Technology helps boy who cannot speak find his voice, his mom says: "It's opened the world to him"

MENOMONEE FALLS (WITI) -- At just seven years old, Liam Heyn is an inspiration. Doctors thought the young boy was at a 10-month-old level -- sometimes above, sometimes below, but they never knew for sure because Liam couldn't talk. Now, he can. Not with his mouth, but with his eyes.

"Can you imagine going seven years without being able to tell people what you want?" Liam's mother, Wendy Heyn said.

"I wish I knew. He had no way of letting me know. He had no way of letting me know," Liam's speech therapist, Anne Hayden said.

Liam was born with a genetic duplication called MECP 2 duplication syndrome. Liam cannot speak.

"I would think 'oh well. Liam is what he is and he shows me love in lots of other ways. I don`t need to hear that (he loves me),'" Wendy Heyn said.

Then his mom heard her daughter say "I love you" for the very first time.

"It was really a moment where I realized 'oh, I didn`t even know that I was sad about this,'" Wendy Heyn said.

But that made the moment Liam could finally tell his mom he loves her that much sweeter. Three months ago, Liam started using a Tobii eye tracker -- a communication device that uses his eye movements to help him speak. It was his Marcy Elementary School Early Childhood Special Education teacher Bridget Jimmerson that made the first move.

"I noticed that his eye gaze was just incredible, and just that sparkle that he had. He was always happy and he was wanting to just learn and just be part of everything," Jimmerson said.

After a long process, including letters of advocacy and several trials to prove it would help Liam, his family was able to get the Tobii -- paid for by Medicaid and private insurance.

"He wasn`t able to answer the questions for us. He wasn`t able to greet his peers and say 'hello' in his verbal language. I mean, he would smile at them, but it's different," Jimmerson said.

Those who know and love him say the Tobii has helped them to learn more about Liam.

"He is hilarious! He loves to tell everybody 'you`re driving me crazy' and 'this is nuts,'" Jimmerson said.

Liam has opinions and preferences and he's a smart young boy.

"The teacher says he`s doing outstanding because he`s paying attention to the lesson, and you can tell he`s picking up the skills and he can respond now, where before I would have kept him in my lower level class," Jimmerson said.

The Tobii is helping Liam's teachers and his family to have hope.

"I don`t think I dared to hope before, so it's really exciting," Wendy Heyn said. I feel like with Liam, he knows that communication world is out there and there's no going back from that. I think it`s opened the whole world to him and I`m just so hopeful."

Experts in this technology say Liam has picked it up extremely quickly. His mom says that just shows it happened at the right time for Liam, and in the right school.