After fifteen years of living with nonverbal autism, Kell Farmer's life transformed through a communication breakthrough that began with a chance email and a book called "Underestimated: An Autism Miracle."

When the Farmers moved from Louisiana to Colorado seeking better services for their son, they were anticipating stronger school supports and alternatives to the strong drugs that had been recommended in Louisiana. They did not anticipate that their son Kell, who was completely non-verbal, would find a way to communicate.

A chance email alerted Kell's mother, Jaime, to a spelling system that had given an autistic boy his voice. She remembered the boy from years before when she'd been a part of an autism parents group with his father. The email was announcing that the father/son team had written a book together. She ordered it, mostly just to be supportive. She didn't even read it immediately, but her younger son picked it up and came downstairs excitedly saying "Mom, you have to read this book. He sounds JUST like Kell!"

Jaime read the book and agreed. It was all about S2C (Spell to Communicate), a method that helps nonverbal individuals express themselves through spelling. With nothing to lose, she looked to see if there was an instructor trained in the method in Colorado. There was one who lived only 30 minutes from their house in Boulder. When he first met Kell, Jaime was taken aback by the fact that he talked to Kell as though he were any other 15 year old boy, not like a toddler. "He presumed competence," she explains.

They started training Kell on the method. At first, they weren't sure if it was doing any good, but he seemed to be less agitated and frustrated. The breakthrough came on Halloween night when Kell, then 15, had his first spontaneous conversation with his mother. "It felt like he had been returned to me," his mother Jaime recalled in an interview with the Real Life Momz Podcast, "He had been here all the time."

Progressing from letter boards to an iPad with text-to-speech capability, Kell now reads at grade level, enjoys science documentaries, and demonstrates knowledge of mathematics, physics, and biology. His behavioral challenges have significantly decreased, which Kell himself attributes to finally being able to communicate.

In Kell's own words: "I want you to know that we all have a voice. I am so lucky to have people to help me enunciate my emotions." His journey from silence to self-expression is now documented in "Words You've Never Heard Me Say," released December 29, 2024. Co-authored by Kell and his mother Jaime, the memoir has quickly earned a perfect 5-star rating and claimed the #1 spot in New Releases for Biographies of People with Disabilities, demonstrating the powerful impact of their story about discovering that the inability to speak doesn't reflect an inability to think, learn, or feel.