Child Aspie Stories

Post Reply New Topic

I thought it would be interesting for members to share Aspie scenarios or stories from when they were children and teens. It can either be good or bad. Choose things that stand out in your mind.

Oooh, fun! I already told a few in the "Do You Remember Your Childhood?" thread. I hope you don't mind if I re-post some of what I wrote there?


I remember hating preschool. I liked when I was given a coloring book and could just sit there and color, but I hated when they suddenly decided it was time to do something else, especially if it involved standing up and playing with other kids. I remember being forced to play song-games like "Farmer in the Dell" or "Ring Around the Rosie", where you have to hold other kids' hands and go around in circles. I hated it. It was so awkward and I felt embarrassed. I especially hated any game where you have to pick another person, such as Duck Duck Goose or in Farmer in the Dell when "the farmer takes a wife" and has to pick somebody from the circle to join him in the middle. I felt awkward being picked, but I felt even worse when I had to pick another person. I didn't know any of the kids (besides my little brother) and always felt that if I singled another person out, they'd feel as bad as I did when I felt singled out. I also worried that they'd think it was a sign that I liked them especially, when I actually didn't know them at all. I eventually became a preschool dropout (which I enjoy saying. It's quite an unusual phrase. ) I remember the day that I dropped out. My mom had baked cupcakes for the class. I really wanted one, but I also couldn't take going to preschool anymore. My mom tried to bribe me by saying that I couldn't have a cupcake if I didn't go to school... I ended up turning down the cupcake and insisting I go back home. I think of this today and can only imagine how annoying that must've been for my mom... but hey, maybe they should've taken that as a sign that something was up with me.

When I was a little girl (more pre-school age again) I used to dance at family functions. There could've been nobody else on the dance floor but me. I just loved the music and thought it was super fun. I was in my own little world, though, since I was completely unaware that so many people were watching me. One time, my uncle (who usually DJ'd) pointed me out on the microphone and dedicated a song (Barbie Girl by Aqua) to me. I suddenly realized everybody had been staring at me, and now even others were watching me. I got so upset that I had to run off and sit down. I'm sure my uncle meant no harm and thought I'd enjoy it, but I guess I just never wanted to be singled out and highlighted like that. I don't remember dancing at other functions afterwards...

I remember at preschool (when I was aged 2 and a half to 4) when a little girl was being sick and was also having a tantrum, and I sat staring at her worriedly (so did some of the other children). This was at our snacktime aswell, which made it awkward.

I remember at Infants School (when I was aged 4-7) I used to cry every time the teacher told me off. I also remember crying every time the fire bell went off, not because it was noisy, but because the sound freaked me out. Nothing to do with the loudness, it was just a sound that made me froze with fright, like you would if you heard a ghost wailing or something, that sort of fright. I used to cry more than the other children (and they say Aspies have trouble showing emotions??? )

I have a lot more memories at Junior School (when I was aged 7-11). The year 5 and year 6 kids seemed really big to me when I first started. But I settled in Junior School much, much better than I did at Infants School, and I was happier at Junior School too because I was a little older and so had less tantrums and was more able to participate well in class, and I didn't cry when getting told off or when the fire bell went. I didn't like year 4 much because I felt the teacher didn't really like me. Year 5 was a good year, I loved that year the best because by then I was 9 and became more self-aware of my actions and acted more ''grown-up'' (to 9/10-year-old standards). I dealt with problems better than I used to, and could express how I felt to other kids and teachers, and I felt more comfortable too.

I have even more memories of being at High School (when I was aged 11-16). I didn't like High School much, especially year 8, because that was when kids started changing and being more in charge of what friends they had and became more aware of those that signifficantly stood out like me, and from age 12 onwards that was when the idea of not having any friends really affected how I felt about myself, and I became very depressed in the holidays because of it. I was old enough to go out and about on my own, but I didn't have anybody to go out and about with, so I stayed indoors and hung around my mum's feet, wishing - so much - that I had some friends to hang out with in the holidays. But anyway, yes I have so many memories of life at High School that I can't possibly write it all down here.

Sixth form and college was better.

