Signs for STARE

Meaning: To gaze fixedly or vacantly at someone or something with one's eyes wide open.

Related signs: GAZE.

Anecdote

Eleven-year-old CODA (a hearing child of deaf parent) with a smirk asks her Deaf mother in ASL, translated as, "Hey, why are you staring at me? It's creepy whenever you stare at me." Mom replies (in ASL as always) with a laugh, "No, I never. I just turned to look because you turned to look at me."

The funny thing is that like many Deaf, her perception is different from hearing perception as a result of the plasticity in the brain that she's more visually sensitive. The truth is that many times the moment the child turns to look at her mother, her mother noticing out of periperhal vision in milliseconds responds by turning her head to look at the child before the child completes her head turn.

The Deaf mother has a very fast response and large peripheral vision. It takes some time for this preteen to believe her mother's explanation that she notices when the child is about to look at her mother. :D [Story by Jolanta, 2022]

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