When you were little what were some obvious signs that you had asperger's/autism?

[Jena]

So I noticed when I was watching my old family videos there were signs I had Asperger's even though I wasn't diagnosed till 4th grade. Such as how I covered my ears and felt uneasy on stage in front of many people, with the loud music with bunch of children my age when my preschool was doing a "graduation" thingy. And my mom told me that when I was still in the stroller, I would refuse to get out of my stroller in the park unless the park barely had any kids in it. And the bizzare thing where I would apparently fall out of my chair ALOT in Pre-K when the chair wasn't even moving or tilting so basically very clumsy. So I am curious if any of you guys, had similar experience when you were younger before you found out what it was? Or if your parents ever told you some of the early signs you showed and so forth. I just find it interesting to be honest. Kind of like a "oh this explains a lot" moment lmao.

 

[Mr Allen]

It was never even "on the table" that I was Aspie back then, it wasn't until I was about 23 that it became a possibility, and even then it was only because my Sister in law pointed out that I was like some of her clients in a home for Autistic adults in Gloucester, England.

 

[Appleslime]

I didn't play like :normal' children. I used to set scenes with my toys rather than engage in pretend play. I remember spending hours setting up wedding scenes or school scenes etc then sit back and admire my creation for ages. I used to invent stuff too, I used tights to tie dolls seats and cots to my toy pram to maximise the number of dolls it would hold. Mum always said I was a quiet kid.... Never talked when 'playing'

 

[Mr Allen]

I didn't play like :normal' children. I used to set scenes with my toys rather than engage in pretend play. I remember spending hours setting up wedding scenes or school scenes etc then sit back and admire my creation for ages. I used to invent stuff too, I used tights to tie dolls seats and cots to my toy pram to maximise the number of dolls it would hold. Mum always said I was a quiet kid.... Never talked when 'playing'

Me too, I used to do cross genre play with Star Wars figures, Fisher Price figures, He Man figures and Thundercats figures, always doing the voices in a fake American accent (which was quite good IMO).

 

[Shamar]

So I noticed when I was watching my old family videos there were signs I had Asperger's even though I wasn't diagnosed till 4th grade. Such as how I covered my ears and felt uneasy on stage in front of many people, with the loud music with bunch of children my age when my preschool was doing a "graduation" thingy. And my mom told me that when I was still in the stroller, I would refuse to get out of my stroller in the park unless the park barely had any kids in it. And the bizzare thing where I would apparently fall out of my chair ALOT in Pre-K when the chair wasn't even moving or tilting so basically very clumsy. So I am curious if any of you guys, had similar experience when you were younger before you found out what it was? Or if your parents ever told you some of the early signs you showed and so forth. I just find it interesting to be honest. Kind of like a "oh this explains a lot" moment lmao.

Things were there. Short stubby fingers. No friends and no outward interest in having any (but internally desperate for human interaction). Athletically inept (read "so clumsy the maladroit look coordinated"). Always quet and sticking to myself. Unable to approach people. Unable to ask questions to teachers. One teacher notified the school board "There is something wrong with him," which led eventually to the status quo. I didn't dare have meltdowns (see my Father's Day post), despite wanting to.

 

[kay]

Things were there. Short stubby fingers. No friends and no outward interest in having any (but internally desperate for human interaction). Athletically inept (read "so clumsy the maladroit look coordinated"). Always quet and sticking to myself. Unable to approach people. Unable to ask questions to teachers. One teacher notified the school board "There is something wrong with him," which led eventually to the status quo. I didn't dare have meltdowns (see my Father's Day post), despite wanting to.

Are the short, stubby fingers really an autism thing? I certainly have short, stubby hands, not just stubby fingers. People always commenting on my tiny hands..

 

[kay]

I never knew what was going on with the other kids. I avoided them for the most part, they scared me and made me cry when they would all do something spontaneously in unison, I would drag my craft projects to the corner to get away. I used barbie to measure stuff and tried to melt her feet to make them flat. Spent recess in Kindergarten drawing maps and making glue balls or reading. The adults mostly didn't take notice because I was quiet. All that so early and the meltdowns really took off at puberty. But I was 27 before I was diagnosed with anything more than anxiety. Of course Asperger's wasn't even available in the US until I was out of high-school. Still took awhile.

 

[VJCJ0628]

I had no idea about Aspergers till Recently because of my children, As a child as diagnosed with ADD, labeled a bad kid mostly because I was picked on a lot, I am sure I Aspergers as well as 2 other things that start with a D cant remember, But when I was researching the 2 things affect handwriting and writing skills are very bad no matter how hard I practice and the other effects clumsiness cant tell you how many times Ive been called a bull in a china closet, Not sure I have ADD or not though

But looking back I can see how much as a child I preferred to be alone I could not relate to other kids, I also wandered off a lot when I was young between 4 and 8. As a teen, I found some friends but from 12-15 I was known as very quiet and shy, however looking back I was watching and learning how people talked to each other and came up with things like if someone says this I can reply with that having to prethink conversations out, And also having to have some alone time to filter out conversations I have had to find what i missed as at the time I could not participate in conversation and process it at the same time

Remember having to be taught etiquette at time things other knew I had to be told

In grade school, I was always in trouble and it was never for stelling or some planed bad deed or anything I could understand but manly things I felt like I was just living or said something stupid at school or just acting off or whatever

I remember getting in trouble for not looking right when I got in trouble my dad would always say i don't care I dont look like I care or other times because I had a frown

So many other things I cant count

 

[Mia]

I used to set scenes with my toys rather than engage in pretend play.

Same, posed the figures and created scenes mainly outside. Built little shelters to protect them. And then went off to do the things I created by posing them.

 

[VJCJ0628]

I didn't play like :normal' children. I used to set scenes with my toys rather than engage in pretend play. I remember spending hours setting up wedding scenes or school scenes etc then sit back and admire my creation for ages. I used to invent stuff too, I used tights to tie dolls seats and cots to my toy pram to maximise the number of dolls it would hold. Mum always said I was a quiet kid.... Never talked when 'playing'

I did the same thing with star wars toys, However, I think I don't understand the def of pretend play, Because isn't making scene and stories with toys pretend play?

I tried to get better def of this from my kids therapists as my youngest who is LF autistic even when he was 2 years old we used do pretend sleep and wake up the game he liked I said inst that pretend play and was told not really the same

 

[Mia]

and tried to melt her feet to make them flat.

I thought it was so weird as a child that barbie had bizarre feet. I used to wrap them in leaves and grass and tie them all together with vines so she could walk. Could never put on those plastic shoes, threw them away.

 

[kay]

I thought it was so weird as a child that barbie had bizarre feet. I used to wrap them in leaves and grass and tie them all together with vines so she could walk. Could never put on those plastic shoes, threw them away.

So good to hear I wasn't the only person out there who noticed Barbies foot problems. And then there was her general figure that I didn't like. So impossibly out of proportion. I preferred things to be more realistic as a kid. Actually as an adult I have acquired a certain appreciation for the earliest Barbies and their little flip up hair dos. Still don't like the later Barbies.

 

[Dillon]

I did all kinds of weird stuff when I was younger being somewhat odd but didn’t fully understand what was going on until my early teen years.
There were some signs though of my aspergers though. I was diagnosed when I was 3 years old having not being able to talk till I was 4 years of age. What I did notice as to what I was aware of was I would do some pretend play when I was younger. In elementary school starting 1st grade I would love to doodle in a journal when we would have free time. In that journal in remember drawing stories and acting out battles between marvel characters, narrating to myself about what is happening and doing my own dioluge.
I would also do pretend play with my action figures such as power rangers or whatever. I’ve always had this thing where I like to keep my action figures in a pattern such as a straight line.
Other things I did were having particular interests such as collecting particular trading cards such as hundreds of yugioh cards. I never switched to anything new as a kid it was always the same thing of interest whether it be the same food or the same toys.

 

[Shamar]

Are the short, stubby fingers really an autism thing? I certainly have short, stubby hands, not just stubby fingers. People always commenting on my tiny hands..