-I vaguely remember when I was a preschooler my mum would drop me off at this daytime preschool group and every time she did I'd start crying and one of the teachers would get me to sit on her lap, I remember they had a huge gym in there with a trampoline and a play room with those lite brite toys and they sent home recipes for applesauce everyday

-I remember when I was about 3 I used to play with my fingers and make them into the shapes of people and I'd name the left one Pooky and the right one Pocky....I know very weird haha, I was easily amused

-When my friend turned 4 years old she had a birthday party and there was a clown there, well I was afraid of that clown and my mum had to take me home because I was freaking out so much

-When I was a preschooler and this was after my brother was born we used to go to downtown Toronto to go to the Dutch Embassy for my grandma because she was a Dutch citizen. We used to go to this McDonald's and there was a worker there who would always act like a chicken and he'd flap his arms and cluck like a chicken....Well this freaked me right out and I tried to hide under my mum's sweater, she had to carry me out with my hands over my face

-in kindergarten I didn't like talking or addressing my teacher in any way so I'd follow him if I needed to hand something in or ask a question but he wouldn't acknowledge me on purpose because he wanted me to talk so I'd follow him around for a long time haha

-Also, in kindergarten I never looked at anybody in the eye, my teacher talked to my mum about this issue and she told me that I had to look people in the eye or she'd punish me, so we would practice at home and after that I always looked people into their eyes, I'm kind of regressing now though I find

-I remember going to Fort Henry as a child and they did a demonstration with cannons and I could not stand the noise, I'd plug my ears and cry, it was the same with fireworks or any loud, sudden sounds like balloons

-in kindergarten we had to tell the teacher our favourite movie character and what we were scared of, all of the girls chose Disney characters and princesses, I chose E.T and for the being scared thing everybody chose monsters or bees but I chose ants, yep I was a weird one

-In grade 5 I was in choir and we were on the stage for a concert rehearsal and the teacher told me to move back but I didn't know what she meant because she kept making hand gestures and pointing to different directions and she just got really frustrated with me and then "Boom!" she screamed "Move!" and slammed the bench into my legs which left a bruise after and she just shook her head like I was some stupid idiot, very embarrassing

-in grade 4 and 5 I constantly got picked on by my gym teacher because I was very uncoordinated and I didn't like team sports or balls flying around so whenever I wasn't participating enough or doing something wrong he'd stop the whole class with his whistle and scream at me, after that I hated gym more than ever

-I'll say one more for now: I used to go to a special ed class for getting extra help in math and when we were done our assignments early we had to choose a book from the back and read. One day I was done early and the teacher told the class to be quiet because the class was being too loud...this was not me because I was very shy in elementary school, anyway he was extremely mad and the whole class was quiet, I got up to put my book away and get another book because I was finished the last book and I was going to sit down and read it but I guess he thought I was going to just put my book away because he gave me this extremely angry look and said very slowly, "My name, go sit back down in your seat right now." I slowly walked back to my seat with my old book and sat down quietly my I know my face was beet red and I was about to cry because I was so embarrassed

Anyway that's all for now, I might come up with some more later.

This is fun. Here's a few...

I don't remember this exact situation, but my mom described how one time I used some really advanced word that you wouldn't expect a toddler to use in front of my then-teenaged sister's friends. They were astonished.

And now one that I do remember...my city has a parade every Independence Day. We normally watched the parade from one particular location, but one year, we decided to watch it from a different spot. I refused to watch the parade--I sat on my mom's lap with my eyes closed the whole time.

I taught myself how to read when I was four just by watching Sesame Street.

At one point, I had a complete obsession with bridges (transportation is still a special interest of mine ). I had a family member in a convalescent home that was located adjacent to a drawbridge (technically it was a bascule bridge), and had a great view of the bridge from the dining room. We visited her once, and as we were leaving, it was about to go up. My older sister had to take me back into the dining room so I could watch it be raised.

Last one...on my 15th birthday, I found myself reciting Macintosh operating system versions (which I had memorized) to a cousin. He had no idea what on Earth I was talking about, and my mom later mentioned that my cousin probably thought I was crazy or something.

This is from one of my other posts:

-My Mom and I were at a grocery store when I was around 4. We ran into a woman and her daughter that we knew. I knew the girl but at first didn't recognize her because her hair was different from the last time i saw her. Once I realized who she was for some reason I freaked out and ran and hid in a corner. My mom couldn't get me to move until they left.
I don't know why I did it, but the major thing that stuck in my head was that she looked very different because of her new hair style.

*I remember how I never spoke at all in preschool. I don't recall uttering a single word. Surely I spoke at home, but not at school. When all the other kids would be playing with each other, I'd sit in a corner lost in my own thoughts, and even when another kid was trying to be friends, I did not reply to him. Once, when we were doing these tie-dye paintings, the lady asked for my name so she could write my name on it for me. I did not reply, but instead reached for the pen because I wanted to write it down myself. She drew her arm back and said, "No, I'll write it down for you. So what's your name?" Instead of simply telling her my name, I walked away. (The teachers never talked about this issue to my parents as far as I know. They probably thought it was a language barrier since English isn't my first language.)

*I also was completely clueless about how other people viewed things from their perspective when I was little. When a teenaged boy asked me for my name at the waiting room at the doctor's, I wasn't able to put myself in his shoes, and therefore did not know that he had never met me and would not know my name, so I was confused to why he had to ask.

