• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

What is your earliest memory?

How early in life do you remember?

  • Birth

    Votes: 4 6.8%

  • 2-3 years old

    Votes: 35 59.3%

  • later than three years

    Votes: 20 33.9%
  • Total voters
    59
My brain can't seem to decide.

There are some things that happened ten years ago that I could tell you the exact details, time, and place of. But sometimes, I couldn't tell you what happened five seconds ag... wait, what was I saying again?

But, in all seriousness, I wonder if that's a trait of being on the Spectrum or just another thing that makes me unique.
 
First real memory is 18 months. I remember standing in my crib, rolling a chain around in my mouth, and thinking it had a texture like hamburger. Took this too far and swallowed it :)

My mother -- got it back -- and confirms my age.

I am astonished at how little some folks remember. One of the things that early on in my research kind of confirmed my Aspieness was a post by a college student who remembered how his friend liked their hamburger from months previous. So when sent to get a hamburger, he made sure it was the way his friend liked it. I do that kind of thing all the time.

The sad part is how the friend got suspicious and upset! Gee, way to not get it, not-that-much-of-a-friend.
 
I have one specific memory from when I was max 2 years old. I have other memories which I think are from early on too, but I can't be sure about those in terms of when they happened. But definitely that one memory.
But nothing as far back as birth.
 
Spotty01 said:
My brain can't seem to decide.

There are some things that happened ten years ago that I could tell you the exact details, time, and place of. But sometimes, I couldn't tell you what happened five seconds ag... wait, what was I saying again?

But, in all seriousness, I wonder if that's a trait of being on the Spectrum or just another thing that makes me unique.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is a trait. I know of a chap who was diagnosed with aspergers as a child and his mother said to me that someone would phone, but he could not remember at all what the person said. But can remember the longer the time goes on.

I am not officially diagnosed, but I am that way too. I have a very long memory, but a terrible short term one.
 
SusanLR said:
I've read articles that some people can remember all the way back to birth.
Science tells us our brains don't have that capacity and anything before three years old would be almost impossible. That is the age most people I've talked with say also. No earlier than 3 or 4 yrs. really.
I can remember vividly things that do go back to my birth. First memory: Laying on my back scratching my face with my hands in incubator. They put extra long sleeves on me in the hospital and tied the ends so I couldn't scratch at my face. I remember being on the hospital bed with my Mom when she got up to go to the bathroom and the nurse telling her never leave a newborn unattended like that, not even to go to the bathroom. I remember the nurse putting me and Mom into the car to go home. A couple they knew, came to pick us up. Dad was in the back seat. Me and Mom sat up front with Charlie, the driver. His wife and Dad in the back seat. Charlie reached for me and handed me over the seat to Dad and said "Here, want to hold your baby girl?" Back then, Fathers weren't allowed to hold the babies until they left the hospital. We went home and Dad didn't have the crib assembled. Mom was mad. He said we can make her a bed in a drawer of the chest of drawers! And I could draw the layout of the house I was brought home to even now even though I only lived there until I was four and where every piece of furniture was.

My psychologist says she believes it's possible for Aspies and those on the spectrum to remember that far back because we think in pictures. But, what if you were born thinking in words? This may be a savant issue. I was so disgusted as a baby being able to think in English, but, not able to speak in the baby body yet. When I did learn to talk, I had selective mutism but no learning problems. All of these memories I later asked Mom about and she confirms them true. There are many more unique experiences.
I could write a book on this.

Anyone else here have this experience? Or a Savant type oddity that science can't explain?
Click to expand...
How can you understand english since birth? Language is a learned thing so it would be impossible for you to understand it in the first few days you were born...
 
I can remember looking up and seeing walls with rainbow and cloud wallpaper, and can remember red and white furniture, my Mum said I had those things in my room before the age of one, so can remember snippets from that long ago.

Ask me what I had for lunch yesterday and I probably couldn't tell you lol. I have an awful short term memory.
 
Around three. When my family left the US bound for Guam on a ship. I remember the port terminal along the water in San Francisco because I was terrified of these huge machines all around me that seemed like ten stories tall. LOL....they were just busses delivering people.

Aboard ship my mother usually had me by a tether for good reason. At least it wasn't a muzzle!
 
Last edited:
Let's see...

Childhood memories in general? I remember very little

Five minutes ago? A little spotty unless it was something to do with facts/trivia

Ten years ago? Excellent recall! I can point to a photo I took 10 years ago and remember specific details of the encounter with the person (street photography), maybe not all the photos but many of them. I can also remember certain articles and/or books I read years ago, I remember the facts, but of course can't remember what the publication was.
 
I can't remember my birth, but I have a few snapshots around the time of my second birthday. One I reach three, there's so many memories, way more than there probably are for most people.
 
I can remember when I was 4 or 5 years old, nothing younger. I do remember a lot of events as a small child. At my age, my long term memory is good. Short term memory is something different all together. I am always going from a job, out to my truck to get something, only to forget what I was going to get.
 
I have a good long-term memory and a bad short-term memory. I tend to forget things that have been said to me recently from time to time, yet some people from my childhood have been amazed as to how I remembered their names and which classes we had together in school. I'm also good at remembering birth dates and phone numbers, or at least portions of phone numbers.

