Latter-day Saint Life

The First Sentence an Autistic Boy Typed on His iPad Shocked His Mother—and Revealed Something Beautiful About God

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Unable to speak, it was only recently that Josiah Cullen found a way to communicate with the world. Nothing surprised his mother as much as when Josiah wrote his first independent sentence.

When Tahni Cullen saw what her 7-year-old son had typed on his iPad, she was absolutely stunned.

"I thought maybe I was on candid camera or I was losing it or something," she recently told "The Church Boys" podcast.

The line of text that had her so flummoxed? "God is a good gift-giver."

While possibly benign or unremarkable to some, it was a surreal milestone for Cullen, whose son, Josiah, has autism and is nonverbal. In fact, it was the first independent sentence he had ever written.

Though he has autism, Josiah continues to stun his parents with some of the beautiful words he has typed using an iPad, among them this poem-like paragraph:

"My favorite place in heaven is over peaceful waters. Peace is real. Tired souls naturally test peace. Roses are so stunning. Worship the king, sing loud to the prized pardon who requires praise. Angels tasted his holiness, ordained great attitude of praise. Help us worship the Lord together, Please him, all you hail the king of majesty forever. Make a noise to the king on the throne."

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