“I realized there was something special about Jacob very early on. When he was about 13 months old, although he was not yet speaking, Jacob had memorized the entire alphabet. I could say any letter and he would point to it in a book. By two years old he could do the same with all 50 states and 7 continents. At this time he was also diagnosed with speech delay and a feeding disorder.
He was not speaking, only grunting, and could not tolerate textures of any sort. He had severe GERD and couldn’t swallow anything but finely pureed baby food. The slightest texture in his food caused Jacob to vomit violently and often times turn purple. This would happen sometimes several times a day. It was very scary and heartbreaking because I didn’t know how to help him.
Jacob began feeding therapy with Evelise and she taught me different techniques to teach Jacob to chew. At two years and 7 months, Jacob chewed his first solid food (one half of a cheerio).
He now eats a wide variety of foods including salad, chicken, rice and beans, ribs, corn on the cob and much more.
Jacob also began treatment for his speech delay with Jeremy. Within just a few therapy sessions, Jacob started to request “more” and “all done”. It was such a joy to finally hear my son’s voice! Jeremy is an amazing speech therapist and has a gift of making learning fun for children.
At the age of 4 Jacob was diagnosed with autism. Around this time we also discovered his musical abilities. One morning I heard the song coming from the piano that my husband was playing the night before, but my husband was at work. When I went to see who was playing, to my surprise it was Jacob! He started taking piano lessons at four years old and can now play pieces by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Yanni and more, however, he prefers playing Taylor Swift! He always talks about Taylor Swift and really wants to meet her. Jacob, along with my husband, created a medley of seven of his favorite songs off her recent album 1989. Shortly after it was uploaded to YouTube, Taylor herself noticed it and sent a Twitter message to Jacob inviting him to a show on her tour. The video has since gotten over 490,000 views.
Needless to say he is super excited and cannot wait to meet Taylor.
We are very thankful to the Nicklaus Children’s Dan Marino Outpatient Center center for helping Jacob progress to where he is today!“
-Tina Velazquez, Jacob’s mom