Five-year-old Coco Bradford from Cornwall, who was diagnosed with autism, began speaking when she was two, but very slowly her speech started to dwindle until she wasn’t saying anything at all.
Talking to the MailOnline, her mum, Rachel, described how her little girl even stopped responding to her name “or making any eye contact”.
Revealing that the family had been communicating with her through pictures, Rachel could see that her daughter was becoming increasingly angry with herself and so, after trying speech therapist, started Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA).
"You could tell she was just so frustrated. We tried a speech therapist but the last two years have been horrendous."
Talking about the moment her little girl spoke, the mum-of-five said: "It was a really magical moment - it was the first thing she has said in three years. Her exact words were: "I want more toast please". She just kept saying it and we were just like 'oh my god' [sic]."
"She looked so pleased with herself and was jumping up and down and just kept saying 'I want more toast'".
But it didn't just stop at toast!
"The day after, my husband came home from work and Coco poked her head around the corner and said 'hello',” revealed a very proud and delighted Rachel!
Coco’s older sister, Chelsea, set up a crowdfunding page to help pay for her sibling’s ABA treatment, which has gone on to raise over £20,000.
