WOW
Some people thing Autism is a birth defect. No, it is simply a different way of thinking, of using one’s mind.
It is a gift, and like many gifts, comes with downsides as well.
God bless him, and god bless his family for supporting him!
This is AWESOME!
It's certainly interesting to consider that autism might actually be an evolutionary step forward. (To avoid any "Creationism/Evolution" debates, I'm referring to this an an intra-species evolution, as in natural selection.)
We don't know what causes autism, but it seems to be more prevalent in children whose parents both have high IQs. While not every autistic child is a "prodigy" or a "savant", those tendencies do seem to be considerably more common among the autistic than among the "neurotypical".
What we may be seeing is the rise of essentially a specialized form of human being, often called an "expert" or a "talent" in science fiction literature. Most humans are generalists -- we learn well about a broad base of topics, better in some than others, but it is relatively easy for us to apply or leverage that knowledge in other areas. The autistic learn and comprehend differently, often being very narrowly focused in a single subject area (math, music, art, etc.).
The real challenge may actually not be how to "mainstream" the autistic, but for us as a whole to learn how to teach them to allow them to reach their own, albeit more specialized, potential.