This heartwarming article takes a lot of stuff for granted that I didn’t understand.
I thought a Bar Mitzvah was about a thirteen-year-old boy demonstrating that he knew how to read and/or sing Hebrew, and thus had the full abilities of an adult Jewish man. So when I thought this was about allowing a mute boy to sing, I understood it. Then, when I found out it was about a practically non-language-using autistic boy, I didn’t understand it.
It turns out that boys and girls become adult sons and daughters of the Commandments (bar-mitzvah and bat-mitzvah) automatically, as soon as they reach a certain age. Doing the readings at the synagogue/shul on that day is how the kid celebrates, not how the kid becomes an adult.
So it does actually make sense.
Although it also means that these people need to have a more serious speech synthesizer program on the iPad; because if the kid can use it on a special occasion, he can use it all the time.
Much much agreed on the last para.