Were any other Aspies really sociable as a child?

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For some reason I was shy around my aunties and uncles when I was a kid.

Also I was shy in the classroom, as in I didn't like to speak up in front of the whole class. But I still liked sitting with friends and I didn't mind groupwork.
Strangely enough it said on all my report cards that I did well in group activities, which is something Aspies are supposed to struggle with or dislike.

I was hyper in the playground at school. I would show off and run around and climb on all the playground equipment, and I hated playing alone. But playing with other children was easier at primary school, although the last year of primary school got a bit tricky (when I was age 10-11). Some of the girls didn't want to play with me, and others didn't want to play at all and instead talked about boys and fashion, which I didn't feel ready for yet. I hated being on my own in the playground, so I sometimes joined a computer club at playtime where you just sit and play games on the computer. But I much preferred to be playing outside with friends.
When I got to high school things got different, but nobody played any more (except for mature games like football or cards, etc). But I didn't want to play childish games any more either. But I still wanted friends and hated being alone.

I wasn’t sociable at all. Actually I remember being in about second grade where my teacher became concerned because I had no friends in class and didn’t even seem interested in making any or participating in discussions. Then when this was pointed out to me as an issue I couldn’t understand why it was important, like why do people care if I raise my hand in class or how many friends I have. It’s like I was literally born to not process social information, which is what led me to research AS.

I tried to be sociable, but I didn´t know how to act. My parents tried to teach me to be more pliant - but I didn´t know how, or I didn´t understand.

I was very sociable as a child. I talked to anybody about anything, especially my special interests and favourite things. After being chastised by my parents for talking about those things and having my voice and accent mocked so many times, I wasn't sociable as an adolescent. I became sociable in college once again. Today, I'm a mixture.

Let me be frank with you guys:

When I was a little kid, I was really sociable and wanted to hang out with kids my age and do fun stuff together, but a lot of kids were just mean, tend to bully me a lot, and tell me to 'get lost' very often. When I went to middle school, it get so much worse. The bullying was twice as harsh, they pick on and make fun of me for liking Pokémon, and harass me constantly for not being into things I'm too young for (seriously, doesn't that seem quite off that those kids are into those things?!). This experience had left me VERY bitter, and I tend to distance myself away from all but the ones I'm very close to.

When I moved to a new town to go to high school, I couldn't really trust anyone much, but some kids there were pretty nice to me. Some guidance counselors, though, tend to think I'm having "anti-social" problems just because I'm autistic. Really, I thought, you don't know ANYTHING about me, and bad I went through! (Oh, BTW, contrary to popular belief, un-sociable people and introverts are NOT "anti-social"! That's like calling mysotheists and anti-theists "atheists", even though those are TWO different things!)

TBH, I really want to be sociable again, but it's really hard to find someone your age trusting, as people my age tend to get into stupid or crazy stuff. Of course, I have some folks I go to my autism adult group with (can't right now due to the Covid-19 pandemic, though), so I guess that's good enough for me right now.

When I was in Preschool, I remember that I wasn’t particularly shy. I have memories of chasing after other kids who didn’t want to hang out with me, in hopes of being friends with them (yeah, my autism-induced social unawareness was apparent even back then...). To some extent, similar behavior carried on in kindergarten, where I remember sort of tagging along uninvited with random friend groups on the playground, who either were annoyed by or tolerated my presence. I wanna say it was first grade when I became less sociable and more shy around my peers, after halfway through the year the whole class suddenly seemed to turn against me. After that, I would only play with someone if they asked me first, and ever since I’ve been a rather introverted person.

I recognize that totally.

Until 3rd/4th grade, I was quite outgoing. Then the bullying started and I became a lot more socially reserved, though never shy. Now that I'm an adult and a lot less socially awkward than I used to be, I'm trying to be more outgoing.

I never wanted to play with other kids as a young child. I only started to want friends maybe after I entered elementary school. Other kids scared me and I avoided them until I was probably about 7 or 8. Before that and in preschool, I always wanted to hang out with the adults, like my teachers and my aunts, uncles, and older cousins at family gatherings. However, I could be quite friendly with them and they would tell my mother how "cute" and "sweet" I was.

I was and am social. I am an extroverted AS person (= borderline introvert on NT tests). My mom says I would talk to anyone (lack of stranger danger went into my diagnosis). I was fortunate to have a best friend around age 6 -amazingly: my age and gender- for a year or so until she moved away. Then it went to crap for at least two decades. Even so, in school it was said "Everybody knows Sharon". It's better now (but still hard). I have another BFF (my age and gender) and a couple friends. With NTs it remains awkward and disappointing, with my ND friends I can be more myself, and in my ASD support group I can be myself.

Social ASD style: I tell you this, other person has option to tell me that -back and forth for hours if I can - each turn can be many minutes and the depth of conversation is near certain

Social NT style: I think it involves less time (individually and in total), less depth, possibly more (superficial) questions

Obligatory not an aspie but somewhere in that zone disclaimer.

Personally, social was not a word that people would use to describe me as a child. Instead, I spent a lot of time in my head.

My first friend group that I remember was essentially forced upon me rather than chosen. The mother of one of the girls insisted that I be friends with her daughter, despite the fact that we did not get on. I had to invite her to basically everything I did, otherwise the mother would go to the school and accuse me of bullying. Which I knew was an argument I would not be able to win, since she was contributing to the school. By extension, I was friends with the friends of this girl and many of these friendships felt more like obligations than anything else.

There were a few friendships that were genuine, but most weren't. I relished being alone when I could, since it meant that I could drop the act and just have fun in my escapism. Our friendship group was always fighting with one another and I often grew weary of it.

When I was eleven, that's when things started to change. I made a genuine friend. We grew close quickly. I got stuck in a class for students they where concerned about socially, but having this friend made all the difference in my life. That's when I finally had a friend because I wanted to, rather than being controlled all the time. I wasn't particularly social in general, but if you were one of the few that I connected with than I would just not shut up.

Skip ahead to sixteen, I had some solid friendships.

Nowadays, I am still on the introverted side but much more social than I was. People are often surprised to hear how asocial I was a kid. Sometimes when I think back on who I was, it's as if I'm looking back on someone else.

I liked seeing my friends, but I was also happy on my own for quite long periods. I didn't like big crowds of people I didn't know. Always much happier with individuals or small groups.

I was an awkward kid but made up for it by being smart and funny. I got away with that until everyone else grew up in terms of emotions, communication, empathy, body language etc. and I didn't really.

My memory for the personal details of others has always been poor, which I find embarrassing. It does damage friendships if you can't remember things that are important. Social media has been a bit of a life-saver in that area.

I never realised at the time, but it turned out other kids went to a lot more activities and events than I did as a child. Visiting relatives was quite a big deal even though, now I'm an adult, it turns out they all lived pretty close to us really. One of the reasons I think my parents were most probably on the spectrum somewhere too.

From what i remember before i turned 6. I was quite the social butterfly. I was extroverted I had friends, if anything I was too sociable. But that pretty much fell of a cliff because other people were developing new social skills. I did not. It seesm after age 5-6, I stopped developing socially. I don't remember much from this time. Most of it's bad memories anyway. I stopped doing this in 1st grade. I don't exactly remember why.