{"id":237502,"date":"2021-01-06T15:44:40","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T21:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=237502"},"modified":"2021-12-22T16:08:14","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T22:08:14","slug":"premature-autistic-blind-musical-talents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-autistic-blind-musical-talents\/","title":{"rendered":"Born premature, this autistic blind man has musical talents ‘seen once in a generation’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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During his premature birth in 1979, Derek Paravicini was accidentally given an overdose of oxygen that caused blindness and impaired his young brain. He struggled to communicate as he grew up and was diagnosed with autism, but he was just 18 months old when his family realized he had immeasurable talent.<\/p>\n

“[W]hen Derek was born, you could have fit him on the palm of your hand,” explained Derek’s teacher and mentor Adam Ockelford during a TEDx Talk<\/a>. “He was born 3.5 months premature, and really it was a fantastic fight for him to survive. And he had to have a lot of oxygen, and that affected your eyes, Derek, and also the way you understand language and the way you understand the world. But that was the end of the bad news….”<\/p>\n

Derek’s parents hired a nanny to help care for him, and it was this nanny who gifted Derek with a keyboard when he was 18 months old, and his world opened up. He taught himself to play and by the age of four, he had memorized a slew of songs, according to ArtisticFuel.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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