© 2026 ABC News

\"The brain is malleable, it isn't fixed,\" Senneff said. \"Everything started heading in the right direction when we began to change our strategy. More eye contact, speaking in longer sentences, he actually started running, he would never run before. Once he wasn't feeling like hell all the time, once his body was functioning more normally everything started clicking.\"

Senneff told \"GMA\" Ryan's \"labs are now normal\" and his white blood count, once low, is also in the normal range. His kidneys are the same size and growing normally. And he's on grade level academically - learning Spanish and doing fractions alongside his classmates.

She hopes the video shows people living with chronic illness that things can turnaround -- but it might mean changing the way you do things.

View this post on Instagram

Ryan the 🦁 won a ticket to the ICU since Monday w mycoplasma and a virus. Thank you for all of your support! They took him off oxygen for a few hours this am, but he wore himself out singing and showing his RN's how to ski, so he is back on 3L of oxygen (was in 10L Monday night). Thank you to all the wonderful RN's and docs at St. Louis Children's for taking such good care of our 🦁#JackwasonaplanetoNYC #neverboringaroundhere #theseRN'saresaints

A post shared by Maura Senneff (@maurasenneff) on Nov 30, 2016 at 2:47pm PST

\"We dropped the ball on mastering some bilateral coordination skills years ago bc the plateaus were endless while triaging acute illnesses,\" she wrote in her Instagram post. \"Back to the drawing board- what we were doing was not working. So Ryan’s docs focused on coordination between body & brain + vision for motor planning the past few weeks. 2 weeks later he got the hang of a bunch of skills & mastered out of all his vision exercises. These bilateral skills using left & right sides of brain will help with writing, all sports & ball skills, tying shoes, confidence, social skills, language etc. Even late, it’s still progress. Sometimes the little victories are the biggest.\"

While his mom and dad are understandably proud of Ryan, he's clearly proud of them too,

\"I'm going to cry for you dad,\" we hear Ryan say in the video to his dad, Jack Senneff. \"I'm so proud of you dad,\" Ryan said as he puts his hands on his dad's shoulders.

But as sweet as the video is, Maura Senneff said it isn't about Ryan at all. \"This is about showing what's possible and improving the outcome for other children with special needs. Never give up, it's never too late.\"

