Community learns sign language to talk with deaf two-year-old

A Newton, Massachusetts neighborhood came together to support a two-year-old girl who was born deaf.

“She was the first deaf person my husband and I had known,” said Glenda Savitz, Samatha’s mother.

When neighbors saw Glenda and Raphi Savitz walking Samatha and talking in sign language, they noticed the girl’s eagerness to communicate with others, and they wanted to find a way to talk with her.

“They came to me and said, ‘Would you mind? We love this course, we love the teacher, would you mind if we hired the teacher and brought him back to the neighborhood?’” Samatha’s mother said.

“‘Can we have your permission?’ I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? Yeah, you can have my permission,’” she added.

Soon after receiving the Savitz’s blessing, twenty neighbors enrolled in an American Sign Language (ASL) class to learn sign language so they could talk with Samantha.

 

 

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SOMETIMES WE CRY

On Monday, August 18, the Boston Red Sox held its annual Disability Awareness day at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, and Christopher Duffley, a blind, autistic 14-year-old Manchester Boy, performed the National Anthem.

“When he started to sing, he quickly learned his microphone wasn’t working. At first, Duffley paused and, moments later, began tapping the microphone with his hand, trying to hear if it was working. Knowing what had happened by watching him on the jumbo screen in center field, the Fenway faithful, along with the players and coaches from both teams, began to urge Duffley on.”

Sometimes we know, sometimes we don’t

Sometimes we give, sometimes we won’t

Sometimes we’re strong, sometimes we’re wrong

Sometimes we cry

Sometimes it’s bad when the going gets tough

When we look in the mirror and we want to give up

Sometimes we don’t even think we’ll try

Sometimes we cry

Well we’re gonna have to sit down and think it right through

If we’re only human what more can we do?

The only thing to do is eat humble pie

Sometimes we cry

For more on the story, see Manchester’s Christopher Duffley wows Fenway crowd.

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