Like any typical night, Becky Lane and Craig Griffiths put their 16-month-old son to bed. But when Ross awoke the next morning, he was no longer able to speak.

Ross's parents were completely baffled by how their seemingly healthy son could totally lose his ability to communicate — all overnight. They first realized that something was wrong when Ross was only able to cry the next morning and have spent years searching for the name of his mystery illness.

"At 16 months old, he went to bed fine, said 'night night,' went to sleep and when he woke up next morning, he couldn't talk," said Lane. "He always used to shout for Mom and Dad when he woke up, but that morning, he couldn't and he just cried and cried. He physically couldn't tell us anything — it was heartbreaking."

After more than three years striving to teach Ross how to walk and talk again, doctors finally diagnosed Ross with 15q11.2, a genetic condition where a small piece of chromosome 15 is missing. Ross's speech is slowly starting to improve, and he formed his first word this past January while also learning Makaton sign language to foster communication in school.

Even though Ross, now almost 5 years old, is typically too shy to use sign language anywhere outside of home or his classroom, a sweet viral video changed his mind. After seeing a clip of Santa signing with a 3-year-old girl [1], Ross told his parents that he wanted the chance to sign with Santa too.

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His speech has come on a lot but he's still very difficult to understand and is two years behind where he should be," said Lane. "He was so scared to use his sign language outside the house, but when he saw the video of the girl signing with Santa, it showed him he didn't have to be embarrassed."