your earliest "reported" signs of autism

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when i was a year old my father came home after being absent for six days and he had a beard. my mother said i didnt recognize him and treated him like a stranger.
in kindergarten i was selectively mute and ignored everyone besides my brother whom i followed everywhere.
age six, is started pacing back and forth and flipping my fingers, and walking over and over again over a tub that was a bridge over a hole in the ground in the schoolyard. i stayed away from other kids and had no interest in making friends.

My mom told me that she and my older sisters started noticing something was "wrong" when I was a toddler. I hardly talked to anyone or interacted with them, and I never made eye contact.

I'm undiagnosed, but...I've had special interests for as long as I can remember. I was selectively mute my first couple years of school and when I was a toddler, and I've always been fairly inept/uncomfortable in social situations. Even after I got past the selective mutism, I wouldn't say hello or thank you to people--particularly people I didn't know (this is still a point of difficulty for me, though I force myself to partake in such pleasantries). I've always been fidgety, too (stimming?). I was also very resistant to change when I was a kid. I was an early reader, and I acquired a large vocabulary at an early age.

Also, not sure if this is related, but I had some serious phobias when I was a young child. I remember there was a time where I refused to go into restaurants or stores.

My earliest signs were probably the beginning of my special interest, sleep difficulties and the ability to memorize and read back books to my grandmother at the age of 2. However, none of these things were given much consideration.

The very first sign that was pointed out to me and that was considered a possible sign of autism was a lack of eye contact, and this wasn't pointed out to me until my late teens.

My mum still points out that i used to rub different particular fabrics against my skin for comfort from a very young age. That was the first.

The second was that i spent far more time interacting with our pets than with other people, and personified the pets.

The closest to a definite sign of autism might have been the absence of babbling.

When do babies start to babble usually? I don't know for sure, I'm guessing at roughly half a year, but I was eerily quiet all the time until I was a year old, not making expressive sounds, not trying to imitate speech.

As for a not-so-definite signs of autism that I guess I might have had, an early lack of facial expression.

Most prominent on almost all my photos is the same expression, one of wide eyes and a blank face. People think it's very "cute".

Another thing is walking. I wonder if it is connected to my autism.

I learnt to stand and walk so early that the possible consequences for my joints (claiming I was walking too early and needed to be stopped, suggesting to restrain me even to prevent me from it entirely!) worried the doctors.

I was brought to see one after the next albeit nothing was found wrong with me until I was finally at an age at which walking is, for some reason, considered "early but somewhat normal".

I am most thankful to have avoided some hideous manner of restraint to keep me from walking and moving at all.

-I used to stim with my fingers a lot by wiggling them around a lot when I was excited or I'd play with them
-I never really liked hugging people
-I had trouble approaching other children in kindergarten as well as making eye contact which my teacher had to talk to my mum about

Couldn't be held, touched, hugged. Echolalia from the time I could talk up until even now. Didn't make friends, always wanted to be alone, never talked spontaneously or only when spoken to or questioned. The list just goes on and on... Yet all I got was a dx of ADD at about 6. And they wondered why stimulants didn't help anything and just made it worse.

-I didn't liked to be hugged or touched and would defend myself accordingly.
-I would take my clothes off as a toddler.
-Later I wouldn't wear any winter clothing whatsoever (until I was 17) even if temperatures werer some points under 0 °C. But on the other hand I would always wear an open jacket, no matter how cold or warm it was outside.
-I turned my head from eye-contact.
-In kindergarten I would ask every child if they wanted to be my friend and they all rejected me(save one or two).
-I wouldn't give my toys any names (when asked if my doll had a name I replied "nothing" which made the kindergarten teachers worried).
-I had an intense interest in dinosaurs at an early age which was why I was able to enter primary school with 5 (almost 6) years of age...the child psychologist didn't doubt my abilities for primary school because as I walked into her office I noticed a picture with dinosaurs and immediately started to name them with their scientific names.
-And an intense interest in classical music (kindergarten and primary school time) which was the only music I liked to listen to. Adults would play classical music and ask me out of fun which title,composer and year it was from.
-I didn't greet people. I generally didn't talk much. I was selectively mute most of the time.
-I was extremely quiet which surprised my pediatrician (she told my mother that she never had a baby that was so quiet).
-I was an extremely picky eater since being a baby. I didn't like regular milk so I got some kind of granary-milk drink of a certain brand which was the only one I liked.
-I would not eat a lot of things nor touch them nor wanting to be near them....even having to touch certain ingredients would make me cry (because of its texture and smell).
-My mother taught me how to draw as a toddler which was something I did most of the time. She also taught me how to write hiragana(one type of japanese alphabet), so I'd fill entire note books of just a handful of hiragana characters.
-I was prone to motion sickness but also certain smells would make me vomit.
-I'd copy my parents` foreign accent instead of the normal speech/dialect of the children or adults of my environment (I have retained parts of it until today and can't get it off anymore).
-Motor skills: unable to learn how to ride a bike, learning how to catch or throw a ball, swim, tie shoelaces, use a fork and a knive....
-anxious or phobic about/of some things
-didn't like my nails or hair to be cut
- kindergarten wasn`t a nice place for me: I often got told off by teachers about my behaviour of not doing certain things or being a picky eater....that's why my parents tried to get me to school early (apart from my curiosity to learn the alphabet and read).
-my parents never told me they thought I was weird but special as in extremely bright and intelligent.
-Always got left out from other children's activities and the last to be picked in teams.

.........I guess I wrote this list down just for me to remember all and see it written down. Of course, the earliest signs would be those which occured when I was a toddler.

When I was very young, around 2. I would organize my stuffed animals in a specific order every night and I was very strict on rules. I always had trouble with friends. Also, my hypersensitivity and sensory difficulties helped me stand out more than other children.

Probably when I was 4 years old, although at the time they didn't suspect AS, but looking back we now know it was typically because of AS. On my first day of school, apparently I ''couldn't cope''. I actually made the teacher cry, and I pushed other children and wouldn't sit down and wouldn't get off the teacher's assistant's lap and wouldn't play with the other children at playtime. Apparently I was awful and the teachers thought it was caused by child abuse at home but my parents did not abuse me, I know they didn't. And a few years later we found a diagnosis for AS.

Before I was 4, I didn't really show any early signs of Autism. I was an averagely sociable baby, always made eye contact right from birth, reached all the milestones at the average stages, and I even seemed ''normal'' at preschool with the other kids. So I don't quite know what had happened in the 6 weeks between my last day of preschool and my first day of school. I was even all right on my school taster day.

Not talking on time, lining up toys, and taking a while to look at people when called.

These were around 4 or so.

Earliest sign was probably that I didn't cry as a baby. Not a problem as my parents were thrilled about that. Next was motor trouble, I walked rather late and fell over a lot. After that it was not playing with other kids and not doing pretend plays.

Looking back the first "signs" I noticed in my daughter were:
1. The "expression" in her face when she was about 3 months old. She looked annoyed all the time, with a frown, like analyzing (and not liking) everything around her. And she would not smile until way later.
2. Her "stubborness". When I had to stop breast feeding her she refused to accept the formula. I tried for 3 months to make her take the formula. Tried with different teats and bottles. Nothing worked. Finally the doctor told me I could leave her without milk if she had enough dairies in her meals.
3. She was (still is, but way less) picky eater.
4. Started showing problems to socialize at age 2. I always thought it was because she is only child. She would not interact with other children unless I started the interaction.
5. She had repetitive behaviors, like watching the same videotape over and over and over again (around 3 years-old).
6. She started showing compulsive behaviors around 3 years-old (biting nails). Others followed.