I know little about autism. I probably need to know more. Here's why. My new next-door neighbor is a newly divorced fellow who moved into the house with two grown sons, and a visiting (shared custody) 11 year old boy. Dad works a lot! One of the sons is autistic. He has a job working at a local casino in the kitchen. He drives his car to and from work, mows the lawn, but other than that, is rarely seen. One day I get a call from dad asking me to try jump starting the autistic son's car so he can get to work. The autistic son (I'll refer to him as "J" from now on) knocks on my door and tells me his dad told him to come over. I tell J to go attach his jumper cables to his car and I'd be right over with mine. We can't get his car to start. My guess is the starter motor is shot. I get another neighbor who is a car person to verify this. At this point J is either going to be real late for work or stay home. Without really thinking it through, I tell J to hop in my car and I'd take him to work. Realizing we're not going to have an in depth conversation on the drive, I simply ask J to tell me where to turn on the route to work. I also ask him to call his dad and tell him what's going on in case I'm overstepping my bounds here. Everything went fine. Dad thanked me profusely. AND, most importantly to me, J now waves to me when we see each other. So! Without interfering in his life, is there a "next step" I could take to further support J?

Man! That's the longest post I've ever made!!!