Autism - childlike but not childish?

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I'm curious if others can relate - I wondered of autistic people tend to be more childlike but not necessarily more childish. For example today I saw a group of children playing in a pile of leaves. They were standing in it and throwing handfuls over their heads. As I drove past, one of them dived in head first. That's the sort of thing I'd like to do, but I don't, as I'm aware that an adult doing this is "weird." I still play with puddles and roll on the grass when no one's looking. I'll be interested in and absorbed by a beetle crawling across the window, by often mundane objects, foods, etc, just like a child would.
The definition of childish, however, is a negative one detailing immaturity, frailty of thought, or silliness, which I doubt I'm guilty of. Whereas a childlike quality is usually one of innocence or uncomplicated purity of intention, often one unencumbered by the subtleties of adult deceitfulness and image. It's also often said that children are mildly sociopathic, as they haven't assimilated the expected social temperances of maturity.
Could there be a connection between the mind of a child, in terms of function, and that of an autistic adult? Does that childlike application remain, and we just accumulate knowledge like software, on top of that basic operating system?
Opinions/observations/experiences?

I've always been "young for my age". I can get away with it because I genuinely look preteen/young teen for some reason. A couple years ago, I got asked if it was my first year in secondary school (so 11/12) when I was actually in my final year (15/16). That receptionist was in shock. I'm short (156 centimetres tall) and have a childlike? face, and also act young like you described. Have yet to mature into a teenager, yet alone an adult.

I am childish. I am only childlike in seemingly very happy moods. Most childlike activities are exceedingly boring.

When I was a kid, I was very mature for my age. I was very quiet, in the fact I was silent when I wanted to be, but otherwise I spoke very loudly(probably childish).
But now that I'm older, almost 24, I feel like my general swell of intelligence as a child was not 'carried over' or 'exceeded' as I grew past school/high school age.. I've matured rapidly over the last four to five years, but I'm still very childlike. I've had to learn how to take care of myself and sometimes I still fail at that, but its taken me up until recent age to figure out that I need to do all this stuff. I still don't clean the house perfectly though..

I don't think I'd describe myself as childish unless.. perhaps.. any sort of emotional outburst is severely within that childish range... which it can be. I had a moment this morning.. A big moment. So yeah.

I think that every adult human is childlike by default. In fact I think this kind of childlike behaviors and wonderments are not even specific to the childhood, but are the proper nature of the human (and the animals).

But I don't know why and when in our society this became something reserved to the children.

I guess autistic people tend to keep in touch with that because their brains listen less to the signals that society send to them and prefers to listen to their own signals. "Normal" people tend to ignore that childlike part of themselves because they copy what they see (the others adults around them), and even end up unaware of that part of their nature due to long and constant ignoring. But I think autistic people are not the only ones who keep in touch with that. All the others people who act and think according to their own mind more than to the society, I guess they are sort of childlike too.

Look at an adult cat or dog. Do they stop acting like an animal-child when they reach maturity? They do it less, but still they do it...

Hmm people always think im younger than i am. Im 22 but yesterday a man guessed my age as 17. Sometimes im a little childlike, but not childish in a negative sense. I can look after my responsibilities as an adult. Its alright though, for some reason people tend to respect me even if i act young sometimes.

I can be so unbelievably childlike. If I see a puddle I have to jump in I really don't care who sees, that is of no concern when I see a puddle. Also if there are railings I have to run my hands along the bar, and you sometimes you get chimes or an outdoor music thing in park or the woods, I have to make noise on them..

I'm not really childlike or childish but I get along with little kids very well.

I have an ASD friend that isn't quite childlike, but is definitely more like... Peter Pan.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I know I'm very childlike but mostly not generally childish. I can be childish when a sensory issue overloads me so much that I can sometimes act out even alone in my home if I'm struggling with something.

But in calm times childlike is my default -- I do have that simplistic wonderment over small things I notice. I'm playful -- I visit wild waterbirds regularly and I talk to them the same way you talk to a pet, and I've given names to the ones with distinctive enough features to recognize. That's more something a child would do, but I don't care if passers by think I'm a bit odd, chatting away to a swan I've named Amy, lol. I get a lot of joy out of very simple, innocent pleasures that are normally the things children enjoy, notice or like to do.

I still stop to marvel at a good rainbow and other weather phenomena; I collect fluffy toys and enjoy how cute they are. I don't like to kill spiders and if I put them outside, I find myself talking to them, saying things like "Come on get on my hand, I'm trying to help you!" I'm quite batty about talking to all animal life.

I still pay bills, work, go food shopping and am responsible. But in things of pleasure I still find joy in very innocent things that kids are more into.

I think I'm a little of both. I do a lot of things that aren't typical for my age... which is 26. I love to watch Disney Junior. I also love sleeping with a security blanket and even carrying it around everywhere. Lately, I've also been sleeping better with my light on for some odd reason. I still have severe tantrums every now and then. The thing is that I kind of have to be treated like a child at times. My anxiety is extremely severe, and if someone treats me more like an adult... I'm more prone to meltdowns. Just because I'm over eighteen doesn't mean that I act or function that way.

Put it this way: I'm a child trapped in the body of an adult.

The transition from childhood to adulthood is a social construct in human societies.
If you've never learned to act or relate socially like an adult, it makes sense that you will still feel like a child or retain your childlike ways.

I'm pretty childlike in lots of ways. Without the gray hair, nobody would think I'm 54. The receding hairline and slight bald spot doesn't matter--that happens with people in their 20's.

If I must act like an adult, I act like an adult.

Otherwise, I'm a kid in lots of ways.