I know that there is hope because my neighbor has an autistic son whose case was not mild and I don't think was caught as early as your sons and he talks now. He didn't until he was about 4. Early intervention and intensive intervention make a huge difference so it is a really good thing that they caught it as early as they did for your son. The little boy I know is now 6 or 7 (I forget) and last I heard was mainstreamed into a normal classroom with an aide 3 days a week and in a special ed class the other two. They were working toward mainstreaming fully. I used to babysit him when he was just learning to talk and interact with people. He was really sweet then (probably still is, but I haven't been babysitting since I got my headache) and he read better than his older sister but I never told her that.

There is a lot of hope for your son to look you in the eye and talk, but autism is a really scary thing for a Mom to hear. I am sure the people in the autism support group can tell you a lot more since they are parents not just babysitters. If you click the online support groups button on the left bar you can scroll through the different support groups until you find that one. They will probably also be able to point you in the direction of some good books and things to understand where to start with this.