Autistic son was stunned when mom revealed her autism diagnosis — then he got up from his chair for a touching gesture

Receiving love and understanding from parents means a lot to any child, especially young ones. An autistic boy felt something similar when his mom told him that she had been diagnosed with autism, too. The woman, Kate Cortelyou–who goes by @onethumbgarden on Instagram–received a late diagnosis of autism as a 40-year-old and got an absolutely priceless reaction from her son. She shared the heartwarming incident with the internet, and people were absolutely touched by the gesture.

Cortelyou began telling her son that she had been in some long interviews with the doctors and had talked to them that day. "I am autistic," the mom told the boy. He let out a huge gasp when he heard the news. "Actually?" the boy asked, and the mom confirmed it. "This is when he realizes he is not alone," the text overlay of the video read. The son was in tears as he processed the news, and soon enough, he got up to give his mom a big hug. "So we are both autistic," he asked. "What do you think?" his dad chimed in. "Then you understand why I complain a ton," he went on. "It is because of you that a lot of things started to make sense about the way that I was," Cortelyou shared.

"A few weeks ago, at age 40, I was diagnosed as autistic," Cortelyou shared in the caption. "When our son was diagnosed as autistic at three, I dove headfirst into learning everything I could about autism, special education, disability rights and advocacy." She even became a special education advocate and has been serving families across middle Tennessee since 2018. "I did it all for him. It turns out this entire time I was learning about myself, too," Cortelyou expressed. People appreciated the mother and shared their thoughts on the moment in the comments.

@peachpines.wellness wrote, "This is exactly why late diagnosis matters. To show our children that they're not alone, they're part of us, they're seen." @allisonmertzman commented, "I use language with my oldest like 'our brain works differently' and 'you know how we have sensory things that bother us.' Team effort." @monot3_ remarked, "I have loved seeing videos like this. It is so monumental that this can actually happen for all of us. An age where autistic people aren't ever the only one like them." @jeanaf12 expressed, "My toddler has autism, and what you said about while learning more about his diagnosis, things about yourself started to make more sense, really hits home."

@as_the_ravenous_flies pointed out, "I never thought of how potentially isolating it might feel to be the only person in your family, or that you know, with that kind of diagnosis. How cool for you to have some answers for yourself and for him to not feel alone." @evitaconchita suggested, "My son is showing signs, and I'm on the spectrum. Today, one of his friends was having a meltdown after drop-off and I saw my son was struggling with the noise (I know I was), so I took that opportunity to calm both of our systems down by holding and talking to him quietly. It's hard having autism, but I'm so glad I can help my son in ways I wasn't helped."

You can follow Kate Cortelyou (@onethumbgarden) on Instagram for more family-related content.