A 7-year-old child with autism from Pembroke Pines, FL. who first made it to the news when he was just five years old wowed TV host Steve Harvey and the rest of the audience during the show’s Extraordinary Kids Segment.
Jacob Velasquez made it to the prestigious National Musician’s Guild two years ago, where he lived up to his nicknames Baby Beethoven and Mini Mozart.
The little Mr. Velasquez started playing the piano when he was about four years old– when he saw his dad playing the keyboard one day. According to Jacob, while watching his dad he told himself:
“Oh, I can do that. It’s not hard.”
Soon after, the little boy was able to read music. Gifted with a photographic memory, one look at a musical sheet and Jacob can memorize the entire song.
His mother, Tina, said that they were at first devastated to learn that he has autism, but realized soon after that what she and her husband needed to do was to focus on Jacob’s gifts instead of focusing on his diagnosis. Tina hopes other families would be touched by Jacob’s story. She told:
“I believe children have gifts with or without autism, it’s just up to us to discover them.”
The original article by Navi on the Empty Lighthouse Magazine website can be found here