It is not diagnostic as such, but there seems to be a correlation, or a least a statistically significant difference from NTs.

 

[kay]

It is not diagnostic as such, but there seems to be a correlation, or a least a statistically significant difference from NTs.

Hmmm...interesting.

 

[tree]

Some people have been studying finger length,
proportions.
autism | Finger length & DIGIT RATIO hand news!

Pointer for autism

 

[Jena]

I didn't play like :normal' children. I used to set scenes with my toys rather than engage in pretend play. I remember spending hours setting up wedding scenes or school scenes etc then sit back and admire my creation for ages. I used to invent stuff too, I used tights to tie dolls seats and cots to my toy pram to maximise the number of dolls it would hold. Mum always said I was a quiet kid.... Never talked when 'playing'

Oh my gosh same. When I was small, kids would try to get me to play pretend play, but I would do nothing and just stand there very awkwardly. But once by myself I would create scenes with my stuffed animals or anything else that was a animal. Few times I took my plastic animals and had them form a circle, like not a big circle per say, more like a circle that spirals looked exactly like this (the photo I post in this reply hope you guys can see it). I would also play really quietly especially around other people, and just move stuff silently while the other kids would act out scenes and try to get me to play with them. Another time I turned down kids who wanted to play with me and lied to them that I was playing with my imangery friend cause I just didn't know what to do in that situation if I had said yes.

 

[Appleslime]

I did the same thing with star wars toys, However, I think I don't understand the def of pretend play, Because isn't making scene and stories with toys pretend play?

I tried to get better def of this from my kids therapists as my youngest who is LF autistic even when he was 2 years old we used do pretend sleep and wake up the game he liked I said inst that pretend play and was told not really the same

Pretend play is role play, using your imagination to

Oh my gosh same. When I was small, kids would try to get me to play pretend play, but I would do nothing and just stand there very awkwardly. But once by myself I would create scenes with my stuffed animals or anything else that was a animal. Few times I took my plastic animals and had them form a circle, like not a big circle per say, more like a circle that spirals looked exactly like this (the photo I post in this reply hope you guys can see it). I would also play really quietly especially around other people, and just move stuff silently while the other kids would act out scenes and try to get me to play with them. Another time I turned down kids who wanted to play with me and lied to them that I was playing with my imangery friend cause I just didn't know what to do in that situation if I had said yes.

Love the photo, I used to sort my stuffed animals into size order or group them in colours! I never role played

 

[clg114]

When I was little (I was born in 1946), nobody knew much about autism or Asperger's Syndrome. Apparently my parents did not think that there was to much wrong with me other than being a quiet kid. But ever since I can remember, I was different from those around me. I did not know how or why, just that there was a difference. The worst was in my late teens and early twenties. My social problems were the worst then. After that I got completely wrapped in my work and did not think about the differences much. I never even heard of Asperger's Syndrome until 2006 when I was 60. The more that I researched AS, the more I was convinced that I was a Aspie. I needed to know, so in 2008 I got diagnosed.

 

[Mary Terry]

It surprises me when people say no one knew about autism until the 1980s or 1990s. I first heard of autism in the 1960s when I was a teenager. One of my sisters attended a special language school where several autistic children were enrolled. One little boy in particular stands out in my mind. He spent all day underneath a grand piano banging his head on the floor. I was told that he was autistic. I think his parents just dropped him off there every day to babysit him because the teachers could do nothing for him or with him.

About the stubby fingers - yes, this is something I have observed for a long time. It is usually accompanied by very short, almost non-existent nail beds. There is also some evidence that many people on the ASD spectrum have larger than average heads. Clumsiness is a common trait, too. My HFA sister-in-law once told me that she was always the last kid to be selected by her classmates for a playground pick-up sports team because she was so uncoordinated, and that she would not be surprised if children as uncoordinated as she was/is are also autistic. Her LFA son is very uncoordinated and physically awkward, too. I think there often are physical markers indicative of autism, not the same for everyone, but common enough to be noticed and documented.