On Oct. 30, Sauce Walka shared a touching family moment on Instagram. The 33-year-old rapper’s autistic daughter, who is nonverbal, yelled out her dad’s famous adlib, “Oo0wee,” catching both parents by surprise.
As an excited Walka unboxed merch from the Houston Rockets, the rapper held up a shirt and shouted,” Can I get an Ooowee?”
Inside the box suite of the Toyota Center, the toddler’s little voice could be heard in the background, echoing her father.
“Aye, she said ‘Ooowee’! My daughter said ‘Ooowee’! I ain’t ever heard her say that before,” the Walka exclaimed while jumping up and down on the couch. “Houston Rockets, y’all just made my daughter speak more.”
The clip cuts to the Houston native holding a hoodie and declaring he would wear it to the Rocket’s first game before shouting, “Ooowee.”
His daughter repeated after him, and the proud dad hopped over the couch to embrace her. The artist explained why the moment was special and thanked the Rockets for their contributions.
“I would like to give a special thanks to @houstonrockets & @rocketsshop for creating this special moment for me & my family…I really don’t speak on this subject, but my #1stBorn is autistic and nonverbal, and this was the first time she said #OooWwwEee,” he wrote.
“This is a day we will always remember. Working with the same team, I grew up supporting my whole life as a successful rap star is a full-circle moment for me again. Thank you, @rocketsshop, for always selecting me to work with you guys. I’m always grateful.”
Such a beautiful moment!
It’s estimated that “the proportion of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are minimally verbal vary from 25% to 35%.”
Nonverbal autism isn’t a diagnosis but a subgroup of people with autism. According to Speech Ease, a nonverbal autistic person struggles to communicate verbally, but researchers have yet to discover why. However, data indicates that nonverbal autism doesn’t correlate with the person’s intelligence.
Some signs of nonverbal autism include eye contact avoidance, flapping hands or rocking the body for comfort, and not meeting developmental milestones such as babbling or laughing by 12 months.
