The moment an autistic toddler took his first steps, surrounded by emotional family members, was captured on a Ring security camera.
New parents bear witness on average nearly 50 milestones with their child’s first year, according to a poll of 2,000 moms and dads conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Horizon Organic. But that’s not been the case for Angela, a new mom living in Blairstown, New Jersey, with her son Lukas.
Lukas is autistic and, as Angela told Ring, is “behind on milestones” and “working hard in therapy to get there.” With one in 31 children in the U.S. diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder by their 8th birthday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Lukas is not alone in facing the challenges that come with autism.
Though he is too young to register it now, what happened in the front room of his family’s home on what was an otherwise ordinary Tuesday, March 11, provided a reminder of that. It’s a moment that Angela, who only shared her first name, inadvertently captured on a Ring security camera device with the footage subsequently shared with Newsweek.
The footage shows the moment when Lukas caught his mom and other assembled family members off-guard by achieving one of the most significant milestones for a child his age: taking his first step. “I was on a video call with my husband when I noticed Lukas standing at the end of the couch–and it looked like he was about to try,” Angela told Ring. “And then he did!”
The sheer joy of that moment is clear to see on the video, with Angela and the rest of the family visibly delighted at what they had just witnessed. “We had waited so long for that moment,” Angela said. “We were beyond excited.”
Though everyone is clearly overjoyed at what happened, Angela reckons the true emotion of what they saw that day is not necessarily conveyed on the video. “You might not be able to tell from the video, but my eyes were filled with tears,” she said.
This isn’t the first time footage of a baby’s first steps has found its way onto the internet. In North Carolina, a working mom was left similarly emotional when a daycare worker urged her to tune into the live-feed coming from where she worked as her daughter had just walked for the first time.
Of course, attempts at recording a baby’s first steps don’t always go to plan, with both good and bad results. One mom-of-two’s attempt at filming her daughter walking for the first time ended up being hijacked by her toddler son who doctors had said would likely be non-verbal for several years to come. Her video, however, suggested otherwise.
Then there was the Tennessee mom who attempted to film her daughter’s first steps during a family get-together only to end up catching something altogether more disturbing on video instead.
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