What were you like as a kid?

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I was a creature of solitude during the earliest parts of my life. I rarely wanted to interact with other kids my age and my mom told me she felt that she had a son who didn't love his parents.

My mom told me the first time she clearly realized that I was a different creature was during the holiday season one year - either '81 or '82. We were at the local mall and I was mesmerized by the animatronics display they had set up in the concourse. Mom recalled seeing another kid my age come up and stand next to me to watch. I gave this kid an odd look and then I retreated to the other side of my mom to get away.

Back in the summer of 1983 I can remember being in daycare and constantly being pestered by this kid who's name was dennis and although I'm sure he wasn't, he certainly was a menace to me. All he wanted was to be my friend and I wanted nothing to do with him. I give him credit though, he tried for the better part of a year before he gave up. But back then, the whole act of doing things with other kids was a foreign concept to me.

Another moment I remember from that summer was when I was on a trampoline and a girl came on and started bouncing with me. I told her to get off and when she didn't I grabbed her pony tails and yanked really hard to get my point across.

Looking back at the photo albums for the first years of my life I could only find two photos of me with other kids.

It wasn't until 1989 and third grade that I stated to come around to other kids. I had a handful of students make it a point to make sure I wasn't going to be left out and I was able to start to learn social skills as well as learn some coping skills to help keep my emotions in check.

Adults who knew me were quite impressed with how intelligent I was. My memory and recall of things was phenomenal. I had every line and song from "follow that bird" memorized and I could recall it at will.

I was more or less a fairly stereotypical high functioning autistic/aspie - it proved memorable for many people. Years removed from being a kid, people would still recognize my parents and stop them and ask them how I was doing because I had made the much of an impression on people.

Yep...Carl Sagan.

Of course, I enjoyed the TV show, too.

have my assessment on Thursday and the childhood thing is what is mostly causing me a headache. I have no one in my family I can ask so I have had to fill in a form on how I was as a child to the best I can. The difficulty is that the way you see things yourself is not always how others saw you.

As a child I was essentially a scaled down version of what I am now.

Thanks very much.

I was award and intrusive with no respect to personal space. My parents would say my name and I would not look up from what I was doing. I did not engage in social play or try to share my toys with others until I was much older. I could only handle having one friend at a time - this is still true.

I was lowfunctioning as a kid and completely nonverbal up until the age of 8 when I then learnt to talk.

I was'n't like other autistics though but I was obviousely autistic but I never had any meltdowns or temper tantrums and I played with toys I didn't stack toys or collect odd things or anything like that . But I had to be watched at all times because I had zero sense of danger and was unable to be taught sense of danger until I got older because I was just that disconnected although I could smile and make eye contact.

I only cried when I hurt myself, otherwise I never cried and I never ever screamed.

I went to mainstream school but had a mentor with me all the time, which my parents paid for ( they were quite rich). Then I was homeschooled wehn instead of going to secondary school but I did become a rather rebelious teenager.

Okay I had no sense of danger as a little kid but now I am a bus driver and have been for 17 years!

As a kid in the 70s and 80s before aspergers was known.

Never fitting in and kids incescent mickey taking. I thought it was cause my last name was a little unusual. But just turned out it was me when my younger brother had all the friends and social status.

No friends outside of the school day just home playing on computer or with my brother and his younger friends some times.

But mostly a square peg trying to get into a round hole all the time.

ok to be serious, (but who cares anyway)

i was adopted at 2 weeks old (i will not refer to my adoptive family in terms of "step" in this post. i have no interest in my real parents and know nothing about them).


my 3 sisters wanted a little brother and my mother had a hysterectomy and my father wanted a boy so they got me.

i was listless and unresponsive as a baby.

i did not fit comfortably into their arms when they held me and i was dropped often.
i did not have the sense of how to flex my muscles in order to help them hold me so they often dropped me.

i was unresponsive to any form of communication that my family tried to engage me in (smiles and baby talk and showing me things), and they took me to a doctor who said i was possibly autistic.

i did not talk until about 3 years old because i never had anything to say to anyone. i knew how to talk but i never bothered.

i crawled on my stomach and inspected the carpet in preference to looking at anyone else in the room.

a recoiled from kissing and affection like touching.

i developed an interest in insects that i could spot in any room i was in when i was about 3 months old.

if i saw a fly, it was noticed that my eye tracking was exceptional because my eyes could track the zig zagging flight patterns of flies i was looking at. my eye tracking ability was questioned up until that time because i did not focus on things people showed me or look where they pointed.
this photo shows that i was obviously looking at something carefully and fixing my gaze on it. severe autistics have no true expression on their face and their gaze wanders aimlessly.
i paid extreme attention to what i was interested in (despite how irrelevant to the situation) and that was noted.




i was constantly being measured by doctors when i was a baby as to the severity of my autism.
i was diagnosed as simply "autistic" for the first 3 years of my life.

when i was introduced to pre-school, it was advised that i remain home so i did not spend much time there.

in kindergarten, it was rapidly evident that i needed special attention so i was moved to an "OL" (never learned what that means) class.

i went until 6th grade and in high school i was expelled rapidly due to my attitude which they deemed haughty and arrogant.
i had major difficulties with acknowledging authority.

i went to a special school for the next 3 years, then i was deemed fit to return to mainstream schools, and i was expelled from all of them (3) within about 1 year, so i then went back to the special school until i was
reintroduced into the system when i was 16, and then had further troubles but i was no longer a child then so i was on my own from then.

my sisters never developed any affection for me but my father did. my mother kind of did.

my father saw i was smart but twisted and he felt sorry for me so much that he doted on me.

my mother couldn't make me drink, anxiety, hormones?
so it was easy feeding with father or struggle
idk, that had a major backlash later i suppose
i thought i would become a boy at some point, but no ofcourse not, not very much a surprise
i was quite talkative as a child, although i couldn't share my worries or problems of being bullied/left out
so i didn't, being chatty at home/meals was also used for hiding problems in interactions elsewhere and my selective eating

there was a boy in kindergarten that wanted to be my friend, i dreaded touching his hand in play or things like making a circle
i had one friend though, we'd play often at his house, doing crafty things, or outside, but he moved before i went to primairy school,
i liked going to school, not going to school but being at school, listening, learning, not having to learn much made that easy ofcourse and it was a good place to daydream a lot
i liked 3th grade, it was a mixed class with 4th grade, i followed both in one year, but the next year it was boring to repeat the same, i hid comics under my desk to read in class and you would be allowed to read a book when your work was done
PE would often result in uncontrollable crying, i was called cry-baby outside school