Hearing a child’s first words is a memorable parenting milestone. After months of reading books, singing nursery rhymes, and losing nightly sleep, hearing your child speak makes everything worth it. Because each child marches to the beat of their own drum, there’s no way of predicting when they will talk. In the end, all you can do is teach and nurture them and await that fateful day. For some parents, it takes longer than others.
Briana Blankenship, the loving mother of an adorable, autistic girl named Taylor had been waiting for daughter speak for five long years.
Briana had married her husband Jason and found out she was pregnant shortly thereafter. Taylor was born on June 28, 2012, and seemed to progress very quickly, walking at only 10 months.
When Taylor was roughly 15 months old, someone commented on her tendency to spin around in circles, suggesting that Briana may want to have it checked out by a doctor. At the time, the new mother was insulted.
“I was taken aback by the comment and offended that anyone would suggest that there was something ‘wrong’ with my baby,” Brianna wrote on the Love What Matters website.
However, as Taylor continued to get older, she would hum, squeal, and make various noises but wasn’t mimicking or formulating words.
At 3 years old, Taylor was enrolled in speech therapy. After three months of testing, she was diagnosed with nonverbal autism— a diagnosis Briana initially had trouble accepting.
“I felt like a total failure as a parent,” she recalled. “I had no idea what autism was, and I was convinced that it was something I had done to cause my baby to have this.”
In the United States, more than 3.5 million Americans live with an autism spectrum disorder, Autism Society reports. Although the severity of symptoms can vary widely from person to person, they fall into the realms of social deficits, repetitive behaviors, and language impairments. Currently, as far as scientists can tell, there is no one cause of autism. These disorders are a result of both genetic and environmental factors.
After Taylor was officially diagnosed, she was enrolled in occupational therapy and speech therapy. “We found out she actually has a knack for letters and numbers and can do the alphabet by herself with the use of magnets,” Briana said. “She’s also great at spelling.”
Although Taylor was making great strides in her communication skills, she still had not verbally spoken a word— but, one day, all that changed.
Briana had enrolled Taylor in a gymnastics class, as a form of “out of the box” therapy to promote body awareness. One day, on the way there, Briana went through the McDonald’s drive-thru to grab them something quick to eat.
“I pulled into the closest fast food restaurant to grab her something that she would actually eat before we had to go class.
“She started giggling in the back seat and then I heard her say it.”
Out of nowhere, while waiting for their food, Taylor stunned Briana by saying her very first word— ‘mama’.
Briana was completely shocked “I whipped my head around and asked, ‘Did you just say Mama?’ and she looked at me and said it again.” That’s when the mother started to record.
In the heartwarming clip, Briana is overcome with emotion at being called ‘mama’ for the first time. Taylor is absolutely beaming with pride— so happy to have finally found her voice.
Since being uploaded, Briana’s video has been viewed more than 2 million times.
In a post on her personal Facebook page, the mother 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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