Hearing ‘I love you’ lef t me lost for words
FOR any doting parent, hearing their child speak those first words is a treasured moment.
But young mother Sarah Campbell had the heartbreak of waiting years to hear her daughter Poppy tell her she loved her.
Poppy suffered from selective mutism, an anxiety disorder whereby the sufferer has the ability to speak but cannot do so in certain social settings.
The condition, which affects just one in 1,500 children, meant she had a phobia of speaking in front of anyone – even her parents.
She uttered her first words at three-and-a-half but then communicated solely through eye movements and facial expressions.
Inverness hairdresser Mrs Campbell, 28, had to wait until she was four to hear her say, ‘Mummy, I love you’ and Poppy then remained silent even when she cried.
But now, at the age of six, she has finally found her voice after a dramatic turnaround in a speech therapy programme.
The primary two pupil has no problem chatting to her mother and father Steven, 28, and has even been elected her class representative to the school council after standing in front of 28 classmates to say why they should choose her.
Mrs Campbell said: ‘Words can’t describe how I feel. The little girl who started school with no voice is now the voice for her whole class.
‘She’s just amazing. I can’t begin to express what she has gone through to get to where she is now.’ But Mrs Campbell, who is also mother to Summer, nine, and Brodie, three, still remembers the agony of Poppy’s silent years and the relief when at last she spoke.
She recalled: ‘I had put her to bed and gave her a hug and told her I loved her as usual. As I turned around, she said: “Mummy, I love you.” I was so emotional because I knew she loved me but I so badly wanted to hear her say it.’
But Poppy then said nothing for another year. ‘She could communicate in other ways. She talked through her eyes. It sounds crazy, but Poppy would look at me and I’d just know what she wanted. But to go 365 days and your child not speak to you, it’s a long time.’
After working with a speech therapist at the school, Poppy began to speak more and more until at the school nativity play, in front of 400 people, she delivered her line: ‘He was a special baby.’
And with those five words she had everyone in tears.