When I was informed that we are going to Sanjay School, I was very happy as I had heard so many good things about this school but had never got the chance to visit it. I had heard that this is a school for special children. To be honest, I never knew what a special school is. Only when I was briefed by Deepali, did I come to know more about this and my desire to visit this school became even stronger.
Thanks to Bookworm, I got an opportunity to visit this school to assist the Libraries in School (LiS) program team. Honestly, I had no idea about what to expect but when I met the children, the experience itself, was beyond expectations. There are a total of two groups in which the LiS program is engaged with. Shruti and Shraddha Groups. I was deeply touched by the Shruti group, which has children who are Hearing Impaired.
When I met the first group, which was the Shruti Group, the interaction was purely with sign language. Every sign has a meaning. Everything was communicated with sign language. Deepali and the teacher of Sanjay School are working together to bring the joy of stories to them. For a moment I did not realize that I was in a special school. These children are as normal as any regular child who goes in a regular school. Everything that they say was translated into signs. The moment which touched me was when they were doing Book-talk. The way these children were doing book-talks was outstanding. I felt that even our regular children would not compete with them. Every image, especially the animals, were nicely communicated in sign language. Even when they make sounds from their mouth, they do it in a way so that the sounds resemble the image. This group is super excited and focused in every session. Even the discussions that happen before and after the story, is very interesting to see. They express their responses through signs and sounds and then it is received and converted into meaning by Deepali and the Sanjay School Teacher. Even the activities that they do are also outstanding.
During story extension, the work which they create on their notebook is extraordinary. The picture representation that they bring alive, is something to be appreciated. Yes, I confess, it becomes challenging for us to transmit our instructions to them in sign language because we are not aware of the actual signs, but thanks to Deepali and Sanjay School teachers, this task also happens so magically.
Seeing such talented children, my heart becomes heavy to see them over here. I always felt that God has done such an injustice to them by taking away the gift of speech. But now after meeting these children, my thinking has changed. I now know that though they are missing one quality, they are gifted with many other qualities. And I feel that this school is doing its best to activate these qualities in them.
Who says that because they cannot express their feelings in sounds, they are special, I SAY, you don’t need words to express your feelings, all you need is emotions and signs.