I only remember some specific baby/toddler flashbacks. I remember lying in a crib surrounded by a swarm of mosquitoes; my parents think that's how my irrational fear of bugs came into existence. I also remember running around and peeling off wallpaper during my toddler years, I think I was 2 or 3. I also remember riding horse carriages and taking sled rides, as well as seeing tigers at the zoo; not sure why I remember just the tigers and no other animals. I also remember looking at dandelions and seeing a distant forklift (I was a toddler so I wasn't sure what the machine was yet).

Now at 5 years and older I can pretty much recall everything, unless I've forgotten about it - in which case a reminder of some sort would jolt it right back into memory. I remember constantly being afraid of bugs and dogs, and being extremely fascinated with streetlights, sprinklers and construction sites (I wonder if that forklift somehow sparked this interest).
 
I've always suspected that the few memories I do have of my early childhood are from photographs in my family's albums, though I definitely have memories of smells, tastes, textures and art/craft projects but those are after age 6-7. Also have some memories of things that made me feel bad or embarrassed too.

I've only recently self-diagnosed myself but for years have been astounded at my sister's memories (she's 4.5 years younger) because it's like we had completely different childhoods. Not only does she remember tons of stuff I don't, the WAY she remembers things happening is totally different than my recollection (for the things we both remember).

While seeing a psychologist in early college I suddenly recalled repressed memories of sexual abuse by our next door neighbor (she was also our babysitter). So that made me wonder if I've repressed my memories because I was generally unhappy as a child (the abuse & a burst appendix were the only bad things that happened to me -- my childhood was typical of a middle class white American).

When I think of my childhood I just get a somber feeling of trying to remain unnoticed at school and at home and trying to be a "good girl" because I thought my parent's love for me depended on that. I have pleasant thoughts of being with my cat in the woods, reading or working on art projects and sometimes helping my dad build stuff. No memories of feeling really happy, exhilarated or excited though.

I've always wondered about this stuff!
 
SusenLR, wow that's amazing! How interesting you can remember that far back!
My earliest memory is my second birthday. I can remember my white dress with puff sleeves and pink ribbon round the middle. The layout of the house, who was there. Sitting on the dining chair on my mams Lap getting our photo taking, my nanna Stevenston saying ' is your dad coming, with your presents' (my dad being at work and arriving later) my chocolate cake with my name on and the number two written in pink icing, even the foil surrounding the cake. I rembered my dad arriving and shouting 'daddy daddy'and running over to hug him. The green phonebook and remote on the coffee table. My dad confirmed the memory for me.
I've had this memory stay very clear over the years. When my parents divorced I found the photos, it freaked my out how exact I was.
 
My earliest memory was going for a scan with my mum. She was heavily pregnant with my sister so that would have been Autumn - Winter 1997? I was about 2 and a half. I remember being told I could fit on the bed too and it being a male doctor. He put the ultrasound jelly on my belly too and I remember it being very cold. I was very very shy and didn't want to talk to the doctor.

I remember waiting with my dad after my mum had given birth to the sister I mentioned above (would have been 31st December or 1st January) and I remember exactly what I said, what I wore, and what I did. I was asking my dad repeatedly, "when are they coming?" and I was wearing a blue flannel shirt (I picture it as quite boyish now) and jeans. I had a play cooker I was going to a lot as well.

The only other 2 memories coming to me are from when I was 3. When my great grandad died and I got told this and cried a lot; and the time when my dad gave me this teddy rabbit.

I can't really remember the years between being 3 and probably 13.
 
I can remember significant and unusual events which happened when I was 6 months old and recalled them in detail over 30 years later to someone who was present at the time, who verified the authenticity. This memory had occurred to me as flashbacks during my life until then, what I was seeing seemed completely real, though I couldn't locate it in time until I disclosed it to someone who could and did.

I can also remember being lifted onto a horse and held there later that year. It interested me and I can remember seeing the sea in the distance as I sat high. I described this to my older brother in adulthood and he told me exactly where that was. I made a trip to that place, and it was still exactly as I remembered.

These were powerful visual memories, so I think that the idea of it being an ASD capacity is possibly true. The disbelief from people who lack this ability is distressing so I haven't spoken about this for decades until today. Thanks for this thread.
 
On weaning my first born the smell of the 'baby rice' brought with it a flash of a memory,

In front of me is a red ...(bowl?) it's angled toward me with a small amount of white (against the red) I feel content? Safe?
I hadn't had that flashback before I first mixed up the (white) baby rice for my own son and caught the smell of it. The smell triggered the quite intrusive, colourful memory. I'm presuming I was first weaned with Farley's baby rice at around 3 months old.

A second memory is the smile on my grandma's face and clapping in front of me. I look down at a yellow potty. It has a white rabbit transfer stuck central front. The rabbit is stood on green grass of different lengths. There's pink on the rabbit's mouth. Right next to me and the potty is my square, leather poofy, or footstool/leg rest. It's black, square with a button in the centre.
I like this poofy because I can put it on it's side, lay across the top of it and move it forwards and backwards using my feet to push off.

By all family accounts I went to my grandma's and stayed for two weeks as soon as my younger brother was born and came back from my grandma's 'clean and dry' (potty trained) I was 17 months old.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom