Millissa Hutchinson, 30, from Cincinnati, Ohio shared a moment online with her followers that defied the experts.
Her five-year-old son Keegan has been diagnosed with autism and has been non-verbal throughout his entire life.
Millissa has used sign language and Makaton signs to communicate with Keegan.
Makaton signs use speech and hand gestures to convey grammar and structure to spoken sentences.
Millissa, who is originally from Walsall, UK noticed Keegan “has been making me sounds so I tried to encourage him to say more with the Makaton sign.”
“As you can see that’s what he did. He realized he could do it and he was so excited. It was one of the best moments of my life,” the mother said after her son “realized his voice.”
“Hutchinson was asking Keegan to “say more.” The boy excitedly continued to say “more” several times causing a wave of emotion to flood Millissa.
“My reaction was so big because he thrives on praise and encouragement,” she said. “He’s my only child and for almost five years I’ve longed to hear his voice to break inside of his world and at that moment I did. It was the best feeling ever!”
Millissa uses her social media account on TikTok to raise awareness for autism by often posting videos of her son.
She added:
“With my following on TikTok, I’ve used it to simply speak my truth and Keegan’s truth on autism.”
“I have to advocate for my son and his disability. I have to give him a world where he’s understood and accepted. If that’s all I achieve in my life, I’ll be very happy.
“There are far too many misconceptions about autism and I like to hand out facts instead of myths because there are a lot of them.”
“Some are very damaging to the autism community, examples include; ‘kids with autism don’t make eye contact,’ FALSE; ‘kids with autism have no affection,’ FALSE, and the biggest myth is that vaccines cause autism, which is also the worst and most dangerous misinformation.
“I believe I can change the world for Keegan and it’s what I intend to do.”
