How do deaf people think?

I'd guess that entirely depends on the individual.

My best friend is Deaf (born deaf)...she's fluent in both ASL and English. She writes in English better than many hearing English language users I know, and she speaks English when she chooses to speak. Another Deaf friend is an English teacher at a Deaf school, so she is clearly fluent in both ASL and English - she rarely chooses to use her voice, mostly communicates with others using ASL...but when she writes, she uses English grammar. I've come across other Deaf people who tend to write more in ASL grammar as ASL is their predominant language.

Of course, I can't tell you how other individuals think.

My first language is English but that doesn't mean my thoughts are constructed in perfect English sentences...sometimes my thoughts go more like..."Oh! Doctor. Call. Now."

Deaf people who use ASL and they are "undereducated", they stick with the grammar of ASL naturally. If they are not well exposed to the grammar of English, they will not come to think of this ASL-English grammar connection/correspondence this way. So, in this case, they tend to write down words in English according to the grammar of ASL but of course they sometimes do happen to write down words in a correct order because 1) it is a very simple structure and 2) it happened to be in the same order ASL grammar would put.

Deaf people who are well-educated and are bi-lingual. They do it without effort and "thinking". That's because they are aware of the grammar structure of ASL and English. They interact with many Deaf and hearing individuals so they have gotten a good hold of it. Of course, some Deaf people may make some English grammar mistakes. It's very common.

It's a good question. But, let me put this way. If there is someone who knows a language and is now learning a second language and he might happen to write the second language according to the grammar of the first language he had learnt. I wish I knew more about linguistics so to give you more specific terms but I hope my comment helped you.

given that the majority of deaf people have aquired their impairment later in life,and also the majority having some level of hearing [it is a minority who are profoundly deaf] they will think in which ever way suits their neurological 'makeup' like everyone else,as opposed to their hearing impairment calling the shots.

also,the example given for ASL language is wrong,ASL is a complex full language like traditional human languages,the example looks like someone spelling out makaton sign,not *SL.

woud disagree with teddy on this though that everyone thinks the same way,there are many different ways different people think,for some this impairs their every day living because no one else bar those of us nearest to them can understand their way of thought [eg, profoundly autistic people], some of us are acutely picture thinkers which impairs our understanding of language,some have a condition called synethesia which again gives them a very different way of thinking.

different forms of memory plays a big part in how we all think.

some people are very bad at thinking in pictures and see in language,this gives them a weakness in picture forming and recalling where things are by memorizing the image but they often have strong memorization skills of language based thought.

all though he is not deaf,woud recommend reading about stephen wiltshire as he has an incredible picture memory backed up by an amazing short term memory; he is classic autistic but unlike most of us with classic autism who lack working and short term memories; he has probably the best in the world if not the best.

EVERYONE thinks the same. People communicate differently. So it depends entirely on who you are going to communicate to. If you are going to communicate what you are thinking to a person who uses sign - you think through what you plan to sign in sign If you plan to speak - you think through what to say in words. When you are bilingual you don't have to translate, you learn to automatically to form your thought into what form needs to be communicated.

yes it make the correct sense.