Even though verbal and well able to communicate it took me along time to be able to tell my nearest and dearest that I loved them. It was probably well into my adult life before I managed to express my feelings.
It is incredible then to compare this with Andy and others like him. In spite of having very limited conventional communication many autistic children find ways of expressing their feelings of love towards their family and carers very clearly.
I was thinking of this when a fellow autism parent shared a picture of her and her young son on the occasion of her birthday. With hugs and smiles and kisses her wonderful son’s love simply shone like the brightest star in the sky.
People on the spectrum’s “social deficit” may leave them without the ability to express their feelings in the standard ways but it does not mean they do not have these feelings and the emotions shown are nothing less than entirely genuine.
It rather puts many of us to shame.

I.B.A.