I have a teenage son who is mute. He wasn't always mute. Me and my husband lost custody of him when he was 7. His babysitter was physically abusing him and we didn't know. She pushed him down stairs. When the police were called she told a bunch of lies about us making it sound like we gave her permission to do this so they took our son away. He was in cps custody for a year and after around months 7 in foster care he stopped talking and hasn't spoken since. He's in 10th grade now and almost 16. He's been in therapy since the incident. He writes sometimes what he wants to say but his hand writing is like chicken scratch. He doesn't really have many friends. My mom friend has a nonverbal teenage son. He uses this communication tablet and he it's significantly improved his social life. Problem is, it's expensive. We could take the money out of savings but my husband doesn't want to. He said it's different. Her son can't talk. Ours chooses not to. He also feels like gifting him this would be rewarding his decision to quit talking for so many years. I think it could really improve our situation though