","canonicalUrl":"https://abcnews.com/GMA/Family/boy-tells-dad-im-proud-best-thing-today/story?id=72009604","legacySlug":"/family/story/boy-tells-dad-im-proud-best-thing-today-72009604","noIndexNoFollow":false},"publishTime":"23:43","publishDate":"07-28-2020","updatedTime":"11:51","updatedDate":"07-29-2020","socialImage":{"alt":"Ryan Senneff and his dad, Jack.","credit":"Maura Senneff","ratio":"16x9","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/20200728ryansenneffgmammain_1595955376438_hpMain_16x9_1600.jpg","width":992,"height":558},"datePublished":"7/28/2020 23:43:00 GMT","video":{"live":false,"id":72009604,"headline":"Boy tells his dad 'I'm so proud of you' ","mediaAssetTitle":"Brown kid so proud of dad video ","description":"The 8-year-old has overcome many medical issues. ","duration":"1:14","posterImg":{"url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","width":608,"height":342},"video":{"feed":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2020/07/200728_gma_digital_skip_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8"},"playlist":["133144263","132956835","132488083"]},"relatedItems":[{"contentType":"video","date":"May 20, 2026","headline":"Fashion mogul’s son arrested in father’s fatal fall","section":"News","slug":"/video/133144263","id":"133144263","image":{"alt":"VIDEO: Fashion mogul’s son arrested in father’s fatal fall","credit":"ABCNews.com","ratio":"1x1","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260520_gma_ally_fall3_732_hpMain_1x1_608.jpg","width":384,"height":384},"images":{"alt":"VIDEO: Fashion mogul’s son arrested in father’s fatal fall","credit":"ABCNews.com","crops":[{"16x9":{"small":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260520_gma_ally_fall3_732_hpMain_16x9_608.jpg","medium":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260520_gma_ally_fall3_732_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg","large":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260520_gma_ally_fall3_732_hpMain_16x9_1600.jpg"}},{"9x16":{"small":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260520_gma_ally_fall3_732_hpMain_9x16_608.jpg","medium":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260520_gma_ally_fall3_732_hpMain_9x16_992.jpg","large":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260520_gma_ally_fall3_732_hpMain_16x9_1600.jpg"}},{"1x1":{"small":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260520_gma_ally_fall3_732_hpMain_1x1_608.jpg","medium":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260520_gma_ally_fall3_732_hpMain_1x1_992.jpg","large":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260520_gma_ally_fall3_732_hpMain_1x1_1600.jpg"}}]}},{"contentType":"video","date":"May 14, 2026","headline":"Trump meets Xi Jinping in high-stakes Beijing summit","section":"News","slug":"/video/132956835","id":"132956835","image":{"alt":"VIDEO: Trump meets Xi Jinping in high-stakes Beijing summit","credit":"ABCNews.com","ratio":"1x1","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260514_gma_bruce_china1_hpMain_1x1_608.jpg","width":384,"height":384},"images":{"alt":"VIDEO: Trump meets Xi Jinping in high-stakes Beijing summit","credit":"ABCNews.com","crops":[{"16x9":{"small":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260514_gma_bruce_china1_hpMain_16x9_608.jpg","medium":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260514_gma_bruce_china1_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg","large":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260514_gma_bruce_china1_hpMain_16x9_1600.jpg"}},{"9x16":{"small":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260514_gma_bruce_china1_hpMain_9x16_608.jpg","medium":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260514_gma_bruce_china1_hpMain_9x16_992.jpg","large":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260514_gma_bruce_china1_hpMain_16x9_1600.jpg"}},{"1x1":{"small":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260514_gma_bruce_china1_hpMain_1x1_608.jpg","medium":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260514_gma_bruce_china1_hpMain_1x1_992.jpg","large":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260514_gma_bruce_china1_hpMain_1x1_1600.jpg"}}]}},{"contentType":"video","date":"April 29, 2026","headline":"Grand jury indicts former FBI director over Instagram post","section":"News","slug":"/video/132488083","id":"132488083","image":{"alt":"VIDEO: Grand jury indicts former FBI director over Instagram post","credit":"ABCNews.com","ratio":"1x1","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260429_gma_thomas_comey2_706_hpMain_1x1_608.jpg","width":384,"height":384},"images":{"alt":"VIDEO: Grand jury indicts former FBI director over Instagram post","credit":"ABCNews.com","crops":[{"16x9":{"small":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260429_gma_thomas_comey2_706_hpMain_16x9_608.jpg","medium":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260429_gma_thomas_comey2_706_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg","large":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260429_gma_thomas_comey2_706_hpMain_16x9_1600.jpg"}},{"9x16":{"small":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260429_gma_thomas_comey2_706_hpMain_9x16_608.jpg","medium":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260429_gma_thomas_comey2_706_hpMain_9x16_992.jpg","large":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260429_gma_thomas_comey2_706_hpMain_16x9_1600.jpg"}},{"1x1":{"small":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260429_gma_thomas_comey2_706_hpMain_1x1_608.jpg","medium":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260429_gma_thomas_comey2_706_hpMain_1x1_992.jpg","large":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/260429_gma_thomas_comey2_706_hpMain_1x1_1600.jpg"}}]}}],"relatedContentSection":"news","schemaContent":{"name":"Boy tells his dad 'I'm so proud of you' ","description":"The 8-year-old has overcome many medical issues. ","duration":"1:14","uploadDate":"07-28-2020","publication":"07-28-2020","images":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","url":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2020/07/200728_gma_digital_skip_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","contentUrl":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2020/07/200728_gma_digital_skip_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","link":"https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/family/story/boy-tells-dad-im-proud-best-thing-today-72009604"}},"playlist":[{"id":"133179167","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133144373","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133144059","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133143081","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133075455","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133063114","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133063086","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133015093","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132998564","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132998072","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132977374","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132977531","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132962364","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132958371","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132932494","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132927870","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132911868","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132911765","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132880952","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132873763","contentType":"story","section":"news"}],"kvps":{"pgtyp":"article","lang":"en","sp":"goodmorningamerica","programmatic":"true","bundleId":"com.abcnews"}},"analytics":{"accountID":"wdgnewwdgnewgmaweb","ns":"gma","pageName":"gma:family:video","pageType":"video","globalSpecVersion":"v1.08","siteDifferentiator":"gma:site","tagID":"g_page01","userABCookie":"0","section":"family","title":"Boy tells his dad 'I'm so proud of you' ","pubTime":"19:43","pubDate":"07-28-2020","modTime":"07:51","modDate":"07-29-2020","taxonomyTags":"none","id":72009604,"editorialOtherSubjects":"","wordCount":"none","columns":"none","authors":"","authorsUnit":"none","authorsBureau":"none","subBrand":"Good Morning America","provider":"Good Morning America","videoName":"Boy tells his dad 'I'm so proud of you' ","mediaAssetTitle":"Brown kid so proud of dad video ","videoId":72009604,"mediaOnPage":"video","legacySlug":"/family/story/boy-tells-dad-im-proud-best-thing-today-72009604"},"taboola":{}},"request":{"headers":{},"httpVersion":"1.1","method":"GET","url":"/video/72009604","vary":{"host":"www.goodmorningamerica.com","cached":true,"path":"/video/72009604","forwarded-proto":"https","device":"desktop","userab":"0"}},"viewport":{"width":1260,"height":0},"user":{}};