Grandma, I would give up my right arm if my grandson could function enough to go to a class anywhere near his age group.. G_D bless your boy and your family, thank your stars that he is who he is.. :)
At age 4, I visited his preschool and his teacher told me that he wrote them a note that said that he liked to play with trucks and puzzles, too. They said he spelled everything correctly and even put the comma in front of the "too". They were amazed.
We took him to the zoo at about the same age but it took one person always holding his hand because he would just take off, not knowing where he was. My daughter and her husband had to put a latch high up on the door to keep him from running away. He became lost more than once. He could read a newspaper by age 4 and it was evident he was reading it because he would babble out loud and if we could look at the paper, we could see he knew the words. Gradually, his speech improved.
He began entering spelling contests but later entered math contests where he almost always took first place. Some of the wins were quite impressive.
He was actually quite popular in HS as he was on the student council each year and a homecoming king candidate as a senior.
He is somewhat reclusive now but I think he's content with that. He's realizing that he will now have to go into the real world and earn a living. I think some professions gravitate to people with his "problem". It is likely he will end up in Silicon Valley much to his grandmother's dislike BUT we'll see. I just pray for he best for him but from what I read about Silicon Valley, there are many like him there.
Interestingly enough, it appears many of the highly educated folks in that area have many offspring with autistic spectrum disorders.
This just adds to the curiosity. Before the last election, he was home during Thanksgiving break and we were talking about the election. My buttons nearly popped when he announced that he had gotten all the propaganda about Obama, too but he decided to apply logic to his decision and he voted for McCain. At least he wasn't gullible. I pray for you and your family.