When my son was younger he would sometimes sign in his sleep the same way many of us talk in their sleep. This morning he was telling me in great detail about a weird dream he had and I got to wondering.
"Do you sign in your dreams?"
"Sometimes but in my dreams it is mostly brain talk. The brains just talk to each other."
Interesting.
So we had a great day and the highlight was going to see Cirque Du Soleil. Cirque manages to be not just a fantastic show but for the most part an accessible show for a deaf kid. My mom saw it last week and told me it was too loud but for us the noise allowed for him to feel the music through his body.
It is very visual and doesn't have much to interpret which is good because some of the acts were so scary I needed my hand free to hold his. The talent in that show is unbelievable. I knew when he saw it he would be hooked. He now aspires to be a clown or actor for the company (along with a novelist, graphic comic book author and artist, dancer , stand up comic and actor as a back up). I think that would be a perfect job. A lot of the talent comes from non English speaking countries so why not a Deaf person? He came home and ordered all of the Cirque movies from Netflix.
I like to get out in the world and show both of my kids life outside of the daily grind. Dreaming is so important for children in my opinion. I tell them both we try things first before we decide it doesn't work. If they can see all of the rich potential in life I think it will help them take chances and live a full life. Or at least I hope that will happen.
Mel, what an interesting entry.
ReplyDeleteDream psychology has always been one of the most fascinating subjects for me. I keep a dream journal and analyze my dreams everyday, because I believe dreams may be letters from God. Yes, in many of my dreams I communicate in sign language. I also noticed that in some dreams I do communicate by telepathy with others who are not deaf. After years of dream analysis I had come to realize that the bulk of things we dream about are part of a visual language. Your friend, husband, pet, relative or anyone you know may be actually a noun or a verb in a sentence your subconscious is trying to communicate to you. In order to discover the message in your dream, all you need to do is to look at the names of the people you dream about and find out what these names mean. You could be dreaming in French or Spanish or one of the languages of your ancestors or an ancient language that is encoded in your DNA, whether you are fluent or not in those languages. The language that we speak, think and communicate in, English, consists many words that were rooted in Latin and Greek. Take a good dictionary and look up the origins of each word that appears as an object in your dream, and I assure you you will find more meanings in the ordinary dictionary than any New-Age dream dictionary book. Not all dreams may be letters from God or your Subconscious...some are simply expressions of your fears, worries, hopes, wishes or desires. Some just serve as a form of screensaver for your brain while it rests after a day of work or activity. Some may be perceptions into other worlds or alternate realities that we are not aware that may do actually exist. I agree very much with you that dreaming is important for children. It is also important to explain to them that nightmares may only the acting out of fears or anxiety on the part of their Subconscious and that they can learn to control their dreams at will and confront the monsters in their dreams. The brain is one of the most complex machines that we are only beginning to understand. Asides from this, I have attended Cirque du Soleil and loved their show. At one show I attended in San Francisco back in the 90s I was astounded to see one of the performers use sign language! Later I worked with a deaf actor who happened to know the director of Cirque and told me they admire deaf people and would occasionally incorporate sign language in some of their performances. I wish your son luck in his endeavors to become a performer as well as a graphic comic book author and artist. Tell him to keep always following his dreams in his heart! :)
Dan McClintock
artist, writer
Y'all be moving to Vegas soon! LOVE Cirque de Solei!
ReplyDeleteWe knew Miss Kat had become bilingual when she started talking in her sleep! When she was young she would sign when she was sleeping too. About two months ago she was sleeping on the couch and she rolled over and I heard "...dinosaurs..." The was the funniest, most heartwarming, surprising thing ever!
ReplyDeleteSomething like that happened when I was studying French as a teenager. I woke up one night and realized I had been arguing in French--just two words--with someone: l'oreille and l'oeil. Ear and eye. Unfortunately my total French never attained more than a dozen words. As for ASL and English, as your son said, it's communication by thought, mostly, with a few printed English words here and there. Interesting topic!
ReplyDeleteI have always loved your posts. It is so great to see a Hearing mom and her family view their Deaf child as simply "normal", even if their child communicates differently from them.
ReplyDeleteI wish more parents were like you, but I do appreciate the message that you put out in every post!