'Song started my son's communication journey'

Aryan was five when he was diagnosed with a speech and language delay that meant he could not communicate.

But dad Rishi felt that words were trying to come out.

"I noticed that [he] really connected to music," Rishi said. "He'd walk around the house humming, tapping his chest and [he] was trying to get the words out, but they wouldn't come."

The idea occurred to him that something may budge if a song passed between them. Rishi, from Essington near Wolverhampton, then came up with a rap. And Aryan came up with a breakthrough.

"I was playing him the beat and singing the song," he explained. "Aryan started to repeat the words back to me... and that started his communication journey."

They have practised with one of the boy's plastic microphones and after making the song - Speech Bound - publicly available, Rishi has raised about £3,200 in the last 12 months for the charity Speech and Language UK, with running the London Marathon further raising awareness around the issues.

Rishi described his son, himself and also his brand as The Speech Heroes.

He has written a book called The Speech Heroes Vs. The Word Stoppers, with the latter being villains that try to stop Aryan from communicating.

The dad said even if "children cannot communicate or understand words, they will be able to connect with The Speech Heroes characters because children still know what superheroes are".

The book idea came shortly after Rishi had released the song and he thought "I need to really do something to raise awareness around the topic".

For two million children in the UK, "learning to talk and understand words feels like an impossible hurdle", Speech and Language UK said.

Rishi added: "There's a stigma around having a speech and language delay as well as struggling to find support for speech and language."

Rishi, who shared his story using the BBC's Your Voice initiative, said Aryan had now performed the Speech Bound song at two youth festivals.

He explained: "I think there was really the connection with music... He was really confident on stage, so whenever he went out, he'd just be like a natural performer."

The brand has been shortlisted in the Midlands section of the UKStartUp Awards under the Consumer Products StartUp of the Year category and the father said he had "many other ideas", adding that he was working on an animation.

"Mine and Aryan's relationship is like a journey together, so he has found his confidence and voice and so have I, because we've built this out of our pain and now it's become our purpose to share with the world, so we can support other families on our journey as well."

As for Aryan, asked what he thought of his father, he replied: "Dad is a superhero."

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