Birth Order

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I just realized that most of the aspies (or likely-aspies) I know are firstborns (of their mother if not to their father)! And of those that aren't, I don't know how they place in birthorder. Except for me, but my older brother is aspie and my younger brothers aren't.

So now I wonder: is this something that shows up more frequently in a woman's first kid(s)? Is there a pattern to it? (If I get confirmation here of a pattern, should I add it to my survey and contact the dozens of people who have already answered to get their birthorder placement?)

Where are you in birth order, and do you have siblings on the spectrum? If I get a few people saying they're the youngest and have no other siblings with it, I'll scrap my notion.

I am second of two, but my elder sister has some traits. Her first born, my nephew, is autistic.

I'm the older of 2, my brother is NT.

I'm a twin, but am the last born. I heard that with twins, the birth-order is unpredictable. The one kid with confirmed Asperger's that I met was the first and only born.

I'm the youngest. My brother and my sister don't have autism.

I’m the oldest of three, and we don’t know if my brother and sister have autism. My sister (youngest) seems to have less traits, and she is more likely on the Broader Autism Phenotype. My brother (middle) seems more likely to have autism, but he doesn’t have all the main traits it seems. I got the whole deal: autism (Asperger’s), OCD, depression, likely POTS, tics, you name it!

No siblings here.

first born here. My younger sister is NT.

Hmmm ...maybe you're on to something.

The first born in my family, my brother, is friends with everyone and is the biggest charmer. Second born, my other brother has some traits for sure. I'm third born, then there's my sister who also isn't diagnosed but struggles much more than I do.

My oldest brother has 3 kids. The first born has some traits. The second born is an outgoing charmer like him and their third born I'm almost positive is on the spectrum. She's a girl too. The traits are a lot more obvious in the women in my family. Both of my grandmothers display tons of traits.

Also first born, and I have a younger NT sister.

I don't think she's a sufferer of any kind, except for stress from a job or some typical teenage heartbreak or drama -- and she's no 'actress'. I see little to no significant AS traits in her, nor any indications of social, communication, or any sensory difficulties that are inconsistent with her age and development.
I see her inside and outside the public, and rare times she confides to me -- it doesn't match the same confusion I've dealt, or any other autistics usually dealt.


Yet I'm certain that she's more needy and somewhat more demanding than I'm.

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First and only.

I read somewhere that the risk of autism in offspring is higher in older people, particularly older fathers.

If this is true, it would predict that last born would have a higher incidence than first born.

I wouldn't be too surprised if having a first born, autistic child reduces the number of children a person is likely to have. If your kids are a handful, you're less eager to increase family size. If your kids are "easy," you might keep adding more. So I would expect if you compared families with a first born who is autistic, with families whose autistic member is last born, the total family size is (statistically) larger in the latter type of families.

(In my own case, I think every last person in my family except my mother belongs on the spectrum. I was #2 of 4 kids, but I see strong autistic traits in every one of us.)

I'm a middle child, all siblings have some autistic traits but I'm the only diagnosed one.

My older but not oldest sibling has GAD, SPD and gastroparesis

The oldest has severe ADHD, bipolar disorder, and has had substance use problems.

The other two have no diagnosis.

My dad was youngest, likely both his sisters are also aspie.
I'm second of six, one and five are both definitely on the spectrum, four and six likely.