What To Look For In Photographs Of You As A Child

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I can't remember which thread it was but I remember someone saying if not much is known about your childhood you can find some evidence of ASD in photographs. Can someone please tell me exactly what to look for?

Ive thought about this too. In my school photos, it seems i didnt smile much. It may be just me, but im also sure i can see a somewhat vacant, staring expression.

I know that there are several pre-teen photos of me, on holiday, and while all around me are kids and adults in swimwear on sun drenched beaches I'm the only one who's not only fully dressed but also wearing a coat.

Why do you think you were fully dressed? Were you hiding from the sun?

I seem to be smiling in all photo's but I don't have a vacant expression

I think that I was asserting my difference from everybody else and it helped me to be socially withdrawn, because the other kids, running around in speedos with buckets and spades, didn't want anything to do with the miserable little weirdo wearing a coat on the beach.

You must be from Scotland

Even worse, Liverpool.

I have photos of me with my toys, and you can see how I'm lining them up/arranging them. In lots of photographs when I was little, I'm wearing a t shirt or jumper with just tights. Apparently I used to take off any extra layers, pinafores, skirts etc.; it makes sense because I'm still very particular about layers and textures of clothing, having too many feels horrible!

I don't think any of my expressions in old photos indicate AS. I do have a great photo of my brother and I at the kitchen table, he is making a crazy mess with his food and my face is the picture of confusion and disdain That might be less to do with autism though, and more to do with him being the gross younger sibling...

Perhaps more revealing than photographs taken of me as a child where the photos that I took as a child. On one school visit to a zoo, while every other kid in the group was taking pictures of lions, tigers, elephants and the rest. I took photos of seagulls flying in the sky, flower beds and crows taking food wrappers from a litter bin.

It's not really an exact science, but it's interesting. The topic reminded me of this video which details some possible signs to look for:




My mom called me a "good baby" and my dad a "spooky baby", both for the same reason that I almost never cried and appeared to just be "thinking" most of the time. I don't know if that's an Aspie thing or not, just something they thought notable.

I remember my mum being really angry at me for 'wasting' my disposable camera on a school trip. We went rock-climbing and canoeing, all my pictures were details of trees, my feet, views from the bus on the way there etc.

My parents describe me exactly the same way, I think it might be spectrum related. We went all the way from Scotland to New Zealand when I was a baby, and apparently I didn't cry or fuss once on the whole trip. I was very popular on the plane apparently, I guess the other passengers were happy I wasn't being a nuisance .

If you see pictures from when I was a young child, I looked pretty "normal." I smiled. I might have had a "vacant expression," though

I was far from "normal" until the age of 5 1/2, when I spoke my first word.

Subsequently, in many ways (except for Asperger's-like symptoms, and a proclivity for being bullied), I was a fairly "normal" kid.

What was your first word?

It was actually a phrase/sentence LOL. I said "I see a ball."

This is a reflection of the fact that lots of cue cards were used in my therapy.