A teenage boy who doesn’t speak or show emotion now shares what he is thinking in letters.

Gordy Baylinson’s parents believed that he had no understanding of what they were telling him or of the world around him, but therapy sessions have proved otherwise.

Using a technique called the Rapid Prompting Method, Gordy was asked to answer questions by pointing to letters on an alphabet board before graduating to a QWERTY keyboard.

But it was only when he was to write a letter to a letter to Montgomery County police in the USA last year, did Gordy pour his heart out.

Gordy learned the local police department was holding an autism outreach program that trains officers how to handle someone with the condition.

In his letter to Laurie Reyes, the officer who started the program, Gordy wrote: “I felt very strongly about writing you today, to give a little extra insight on the disconnected links that were supposed to make my brain and body work together in harmony.

“My brain, which is much like yours, knows what it wants and how to make that clear. My body, which is much like a drunken, almost six foot toddler, resists.

“This letter is not a cry for pity, pity is not what I’m looking for. I love myself just the way I am, drunken toddler body and all. This letter is, however, a cry for attention, recognition and acceptance.”

Now, the 16-year-old from Potomac, Maryland, types away regularly and has astounded those who know him with his knowledge. In one note he wrote about the volcano Mt St Helen in the US, which he learned about from a magazine in a doctor’s waiting room.

During an interview with the Washington Post, he thanked his therapist, Meghann Parkinson, for “seeing my potential and helping my words, my story, and my manly voice get out there.”

“He has been able to express himself in ways that are unbelievable,” said Gordy’s father, Evan Baylinson, 49.

“The sky’s the limit for him now. I believe he can do whatever he wants.”