van morrison had aspie traits in childhood and teenage years

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In a taped 1969 interview, his mother said that he was listening to recordings from the age of two, when he would tug at her apron strings urging her to play more records. (His grandmother) "used to come up and take turns, because he'd have you play them morning, noon and night." There were sing-songs in the house on Saturday nights with family and friends and, although shy, the young Morrison would always sing upon request. He gave his first performance as a child with a rendition of Lead Belly's "Goodnight Irene".[7] He would perform this same song years later with another of his boyhood idols, Lonnie Donegan, on his album, The Skiffle Sessions - Live in Belfast 1998.

Young Morrison's father, noting his son's genuine interest, bought him his first guitar at the age of twelve and Van learned to play rudimentary chords, while studying the songbook The Carter Family Style. He soon formed a skiffle band named the Sputniks with school friends. They played at some of the local cinemas, and even at this young age, Van was already taking the lead and doing most of the singing and arranging. At fourteen, he formed another modified skiffle band, Midnight Special and played at a school concert. When this band broke up he wanted to join the Thunderbolts, but they turned him down because they already had a guitar player. After talking his father into buying him a saxophone, he learned to play by practicing unremittingly for a month. He then joined the Thunderbolts, playing in church dance halls and hospitals around town. The young Morrison was already noted for his uncommunicative nature and his inadequate social skills by his fellow band members, who remarked that his parents were remarkably patient with their only child. His mother disclosed that she took him aside one day to tell him he needed to learn to talk to people. According to his mother, "Van said to me that it wasn't that he didn't want to talk but tunes were running through his head all the time. He said he didn't know whether he'd been blessed or cursed because the words and music wouldn't leave him."[8]