Any 'Fingerspelling Challenge' thoughts...?

[damian]

Hello everyone,

I love using the fingerspelling challenge. You know, the recognise-as-many-3to5-letter-words-in-two-minutes test...?

Well, I can play with the speed marker edge on the first tiny fast arrow fairly comfortably now, but my scores still average between 25 to 30, with my top score being 35 I think... My difficulty being the typing! The speed of my typing (still needing look at the keyboard sometimes!) really lets me down. Hey ho, I know it's still helping me improve. But it is bewildering to see the scores some people have! How do they get way over sixty (just today Kokono has 72 and I've seen more)?! They must be on fastest speed setting, for sure, but... they must also be touch-typing at crazy speed! I mean, we're talking a second and half each word! Do people use some kind of speech-to-text? Some kind of cheat-code😄?

I'm interested to hear anyone's thoughts, experience, tips regarding the challenge, or fingerspelling in general.

In my experience using fingerspelling in my support-work role I am often finding the letters in 3D with actual real moving hands(!) much more challenging. I can find myself at the wrong angle to see when someone fluent and faster is signing more towards another person (often makes distinguishing between M and N difficult for example). The dynamic way that hand one shape flows into another is much harder to read than a series of those clear consistent classic illustrations we know.

What do you think?

 

[Sue W.]