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First-Graders Learn Sign Language To Communicate With Their Deaf Classmate

February 7, 2016

This is Zejd. He is six years old and lives in Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is also deaf.

Photo: Amel Emric / AP

Last year, his mother Mirzana Coralic decided she wanted to sent Zejd to school.

Teacher Sanela Ljumanovic volunteered to help despite no one at the school, including Zejd, knowing any sign language.

Photo: Amel Emric / AP

Ljumanovic developed her own tricks and signs to communicate with Zejd but after a while decided this wasn’t enough.

So Zejd, his teachers and his entire class started learning sign-language so they could all communicate together.

Photo: Amel Emric / AP

Now, three-months on, the first-graders at Osman Nakas primary school have all mastered the basics of sign language.

Since the class learned sign language, Zejd has been much happier and confident at school.

"[Zejd] looks forward to going to school ... now he is happy and motivated," his mother told the Associated Press.

Photo: Amel Emric / AP

The other children love using sign language so much that some of them have begun teaching their parents at home.

Credit: BuzzFeed