard to narrow down to possible words that could have been fingerspelled. But you won't see me get all upset about missing it. I'll just ask the person to repeat. No big deal!
I think I covered everything. So here's my final message - don't worry about missing out or making mistakes. Most Deaf people are very understanding. Just ask them to sign it again. One of my pet peeve is when people ask me to slow down my fingerspelling. Let me tell you. There's still no guarantee you will understand when a word is fingerspelled slowly. It's like lip reading - if someone mouthed each word slowly, I will not be able to understand. Instead, I'd rather make sure I identify what I did understand and that I know the context. If not, I just ask them to repeat.
I hope this helps alleviate your fear with fingerspelling. There's truly nothing to fear! Have a great day!
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