Anybody else diagnosed with autism when they were a child?

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I was diagnosed when I was 12 but not told until I was nearly 14. My mum was worried that I'd start telling people about it. She still doesn't like that I tell people about my diagnosis, her reasoning being that people won't understand. I don't know how they are supposed to understand if no-one is willing to be open about it.

this is funny cause i thought i was crazy

I was diagnosed at 5. I didn't know until I was about 10 when we were watching a TV program about disabilities. Someone on the program mentioned autism. An older boy, let's call him Mike, once told me that he had it so I told my parents that Mike had autism. Then they told me I have it as well.

I wish my parents had told me earlier because I thought I was a bad person who was terrible at "important" thing but excelled at "unimportant" things. I used to get mad at myself for being bad at so-called "easy" things.

I was diagnosed at age 6. I was told about it at the time, but being a 6 year old and all I didn't take it as seriously as I should have and I didn't bother to learn much about it. I was also probably told about my ADD and GAD diagnosis, but I ended up forgetting about that. For 12 years all I knew about Asperger's was that it's why I can't stand loud environments, why I have a special interest, and why I suck at socializing.

My parents had a very optimistic view of the whole thing and my special interest being space travel certainly contributed to that. I have the same condition that Einstein is believed to have and at age 10 I was using space travel jargon, so I don't really blame them. The problem is that they seemed to have too much faith in me and they set the bar too high. The computer I am on right now was bought my my mom for me because I was interested in animation for a while and she was hoping that a $1,000 PC would help me develop that into a marketable skill, but I didn't do much of that when I stopped obsessing over it and my mom hated that, basically giving me the choice of doing animation or having my computer sold. They were however helpful with a lot of things like providing ear plugs for me to use in school if I needed them, putting me in classes that teach social skills, trying to inform me of any routine changes as far ahead of time as possible, and stuff like that.

They also had me convinced that I had an advantage and that I was blowing it every time I failed at something, so for a while I thought of myself as an idiot for not meeting the standards set by society and my parents. This all came to a climax in 2013, which is a long story that I may actually get around to telling eventually (I could do it on this thread if anyone is interested in hearing it). It was less then a year after my parents divorced and things started to get better once I moved in with my dad.

Early this year I began doing more research about autism which lead me to this forum. I also researched other disorders and found that I have all the symptoms of ADD, and when I brought it up with my mom she informed me of my ADD and GAD diagnosis. The more I learned about autism and my other disorders the more my life made sense, and it has been very helpful to know my limitations better.

I can't tell you how much I wish I had been, and that I had been told early, too. I was diagnosed at age 31. My son was diagnosed at 4. I'm glad it will be different for him.

I was three years old. My parents didn't really try to hide it from me ever. I was in a special-needs preschool so I pretty much knew from day one. When I was about thirteen, I began learning more about it and reading web articles and books on the subject of Autism.

Nope as an adult, wish I had been whilst younger to avoid so much difficulty and confusion in many respects but I also like the person I have had to grow into from the ongoing journey.

I was first diagnosed when I was 5 or 6 years old, and I had my diagnosis re-affirmed at 21.

I was diagnosed when I was 4 as well, as my dad told me. I feel grateful that my parents actually took time to develop me as a person by feeding my special interests and my thirst for knowledge as a child, by taking me to places such as observatories and planetariums, buying me books, telescopes, a computer... Had it not been this way, I doubt I would ever graduate high school or go to the university.
Focusing on the strengths that I had, and not burying them, allowed me to actually advance in this life.

I'm glad that my parents didn't buy into the backward psychoanalytic theories on autism which were still rather popular at the time - if they did, I would probably not be here.

It was much the same for me, somebody300. I'm grateful it happened that way. At the same time, I'm glad I was also pushed to develop other skills.

I was diagnosed when I was 5 and a half in 1980. I've found out three nights after my 15th birthday.