20 Neighbors Learn Sign Language When Family With Deaf Child Moves In

Feb 15, 2019 by apost team

It’s always a wonderful thing to hear of a group of people going above and beyond to help out someone else. It’s always incredibly moving to see a large group of people doing the same thing.

It seems today that many of us don’t know our neighbors that well. Sure, we may see them at the mailbox and our children may play together. However, it seems we have come a long way from the true sense of community that was so common in many smaller towns throughout the country.

One incredible group of people living in a neighborhood in the community of Newton, Massachusetts recently went above and beyond to show a new set of neighbors some incredible community support.

A new family moved into the neighborhood and the couple, Glenda and Raphael Savitz, happened to have a young child that had particular special needs. Their 2-year-old daughter, Samantha, is deaf.

While the neighbors welcomed the family to the neighborhood with the usually baked goods and friendly faces, they soon noticed that when the couple took Samantha on walks, they were speaking to her in sign language.

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Samantha was born without the luxury of hearing, something many of us take for granted. The couple immediately became determined to learn sign language after her birth.

While many extended members of the Santiz family also know sign language, the family never expected the outpouring of care they received from brand new neighbors, people who were basically strangers to them at the time.

Neighbor Terry Nowak said, "This child will always be a child of this neighborhood. We will all be participants in helping her as she grows."

More than 20 people in their small community decided to form a group. The group committed their time and effort to taking American Sign Language classes given at a local night school.

They wanted to be able to communicate with Samantha as well.

A few months later, American Sign Language was the second-most popular language spoken in the small neighborhood in Newton.

The neighbors came to the couple first to ask their feelings. They said that they wanted to get permission to hire the teacher with their own money so that as many people as possible could communicate with young Samantha.

Glenda said she was absolutely blown away by the extremely kind gesture. She told them that she was thrilled with the idea.

Today, a majority of people in the neighborhood are now fluent in American Sign Language.

How incredible is it to see such a wonderful gesture?! In a time when it seems that all we hear is negative news, what does this gesture mean to you? Let us know in the comments and pass this along to your friends and family to see what they think!