Classmates Learn Sign Language So Deaf First-Grader Never Feels Alone

The transformation started with a straightforward calculation made by a fellow first-grader: Reid Spring wanted to play with Ben O'Reilly, and playing with Ben meant learning to communicate with him.

Ben, a seven-year-old at Campton Elementary School in Campton, New Hampshire, is deaf and has other special needs. He is the only deaf student not just at his school but in his entire school district, and New Hampshire is one of the few states in the nation without a dedicated school for the deaf, leaving him with almost no institutional pathway to peer connection. Before his classmates intervened, the isolation was severe. His school aide, Cheryl Ulicny, described Ben's daily reality plainly: "He didn't have relationships with his peers or teachers, for that matter. He was very alone. And he acted very alone."

Reid's reasoning was equally direct. "If he's your friend, you can play with him, and he's my friend." That logic spread. What started with Reid picking up a few signs grew into a classroom-wide effort, then a school-wide one. By the time the story came to national attention, virtually every student and staff member at Campton Elementary knew at least some sign language.

The effect on Ben was immediate. According to his adoptive mother Etta O'Reilly, "It clicked for him that the sign language had value." Ulicny watched the change unfold in real time: "You could just watch his world open up with communication."

For Ben's adoptive mothers, Etta and Marlaina O'Reilly, learning how the school had rallied around their son was almost too much to absorb. "It's incredible," Etta said. "I could barely breathe. Like it was just so overwhelming."

CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reported the story for his long-running human interest segment "On the Road," which aired on CBS Sunday Morning on April 5, 2026. Hartman has been a full-time CBS News correspondent since 1998, known for bringing stories of ordinary people to national audiences.

New Hampshire's absence of a state school for the deaf makes what happened at Campton Elementary both unusual and significant. Without a specialized institution to provide community and language access, inclusion fell entirely on a small public elementary school in a small town, and the school rose to meet it, one signed word at a time.