Jacob Raphael said his first word at age 5. It was "meow."

Now 35, the Sandy Springs resident holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from Georgia College and State University, is working on a novel, and has co-authored a book with his father, David Raphael, about the three decades between that first word and the man he became.

"A Miracle of the Heart: A Father and Son's Autism Journey," released in summer 2026 through The Narrow Bridge Press, pairs David's essays from the late 1990s with Jacob's own reflections on each chapter. The father and son founded the publishing imprint together to bring the book to print.

Jacob was diagnosed with autism at 2 years and 7 months old. Doctors at the time could not guarantee how far he would progress due to significant cognitive delays, according to Appen Media. David began a grueling routine: a three-hour commute to the office of Dr. Stanley Greenspan, who developed the DIR/Floortime model, and thousands of dollars in provider costs.

"The first time we saw Dr. Greenspan … Jacob and I were in his office and it was as if somebody had opened a door to the future," David Raphael said. "When we started doing the Floortime method, we saw changes right away."

The DIR/Floortime approach focuses on emotional regulation, engagement, and problem-solving through play that follows the child's interests. Greenspan developed the model in the 1980s and 1990s alongside Dr. Serena Weider.

From essay to book

David first read Jacob's story publicly at the 1996 Zero to Three child development conference. His written essay, "Jacob's Story: A Miracle of the Heart," was published in the April/May 1997 edition of the Zero to Three Journal, with a follow-up in 2000. Those essays form the book's backbone.

Jacob, who was usually hesitant to discuss his autism, contributed a chapter titled "A Boy and His Autism." In it, he describes reading his father's original essay for the first time and the flood of feeling it unlocked. He wrote that the emotion that broke through was "empathy … and a radical shifting of a memory that happens years after the fact."

The book's cover shows David embracing a 13-year-old Jacob.

National stage

The Raphaels brought their Sandy Springs story to a national audience July 14–16, keynoting the Creating Connections to Shining Stars conference at Hotel Roanoke in Virginia. The conference, a collaboration between Virginia's Part C Early Intervention and Part B Early Childhood Special Education programs, was open to up to 300 special educators and parents.

Jacob told the crowd that helping neurodivergent people connect with others is essential, and that finding people who accept others as they are is even more important.

The timing carries broader context: CDC data published in April 2025 found that 1 in 31 eight-year-old children in the U.S. were identified with autism spectrum disorder in 2022, up from 1 in 150 in 2002.

What's next

Jacob is applying to a graduate-level social work program. The book and an accompanying blog are available at narrowbridge.us.