When he was five weeks old, James McBride needed life saving surgery to fit a tracheostomy (an artificial hole made in his windpipe).
He had severe laryngeal stenosis (narrowing of his airway).
Now three-years-old, James still needs the tracheostomy to help him breathe and it means he isn’t able to talk.
He’s currently waiting for major surgery for airway re-construction in Great Ormond Street hospital, where they hope to make his airway as normal as possible so that James may be able to talk to his parents Annemarie and Kevin and sister Anna, five.
Until then, James, from Derry, Northern Ireland, is learning Makaton – a simpler form of sign language for children – to help him communicate, and even sing along to his favourite songs.
The language has grown in popularity as it helps children by teaching them signs and symbols for certain words.
We’ve seen other parents doing carpool karaoke using Makaton.
James is starting to master the language – and is now using it to sing along to his favourite songs.
With his mum Annemarie, he created a video singing along to his favourite George Ezra song.
Annemarie told Metro.co.uk: ‘James’ big sister Anna loves George Ezra’s song Shotgun and has it on repeat which James absolutely loved.
‘We decided to learn Makaton to the video. James picked it up really quickly and we are all so impressed and proud of him so I decided to video us singing and signing.
Now Annemarie wants to spread the video as far as possible in the hope the singer might see James’ version, and to try to raise awareness of the Makaton language.
‘A few people encouraged me to share on Twitter to try and bring it to George Ezra’s attention.
‘I just thought how wonderful that would be if by some miracle due to the power of social media that James could maybe sign his song in person to George Ezra himself.’
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