A New Hampshire school learned sign language to communicate with its only deaf student

Campton, New Hampshire — Seven-year-old Ben O’Reilly is deaf and has other special needs. A first grader at Campton Elementary in Campton, New Hampshire, his aide, Cheryl Ulicny, says that Ben had felt isolated at school. 

“He didn’t have relationships with his peers or teachers, for that matter,” Ulicny said. “He was very alone. And he acted very alone.” 

New Hampshire is one of the few states in the nation that doesn’t have a dedicated school for the deaf. In fact, Ben is the only deaf student in his whole school district. So, aside from Ulicny, there was virtually no one in this whole school community he could talk to. At least at first.

The transformation began when some of Ben’s classmates, including Reid Spring, started picking up on a few signs.

“If he’s your friend, you can play with him, and he’s my friend,” Reid said of Ben.

Then, the rest of the class decided to learn sign language. Eventually, other teachers in other grades began taking sign language classes and speaking in sign, even when Ben wasn’t around.

“It’s fun communicating with Ben and playing with him,” Reid said.

Ben’s adoptive mothers, Etta and Marlaina O’Reilly, were in shock when they found out how well he was being treated at school.

“It’s incredible,” Etta O’Reilly told CBS News. “I could barely breathe. Like it was just so overwhelming.”

Today, just about every Campton student and staff member knows at least some sign language. Ben’s parents say this has had a profound impact on their son.

“It clicked for him that the sign language had value,” Etta O’Reilly said.

Said Ulicny: “You could just watch his world open up with communication. It was amazing.”