Okay, I get what you are saying. I actually have no idea if he is understanding everything I say. But this communication between he and I was a first.

I have spent MANY occasions visiting with his family. All this young man has ever done is sit in another room and play multiple levels of playstation or some other video game. And he never spoke. He would just rock, and grunt. And many times he would bang his head against the wall and someone would stop him and just bring him back to the game. Also I have seen him bang on the table, and throw food and open up soda bottles so they would explode.

But he has NEVER said one word. As the summer comes up and more people will be sitting outside, I will try and find a way to see what he actually can do (without being intrusive or asking anyone any questions). It is absolutely not intention to intrude into this family's personal business even though I am friendly with the grandparents.

When I first met this young man years ago, one of the family members said "severely autistic, non verbal" and then I spoke to the brother and he also said "he has never spoken".

So it just might be that the day program he has been in, well, they are working on that aspect. COMMUNICATION. and inter-action.

And the fact that when I tried to interact with him before (years ago) by saying hi to him, and he never had any recognition in his eyes. It was like he was looking through you instead of recognizing your face and interacting with you. Now he is doing that.

I think this is remarkable. And here's a question. I read that autistics love puzzles and sometimes they see life as in numbers and puzzles and math.

Now I have no idea if this is going on in this young man's brain, but the fact that he plays video games (and hits the highest levels), and he can do this for 10 hours a day sometimes, what does this mean.

Do you have any idea what is going on in this young man's brain?

I'm just trying to learn here, not fix him, or intrude.

Please know this. The family is very nice and I see them often.

Thanks if you can help clear this up for me.

Mel