Home > Media coverage > Herts & Essex Observer, 05 July 2007

Herts and Essex Observer, 05 July 2007

'Meet Miss Dolittle', by Eleanor Scotchbrook

She can't tell her parents she loves them. . . but little Rose, 4, can talk to the animals

A little girl from Bishop's Stortford who doctors said may never speak has started talking - to animals!

Rose Willcocks - dubbed Miss Dolittle by her parents, Esme and Dave - is the only known person in the world to suffer from a genetic abnormality that means she has severe learning difficulties and sometimes goes an entire day without uttering a single sound.

But after spending four weeks on a farm earlier this year the four-year-old amazed her parents and medical experts by babbling and chattering to the animals.

Last Friday the Observer arranged for Rose to visit Mole Hall Wildlife Park at Widdington, where she was able to spend some time with the animals close up.

Rose's mum Esme watches her daughter happily babbling away as she makes her way around the park and is amazed at the difference.

"Whenever she's near the animals she transforms into a different child," she says.

Such is the effect that the couple, of The Ridings in Bishop's Stortford, are desperate to raise £15,000 to send Rose to a specialist centre in Florida for an intensive course of therapy that includes swimming with dolphins.

They believe it could give her a "fighting chance" of a more normal life. Esme, 37, said:

"No-one knows why she has this affinity with animals, but we think swimming with dolphins would be wonderful for her. It sounds silly to say she talks to animals, but for some reason they are able to unlock something in her brain that has been closed off to everyone else. They're the key."

It was while staying at a farm near Hereford in February that Rose started vocalising her first sounds. She was undergoing a four-week course of therapy at nearby Megan Baker House, an education centre for disabled children.

At home her parents were used to their elder daughter making just three distinctive sounds - a squeal, a scream and a whine - to communicate, so they were astounded when Rose started babbling to the cows. Dave, 40, an IT systems administrator, said:

"She was making all these sounds we'd never heard before - it was like she was having a conversation with them.

"She was babbling away and leaning right through the fence, almost face to face with them. She was kissing them and stroking them - we were amazed.

"She's usually a real home girl, but for the four weeks we were there she'd be up really early every morning with her wellies as if to say, 'Come on, Dad, let's go outside'."

At Mole Hall, the connection Rose has with animals was apparent from the moment she climbed out of the car and bounded over to the nearest enclosure to see the deer. There was a constant stream of chitter-chatter for the rest of the morning.

She attends horse riding lessons every week and Esme frequently takes her to local farms, but they have decided against introducing a family pet because smaller animals, likes dogs and cats, frighten Rose.

"They say that if a child doesn't speak by the time they're seven then the likelihood is they never will, so we're doing all we can," Esme explained. "We've got to give her a fighting chance, so that's why we come to places like this and why we so desperately want to go to Florida."

Rose goes to Amwell View, a school for children with special needs in Stanstead Abbotts, and also attends a play session at Grove Cottage, Bishop's Stortford's Mencap centre, on Thursdays.

Her condition was diagnosed shortly after she was born when Esme and Dave noticed she made a strange grunting sound as she fed. After undergoing tests, she was diagnosed with a floppy larynx and trachea, and then later an unbalanced translocation of chromosomes, which means two of her chromosomes have swapped, altering her genetic make-up.

A search of genetic databases by doctors revealed Rose was the only person in the world with this particular chromosomal condition.

However, the same thing had happened to Esme, although her chromosomes swapped perfectly so their role had not changed. Rose's younger sister, Ruby, 16 months, is unaffected.

"It makes me sad that Rose is developmentally delayed, especially as Ruby is at the stage when she's starting to babble and is actually overtaking her big sister in some respects," Esme said. "Ruby is already more vocal than Rose, but it's fantastic that she is starting to make slow progress."

So far there is no explanation as to why animals have been able to help Rose find her voice. Esme said:

"It's so difficult to engage with Rose sometimes and it's upsetting that she's never said 'Mummy' or 'I love you', but at least now we know that she can make those sounds.

"It's like there's a door in her mind and for the briefest of moments it will be ajar and then it closes again and what we need to do is find a way to open it fully."