Most of his life was spent not being able to speak, but Nicholas Brady beat the odds and was able to deliver a commencement speech during his high school graduation.
Not only that, but he also graduated with a 4.0 GPA and was accepted by every college to which he sent an application.
Nicholas’ mother, Jennifer Brady, said her son had developmental delays, but he had selective mutism causing silence.
He'd make the movements to cry but no sound would be produced, she told KYW.
When he was 10 years old, Nicholas was finally able to tell her something. He grabbed her phone and typed out "I can't speak," Jennifer Brady told the television station.
Nicholas ended up attending a charter school online where no one knew he couldn’t speak.
His guidance counselor found out at the end of the first year when she spoke to his mother.
Thanks to hard work by Nicholas, as well as counselor Adrianne Erb, his teachers and his mother, he was finally able to speak.
"It was kind of like when you have something on the tip of your tongue. I couldn't verbally say it," Nicholas told KYW.
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"I didn't think my son would be successful with school and I certainly didn't think he would be a speaker at a graduation ceremony when speaking was the one thing he struggled with the most," Jennifer Brady told KYW.
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