memories of childhood

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I'm scheduled for an assessment of AS and have already completed a very lengthy questionnaire. Much of it pertained to how I was as a child. I'm a 47-year-old woman, and my memories of childhood are rather spotty. There are specific incidences I remember, but most of my memory is somewhat vague. When I asked a couple of my much older siblings for some input (I'm the 7th of 8 children), neither of them recalled anything out of the ordinary about me.

Generally speaking, do Aspies have full recall of their childhood? Are there lots of "blanks"? Or (as in the general population) does it tend to vary?

I'm 19 and hardly remember anything before i was 11, and very little from when I was 11-16.

What I have are very clear memories of specific episodes, and nothing in between them. The earliest such episode was when I was about 30 months old.

Interesting question I can recall some parts of my life very clearly but not others. Usually I have to pick a specific point and if I kind of push forward with my mind I can recall the rest of it- it's kind of surprising. I can't remember all parts of my life though, and it's kind of eerie thinking about it.

My earliest memories are really strange, and some of my memories are probably partly fantasy as well as reality. I remember strange details sometimes.

What I do find, sometimes, though, is that my earlier memories are only part real. For instance some details will be exactly right- but it seems to have merged with my imagination. For instance I remember an exact time i went out with my parents. My father was on a bike and drinking beer and he offered me a sip. I can remember a lot of the things around me. I metioned this to my mum and she said "Oh, the time you got drunk?" Turns out I was about 2 years old. It was actually my father and my mother, neither of them had a bike at the time, and it was me who grabbed the beer and took a sip. I spent the rest of the night staggering around like crazy!

Thought you might like that little anecdote.

I can recall quite a bit of my childhood but it is really hard to fill in the gaps.... so I would say its like watching a movie trailer. If you have access to items from you childhood (old home movies, school work, photos, etc) it might help you jog your memory. My mom held onto quite a bit of my old school work, like journal entries and such and they have been particularly revealing into how I thought when I was younger. (One of my favorites was a journal entry saying if my teachers came to my house I would show them my computer I built, give them an apple and send them on their way because I don't like a lot of people at my house). But yeah, if you are trying to remember your childhood memorabilia like that helps quite a bit and I think my writing has given me the most honest interpretation of my childhood.

my first memories date back to when i was around 18 months old... i remember the smell of the trees and bushes, the temperature, can taste the dusty gravel in my mouth, see the boat in the garage, feel the hands of the two girls walking with me between them, smell the paint on the raft fence, hear the sound of the rubber tires supporting under the boat when i was seated into the boat... etc.

i can recall most of my life like this, sometimes even recall a dialog verbatim... but it takes a lot of energy and if the memory isn't nice, it hurts me the same way it did when it happened..... it is like reliving it once more....

not sure if i am happy with this ability...

I have a very clear memory of my childhood after about age 4 or so. I have a near photographic memory now, so that might contribute to my ability to recall the past.

My experiences seem to be opposite, for a change, of the others here. I have undistorted and very vivid memories of infancy, which few people believe, but it's true. I have proven it by remembering things that the family had forgotten, and seen it verified by third parties. I even remember being in the postmature unit at the hospital, and how I was scared when the nurses would reach in through the plastic built-in gloves to check my diapers, etc. I remember conversations between family members in some cases verbatim, from before I was able to talk. I remember the frustration of being unable to ask any questions, and I spoke and made sentences much earlier than "normal" babies. And I remember all kinds of stupid stuff like neighbors' license plates from when I was 5 years old, and phone numbers that were only called once in 1973, etc etc. I sure wish I could memorize a grocery list though, LOL. I forget important stuff all the time, which is crippling sometimes in business.

Charles

I can't remember anything from before 3 years of age. Otherwise I remember most of what happened since then... memory of my childhood from 6 years of age, I remember like a movie. . Atleast I think I do... I am 24 now

I mostly remember specific episodes, but there are a lot of details between those episodes that are available to me.

My earliest memory, I think, was in my first year, after five or six months - my family (my parents and I) were living in a small house in a very rural place, not even a town, up the street from my grandparents. I remember eating baby food from jars, and eating pieces of a chopped up cheeseburger (which was the most delicious thing ever). I also vaguely remember the house's layout (where the dining room/kitchen was, the living room, the front door, and the rest of the house). There are details in my memories that may not actually be part of the memories, but the eating definitely happened.

I think episodic memories are fairly normal, though.

I remember very specific incidents, usually something that really upset me or affected me in some way. But everything else is a complete blank or very vague. I don't think I remember any really happy memories at all, which is worrying

Like trying to recall a dream, but than I had to repress a lot of my childhood memories because so many of them were tramatic. The only things I can vivdly remember are my special intrests and people telling me they needed breaks from hearing about them.

Remembering my childhood is like watching a movie. I remember everything that happened to me as a child from the age of 1 and a half. That doesn't always help me, though. I have flashbacks of the unpleasant things that happened, as well as happy memories about the good things that happened.

Each Aspie is unique with traits that are as different from each other as individual people are different. My favorite analogy is that your own Aspie characteristics are somewhat like rolling a whole handful of dice with the value on each individual dice representing the degree to which you are affected by each individual trait or groups of traits. So your mileage may vary. Personally I am minimally affected in the communications related areas (much more so when I was younger), moderately to mildly affected by the cognitive delays, moderately affected by sensory issues (especially noise) but strongly affected in the social isolation and obsessions areas.

My long term memory is my greatest gift in life and I have very detailed memories of my childhood days even after 60 years that constantly amazes my family. I see and think of things very visually... just like watching a movie, but I voted that my memories were like a movie trailer. It is often said that some Aspies have a photographic memory and I have been "accused" of this before but I do not really believe it myself. However I feel so humbled by the 60 Minutes story a couple of weeks ago about people with total autobiographical recall in which they can remember details of every day of their lives. I do not come close to that kind of memory. My earliest memory was of the first week of my life in which my parents were rinsing off either my healing navel or circumcision wound (I don't remember which). I remember the pain of the water on the open flesh and thought it was alcohol that was being applied to me. Recently I mentioned this memory to my mom, who told me that she would have never used alcohol on a newborn baby like that so maybe it was only water on very tender flesh. The unusual thing is that I remember that at the time I fully understood what was being done to me and why even though I was only days old. This has always amazed me since I thought that the minds of newborns were like a blank book with no understanding at all. Perhaps that memory has only been altered by time and knowledge.

Below is a list of my favorite AS related links. These helped me to understand the true nature of my own Aspergers so much better when I was first awakening as you are currently doing. One thing to remember is that the professionals will only be able to give you an opinion based on a disconnected (and usually NT) point of view. In many cases your own assessment of yourself will tell you so much more than they can ever tell you. The thought of Aspies as individually unique and my analogy of the handful of dice came from the first link and its comment that it is not good to stereotype Aspies.

http://www.wikihow.com/Relate-to-Someon ... s-Syndrome

http://autism.lovetoknow.com/Aspergers_Checklist

http://theotherside.wordpress.com/autis ... dvantages/

http://theemergencesite.com/Tech/TechIs ... rs-ADD.htm

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt164501.html

http://life-with-aspergers.blogspot.com ... nd-nt.html

I have very isolated memories as far back as 12-13 months (it's of a dream I had, actually). I could read, but I couldn't speak yet.

I don't have clear, movie-like memories from... ever. Even yesterday. I just get sensory impressions.