This is Luke.

He is 11. He remembers the colors of his birthday cake when he was four, but he needs to see pictures to understand the smallest changes in his daily schedule. He endlessly recites lines from Thomas the Tank Engine, his favorite book, but he has never had a conversation. His father, who took this picture, hardly knew what autism was when Luke was diagnosed at age five. Now he and his wife know a lot. Will Luke ever be able to converse? Hold a job? Live on his own? “These are all unknowns,” his father says. more