What was your developmental history like?

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As a young kid, I had language processing problems. I don't remember the exact details but when I was being tested at 5 years old prior to kindergarten, I was abnormal. For instance, the teacher might ask "Can you sit down and do criss cross apple sauce?" and while most kids would just do it, I would stand there and not really understand what was going on. It had something to do with not being able to process language correctly or as quickly. So as a result, I was diagnosed with some sort of language processing disorder, I don't remember what it was called. This was later dropped after my autism diagnosis.


In 1st grade at the age of 7, I was diagnosed with ADHD due to being an extremely hyperactive kid while in 3rd grade at the age of 9, I was diagnosed with autism after having problems in my classes.


Sometime in elementary school, I don't remember when, I was administered an IQ test to see if I had any intellectual impairments. My intelligence score came back in the average range on two different occasions. The first time was when I was in elementary school and the second time, it was when I was a senior in high school. So all in all, I am average intelligence and I didn't have any intellectual impairments like my mom may have suspected me of having when I was younger.

Throughout middle and high school, it was pretty clear that I was developmentally delayed, not in terms of intelligence but in terms of social development and executive function wise. The teachers along with my mom were helping me with the majority of my homework and if it wasn't for them helping me out, I would have failed and never gotten anything done. Developmentally and maturity wise, I was probably 3-4 years delayed, so when I was 18, I had the overall mental development/maturity of a 14-15 year old.


After I graduated from high school at 18, there was no way I was ready for college. Had I went at 18, I would have flunked out within a month. Instead, I lived with my parents and my mom set me up in an "alternative school" where I would learn technology skills without any homework. I did this for about 3 years and as I got older and my brain started to develop more, I felt like I was more ready for college.


I started college at 22 although I only took 2-3 classes per semester to avoid being overloaded. It got to the point where I could do homework on my own without any sort of help or reminders from my parents/teachers; something that would have been hard for me to do prior to the age of 21. Slowly but surely, I chipped away until I got took enough classes to graduate with an associates at the age of 25. Then at 25, I went to a university to get my bachelors and should be graduating at 27/28.



Long story short, iv'e come a long ways. I went from the kid that nobody thought would ever go to college, to the guy that will be graduating sometime in December (hopefully).

Better than getting hit in the head , by parents for poor facial expressions .. before 5 yrs old .

I’m actually not sure to be honest

I know I had no friends though

school shrinks thought i was schizoid, in my single digits. a shrink in my teen and young adult years correctly dx'ed me as autistic but he never told me. army social worker concurred. as a middle aged person was dx'ed as ADHD inattentive subtype. didn't get the AS dx 'til age 42.

....i said lying, but its more hiding or not telling, like i used to do with food, trying to not eat certain things (eg,gravy or potatoes) by camouflaging, if you thought it was making up stories xx very rarely, desperate situation maybe xx
..or not telling i was bullied, i felt the answer would be something dismissive,
when i tested the .. im not good at sports, the response was that that wouldn't matter once you'd be grown up -- not even getting to the -everytime- crying
but to be fair i always got the just-ok note for trying

i had a long problematic food issue with the parents, from day one
i think (hindsight) mother had pp- depression, but it was narrated that i was the problematic eater

Hello,

I think there's a big variation in the speed kids learn to speak, often they understand much more than they can produce. I know someone whose child was diagnosed with autism at age 2 and who was slow acquiring speech but picked up reading quickly once he started school at age 4. Another family friend said he didn't speak at all until age 4, and then suddently in full sentences.

My son (who was recently diagnosed as autistic, age 7) did not have a speech delay but his speech at age 2 wasn't very clear. Actually it was only by listening very carefully that we realised he was saying quite a few words. For example, he used to ask for a drink from his sippy-cup by saying 'muh' (which meant 'cup'). So perhaps your son may be saying more words than you realise, but not clearly? For his favourite foods and toys?