The moment your child speaks his or her first words is a milestone that’s engraved upon your heart. Every new parent eagerly awaits the time their child will be able to verbally express their emotions and thoughts— but for parents of autistic children, the wait is often longer than others.
Briana Blankenship’s daughter Taylor was diagnosed with nonverbal autism and Brianna has been waiting to hear her speak for five long years.
“Our family and her teachers and doctors have been working for the last 2 and a half years to get Taylor to where we are now,” Brianna told Scary Mommy.
“We were told that it’s possible that Taylor may never speak.”
Although Brianna hoped 5-year-old Taylor would one day be able to use her voice, for the most part, she had accepted chances were slim.
Then, one day, Taylor stunned them all.
Brianna and Taylor were late to Taylor’s therapeutic gymnastic lessons when the mom decided to stop by McDonald’s for a quick bite to eat. While they were in line in the drive-through, Brianna got the shock of her life— and she decided to pull out her phone and record.
In a post shared to the Love What Matters page, Brianna wrote:
“I am ugly crying in the McDonald’s parking lot, and the employees probably think I’m crazy.”
“In the drive-thru, I suddenly heard Taylor say ‘MAMA’.
“For those of you that don’t know, Taylor is five and is nonverbal autistic. She has NEVER said a word ever.”
“As soon as she said it, I grabbed my phone and started recording. I’m pretty sure I held up the drive-thru line but there was no way I wasn’t getting proof of this.”
“I can’t explain how unbelievably grateful and ecstatic I am right now.”
From the look on Taylor’s face, she’s pretty ecstatic too!
Since being uploaded last week, Brianna’s video has been viewed more than 2 MILLION times!
In a post on her personal Facebook page, Brianna wrote, “We have had messages from parents with nonverbal children telling us that Taylor’s video has given them hope, and we have had people with neurologically typical kids tell us that this video has reminded them that they may be taking things for granted with their kids and that they will start celebrating smaller stuff more often.”
“Not many kids have the honor of their first word being heard around the world! Thank you to everyone that has liked, commented or shared our video in celebration with us of this huge milestone!”
See the touching moment, for yourself, below!
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