A father’s dedicated practice routine helps Caledon son with autism find his voice

December 11, 2025 · 0 Comments

By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

25-year-old Caledon resident Sahil Prashar cannot read or write, but he can sing over 100 songs in several languages.

When Sahil was very young, he was diagnosed with autism, and he wasn’t able to communicate with his family. As he was growing up, his father, Anoop Prashar, always played music, whether they were in the car, at home, or out and about.

“One day I had an MP3 player and I was just fooling around with it. I was listening to something and I put it on my son’s ear, and for the first time, he said one line of it,” says Anoop.

“That was kind of a eureka moment.”

From there, Sahil began behaving better in school and communicating once they began incorporating music into his life, he says.

Then, when Sahil was seven, the school he attended had him sing the national anthem with the school band.

Anoop, who has a background in sports and martial arts, shares that he was very familiar with the fundamentals of practicing and working out, and decided to apply that to Sahil and his newfound love for singing

From that day, he decided he wanted Sahil to begin practicing seriously.

He moved him, his wife, and Sahil to a bigger house in Caledon Village, where Sahil would have more space. Once they moved, he set up a sound system with a stage and bought a karaoke system with a $2 microphone.

Anoop explains that Sahil would sit and sing the same song 20 times without getting tired.

“I knew he could memorize songs, but I didn’t know at the time he had a powerful photographic memory.”

He explains that Sahil was memorizing the repetitions and patterns in each song and utilizing them the next time he sang it.

Anoop used to write down every song Sahil sang, but now he says it’s gone into the hundreds; “it’s too much, we threw the books away. Now, we just wing it every day.”

“This whole thing started 15 years ago, his routine, this is his therapy because he doesn’t go to college,” Anoop continues. “He doesn’t have one friend in the world, he was left alone. I’m his friend.”

A few years ago, Anoop quit his job to take care of Sahil full-time. His wife works with the local school board with children with disabilities.

Now, eight hours a day, Anoop practices with Sahil, whether it’s vocal training, singing, or their daily concerts, just the two of them.

Anoop shares that Sahil covers 40 different artists in languages ranging from English, Punjabi, Hindi, and even a song in Japanese.

“He is fascinated by Elvis and sings several cover songs,” he adds.

“Music is something he has to have for the rest of his life,” he says. “The music gives him structure.”

For years, Anoop shared that he has struggled to find an avenue for Sahil’s music.

“An audience is impossible to find. I sent his music worldwide for 10 years, with zero interest.”

Anoop has been posting videos of Sahil’s singing on Facebook for over 15 years now.

What began as a way for him to keep the videos without using too much storage has turned into his hope to inspire others.

“My hope was to motivate somebody else in the same shoes,” he explains. “I belong to these Facebook groups and autism groups, and if you can very early pick out that there’s some hidden talent in there, you can refine it.”

“If they have an interest, then you can bring that out. It could be anything. It could be singing or math. You have to engage people who have been diagnosed with autism, and if you ignore it, you don’t even recognize it’s there. A lot of times that spark is ignored, but a lot of talent does exist,” he explains. “I picked it up right away, and we just started to work on it very quickly as soon as we discovered it.

When Season 14 of America’s Got Talent premiered, the world met Kodi Lee, a 22-year-old man who had been diagnosed with autism and was legally blind.

For Anoop, seeing Lee win America’s Got Talent gave him hope for his own son.

“I did a little bit of research,” says Anoop. “Kodi Lee’s family, where they live and the music school that he goes to, they interact with him, and there were bars where Kodi could perform and they allowed him, they gave him opportunities and they appreciated him.”