What language do deaf people think in?

What language do deaf people think in? Can we think without language? If you had never heard language would you use it to articulate your thoughts? Do babies think in a language of sorts? If you can’t articulate your internal thoughts in linguistic form have you really thought them at all? Is language integral to our understanding of ourselves? Do we need our brain chatter to be formed into words, rather than feelings, in order to make sense of our emotions?

‘twin speak’ can give us an insight into a pre verbal, linguistic thought pattern. The twins in this clip appear to be having a conversation that uses a language, but is this comparable to their private brain chatter? At what age do you feel the need to start turning your internal thoughts into words that only you can hear? Why do we feel it necessary?
Can we think without language?
Oliver Sacks attempts to address this in his book ‘Seeing Voices - a journey into the world of the deaf’. Sacks writes of a visit to the island of Martha’s Vineyard, where hereditary deafness was endemic for more than 250 years and a community of signers, most of whom hear normally, still flourishes. He met a woman in her 90s who would sometimes slip into a reverie, her hands moving constantly. According to her daughter, she was thinking in Sign. “Even in sleep, I was further informed, the old lady might sketch fragmentary signs on the counterpane,” Sacks writes. “She was dreaming in Sign.”
It appears that the brain of a congenitally deaf person is organised slightly differently to that of their hearing counterparts - they are geared up to think in a far more kinesthetic way. They think in sign language, not the spoken word. Brain chatter becomes an internal action rather than a internal verbal commentary.
But, that still leaves the question “Can we think without language?”
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