NAME: NATASHA CAMELIA BINTI AZIZUL HANAFEE

STUDENT ID : 2019824826
On 30th October 2019, thirty-three of us from Sign language club went to
Tadika/Taska Istika Jaya OKU Pendengaran, Puchong. It was indeed an overwhelming event
for the Year One students since we’re the first among our batchmates to actually interact
with the community, especially the Deafs, in delivering knowledge on dental care. With
basic sign language skills, most of us can still communicate with them although there was a
slight confusion when confronting older kids (8years old and above); since they have higher
sign language skills.
Nevertheless, I learnt a lot from participating in this event. Honestly speaking, I lack
knowledge when it comes to dealing with kids and to actually mingle with the hearing
disabled kids made it a lot harder. I was anxious as to what might happen once I entered the
place and to meet them eye to eye; since in my whole life I never really tried to interact with
the disabled. I was ignorant in that particular matter. Yet, all my initial thoughts/anxiety
swept away when I tried to set my mind differently and approached one of them. And to my
liking, part of them were obedient and tried to communicate back although I had to tap
their shoulder repeatedly for them to acknowledge my existence. Besides having to socialize
with them, I noticed that only a quarter of them (most were below 8 years old) were active
while the rest were passive and tried to avoid us. Based on my observation, they prefer to
interact/befriend with people that has the same level communication skills. So in my case,
since I was considered a “newbie”, it was a bit hard to grab their attention compared to the
younger ones. However, as I go around and sit with my seniors that can actually fluently
interact with the older kids, to my surprise the kids were actually quick-witted when asked
questions and to ask one. From these situations, I can conclude that the deaf people were
not so hard to communicate with as long as we have the same communication skills as them
and kids were a lot easier to deal with if I put my mindset that they were not as scary as I
initially assumed.
This experience (which I wish would not be my last), made me want to improve my
sign language skills even more than just basics. I want to meet with various kind of people,
communicate without a hassle and step out from my comfort zone. InsyaAllah, if I were to
finally become an official dentist/dental surgeon, I want to be involved with the
disabled/deaf community like Dr. Mas is currently doing. I believe that the deaf community
should be treated equally. It is unfortunate that most of our society tried to isolate them
just because they could not interact the same way as we are. Hence, in the future, I would
like to change that perspective and try to include as many deaf patients as I can in my future
profession as a dentist.
I do think this kind of activity is effective in creating a Disability awareness among
the dental students because not all of us had ever encountered deaf/disabled people in real
life. And due to this early exposure made me realize that as a dentist, it is more than just
studying, memorizing and hand skills. Communicating with various kinds of people is crucial
in our profession. If we reject certain people just because they are not like us then I think
dentistry is not for us in the first place. This activity was truly an eye opener for me and I bet
for most of us too.
Despite the effectiveness of this program, I do have some slight suggestions to
propose. I think it is better to separate the students with basic knowledge of sign language
skills to interact with the deaf kids that has an equal knowledge level only, rather than
mixing with the slightly higher knowledge kids too. Let the seniors (Second/Upper Level Sign
Language Skills) be in charge in communicating with those kids. This will create a better
learning environment not only for the students but for the deaf kids as well since all of us
would be comfortable in interacting with each other. Secondly, I noticed that most of those
kids were enlightened by games that are not instructed lengthily and where everyone is
involved at the same time. Games like “Snake and Ladder” that my team had prepared was
a complete failure since this game has instructions and needed to be played by one player at
a time. Thus, all of those kids ended up fighting/arguing with each other. Our team was also
on duty in giving Oral Hygiene instructions to those kids, it was partially a success since
there were kids whom are actually interested in learning and had fun brushing the teeth
models provided. However due to lack of teeth models compared to the number of kids
there, only part of them had the opportunity to hold and engaged with the activity. The rest
of them either sulked or ran off to other places. In order to overcome this for future
activities’ sake, equal number of teeth models needed to be provided with the number of
kids there so that every kid can be involved in this learning activity.
I do not have much ideas on suggesting activities since I participated in one event
and only small number of deaf kids were involved. Thus, I need more experience than that
to actually propose an idea. Besides deaf kids, I do have a particular interest in autism
people. Since, I’ve heard news about the increase number of autisms in Malaysia, I know
that I might encounter with one as my future patient. Although many claimed that the
autisms were hard to handle and “dangerous”, I believe that every kind, every person has a
way to communicate. We just need to know how. Thus, if I have the upper hand to come
across one face to face and engage a conversation even though a little, it would totally get
rid of my anxiety in meeting them soon during my future career as a dentist.
Despite the fact that there were a lot of difficulties during the visit and interacting
with the kids there, there was this one boy that made the event a forever memorable for
me and up until now I’m still overwhelmed when reminiscing the memories back. His name
was Afiq. A bright and an obedient 4year old boy that I would never forget. He was my first
actual student. It has always been a dream of mine to actually instruct kids in dental care
since I grew up having dentists come over to my schools every year during my primary years
to teach us on how to brush our teeth and etc. And to have the opportunity to teach one
was an experience that I would never let go and will endlessly cherished inside my heart and
soul as dramatic as it may sounds. Afiq was a very smart boy indeed. Every oral hygiene
instructions I gave him, he would follow and does his work diligently. And through time to
time, he would smile at me every single time I praised him or gave him a thumbs up. Thank
you Afiq for being my first “student”. You surely gave me confidence to push myself into
becoming the best future dentist for all; adults and children including the deafs/disabled.