Silent but Loudly

Today I watched my little boy flirt from the backseat of our car with a little girl in a car beside us waiting in line. In his own little way he was communicating with her by smiling and waving then hiding his face when she responded by smiling and waving back to him. They say autistic kids are in their own little world and withdrawn from ours but I believe that is not the case.. I believe that they are very much in our world just in their own way. He will notice the smallest details in things such as when his daddy goes to work he checks his shoes to make sure he is wearing "work shoes" rather than everyday shoes because he knows if his daddy leaves the house in any other shoes than work shoes, he must be going somewhere without him and thats upsetting to him. For me, he checks my shoes but also my stethascope & uniform because he knows mommy works in a different setting than daddy. He will hug me when he is stressed and smell my hair because its calming to him, sometimes he hugs me to tell me he loves me and at times its a sensory thing..either way i'll take any hugs from him i can get! How can anyone think our kids are withdrawn from us when they pay more attention to us than we pay to ourselves? It is my belief that while silently they are in our world, they are in it infact loudly.