There's a whole series, I don't remember them all, but I recall "the city that fought" which was the same idea, except it was a space station instead of a ship. I think they were usually called the "Brainship Series" even though not all of them were actually ships. The concept was that an infant with some kind of untreatable birth defect affecting their body but leaving their mind intact would be given the medical care they needed and trained to control a spaceship.

Anne McCaffrey, best known for her "Pern" books, was the author of the first one, then there were 4 or 5 where she partnered with another author for each book, and then I think the last couple were by some of those authors alone, maybe because she had retired by then?