The year Mahbuba found her voice

Mahbuba loves recess. Sitting in front of an overstuffed toy bin, the 6-year-old Afghan girl picks out a small collection of wooden dolls. She gives each doll a name that she signs with her hands.

A year ago, this level of play was unthinkable. Pushing back her royal blue headscarf, Mahbuba begins moving the dolls across a two-dimensional playground that she’s sketched on a notepad. In a busy daytime scene, two dolls fight over the swingset, a drama she relates through pantomime. Another kid sits on the bench. Mahbuba, who was born deaf, is fastidious in her telling — every character is introduced and their plot arc complete.

Mahbuba moves two figurines across the page and places them on a series of drawn squares meant to represent a school climbing wall. Oops, one falls, a fumble she illustrates by plopping the doll face first on the page. She then holds her hands up to her eyes and shimmies her fingers down her face. The boy, she communicates with a mournful look in her eyes, is crying.