*I think I read almost every book in the children's section of the library that had to do with my special interests. I do not recall every detail of what I've read, but it became hard for me to find a book that I hadn't read (or didn't have overly basic information).

*In elementary school, the whole fourth grade at my school went on a Gold Rush field trip. After panning for gold, we made candles by dipping a piece of yarn into melted wax several times. I could not stand the smell and it made me feel so sick that I had to watch everyone having fun from behind a distant tree.

*I had arguments with my mother (and even threw tantrums) about how much the clothes tags irritated me. She would refuse to cut them and I'd repeatedly beg her to. When she finally did, she simply cut the tags and did not remove them correctly, which made the sensation ten times worse.

*I had extremely exaggerated facial expressions in my past photos as a little kid.

*In the third grade, we had stacks and stacks of science textbooks we never used in class. One day, I stayed in the classroom during recess (I think it might've been raining that day...), and flipped over to the astronomy section of the textbook and just read it over several times.

*Sometime during the first couple weeks of kindergarten, it was recess, and there was this girl standing in my way and didn't want to get out. She was joking around and didn't mean any harm but I still did not talk much and could not communicate correctly, so I kicked her.

*Around the fifth grade, I could not stand the sensation of wearing socks. My mother would make me wear them, and I would just take them off in school and stuff them into my backpack.

That's all I can remember now. Sorry if there's any grammatical errors and run-ons or awkward wording. I'm just getting rather tired.

_________________
My nephew Coke needs to eat! Obviously we're related.

Age 5. Got my own record player. I would play Tchaikovsky's Pathétique symphony repeatedly. Repeatedly.

Age 6. Learned to draw pictures of bluejays. Difficult to dissuade me from so doing. In school.

Age 7. Since my father was a clinical psychologist, I would hear a lot of jargon, then take it to school. "Psychotic" was not a word teachers liked hearing.

Age 8. Tested 98 percentile in national music recognition test. Subsequently handed a tonette, which I could not play.

Age 9. Tutored all summer to learn to tell time.

Age 10. Off to the shrink for self-isolating.


Happy days.

I've been told by my mother that when I was about three or four, I went through a period where I bounced everywhere "like Tigger" she said, though I realise now it was probably a form of stimming. It got so bad that I injured the ligaments in my ankles and the doctor told my parents to physically keep me from bouncing anymore.

When I was in the fourth grade, I spent every recess sitting against the school's brick wall and reading. One day, a teacher approached me and said, "You can come off the wall now" thinking I was being punished for something, then saw what I was doing and said, "Oh, you're reading. Why don't you let me take your book and you can go play with the other kids." She was a stranger, and I was afraid of strangers, so I handed it over and wandered off. I didn't know how to talk to the other kids to get them to play with me, and even if I could, I didn't want to anyway, so I wandered around the playground until the bell rang. I didn't realise it at the time, but the fact that a teacher would encourage socialising over reading goes to show the extent to which society values human interaction.

Hey, I love Pathétique! I also played with my fingers, tying them into knots (some of my fingers are now curved and the tendons don't sit right). I think was very confused at kindergarten (age 3-4), especially about what 'friends' were.

I don't remember my childhood as much as I would like to (regressed?), but here's something significant.

I remember from an early age being interested in religion. There may have been a couple of religious people in my family, but I've never been to church. I believe I asked for a bible for my 5th birthday, and I got a nifty illustrated one for kids. Then around 6-7 I started to have questions about the authenticity of bible stories (I'd never had anyone preach to me or otherwise explain it to me). I started constructing characters to explain metaphysical stuff for myself, like the 'Dream Tornado', a nemesis to whom I attributed my frequent nightmares. By the age of 8, I had formed my own religion, that involved 'contacting' one's soul so that it could be separated from the body, and both halves could lead independent lives. It also focussed on a girl that I liked, who became my 'queen'; the goddess central to the macrocosm being her soul. However, I don't believe I have ever really talked to her, or that she had any idea that I thought of her this way.
I never told anyone about this secret world until intermediate school (11-12) where I actually recruited one friend, though briefly. The next friend I told betrayed my confidence and told all my peers about my strange beliefs and the girl I liked (who was still in my class). That year was particularly painful for me; I remember spending mostly every day being ridiculed during class and while eating lunch - for long periods I would sit and cry with my hands covering my face, and wait until they were no longer looking at me.
First year in high school, somehow I ended up talking about the religion to my guidance counsellor, who told me it was 'a figment of my imagination'. I remember hating him for this, but I couldn't keep it up any longer, and I wrote a new fantasy world from scratch.

The fantasies have moved on a lot since then, but I still think about what 'god' is. Among other things.