Is this a typical childhood description of an Aspie?

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timeisdead
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21 Aug 2009, 5:07 pm

As a girl I was considered both a gifted child and a problem child. I was very much a math whiz and at the age of 5 I knew addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, pre-algebra (x+3=5, 5x=25, x+2+3=9), fractions, and small squares and square roots (x squared = 16, the square root of 9 is 3). I loved to read, write, and draw. I was constantly doodling in class to pass the time. At some times I would spend hours in imaginative play but other times I would read, count objects, or observe whatever was around me. I was in my own world much of the time so to speak. I stood in abject amazement of all there was to see. I was very creative, often drawing and imagining movie ideas.


Aggression was one of my greatest difficulties and at times. As a result, I came across many conflicts in my youth and had difficulty getting along with others. I would hit others if they pissed me off. When I was 8, I beat up a 13 year old boy for calling my shoes ugly. I remember his mother screaming for me to stop! As a child I was very hyperactive and unconcerned with the feelings of most others. However, if I truly cared about the person or character, I felt much empathy.

I was constantly climbing trees as well as the outside of playground equipment. I could spend hours wandering or riding my bike alone, especially over hills. I would always spin around just for the hell of it because I needed stimulation. For my nature I was constantly getting suspended. However, my teachers adored me and considered me very intelligent. It was extremely difficult for me to sit still unless I was spending time on a special interest or playing video games on my SNES or Sega. As such, I was always wandering around in stores. I did, however, manage to sit still for much of class. I loved playing video games for hours and would constantly think of game ideas and different ways in which they could be played.

I had a deep fascination with history and the sciences. As such I loved to read. When I was 7, other children didn't believe me about subjects like the Lucy Skeleton or even the Milky Way Galaxy. They assumed Milky Way was only a candy bar! At age 8 I would ask myself questions such as what would happen if there was no such thing as gravity and pictured the planets floating apart. I wondered what it would be like flying a ship between the edges of our atmosphere and outer space. I loved reading encyclopedias and going to stores like Store of Knowledge and Borders Books. I was fascinated the layers of the earth, volcanoes, and geodes, learning all I could about each subject. In the 5th grade I was obsessed with medical science, reading college medical textbooks such as anatomy and physiology as well as nutrition and diagnostic handbooks. Another obsession of mine was American History.


I was extremely routine oriented at times, demanding I had to watch certain programming or go to bed at certain times. If I didn't, I would become extremely upset. My friendships with other children were typically intense and one on one. I also loved talking to adults, especially about my special interests. However, I preferred being alone most of the time.



Last edited by timeisdead on 21 Aug 2009, 8:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

poopylungstuffing
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21 Aug 2009, 5:57 pm

I was somewhat different from you..but I am sure it describes a lot of Aspie childhoods.

When I was really little I did often wander far from home and climb trees and have adventures...this was before the first grade...I also identified more with boys than i did with girls and did not really think of myself as a girl.....I did go through a period of regression after I was in the first grade where I became signifigantly more dysfunctional than I was when I was really little...possibly due to culture shock...or something

I had a lot of trouble with social oblivion and self-care...I was pegged at an early age as a gifted child, but I was so emotionally and socially immature that I really suffered for it. I was not aggressive towards other children, but I was a bully magnet, and i was also easily taken advantage of. I made attempts at making friends, but I was very bad at making a nuisance of myself, breaking house rules and simple social protocols...so both the kids and their parents ended up disliking me.

Despite being pegged as a gifted child, my classroom performance was abysmal. I had a very difficult time with following directions...I would have meltdowns over simple homework assignments..I was severely disorganized on many levels and I was bombarded with sensory issues...

In the 4th grade, I was sent back to the third grade after having a major meltdown in class...
The principal said it was due to "emotional immaturity"

Between the (2nd) 3rd grade and the 5th grade...I stood out as the girl with the messy hair and awful hygiene who walked on her toes and could not dress properly....but I was also sorta the walking encyclopedia type..and I was always spewing out factoids and whatnot...At the time I had delusions of grandeur and thought i was going to become a writer...I was also a library fanatic and a student volunteer at the library....I was very blunt and easily offended people...like on one rare occasion when I had made a friend...i immediately lost the friend when I asked them whether or not they were a boy or girl.

I was also very androgynous until I hit puberty, and that only started to change after I took measure to get people to stop calling me a lesbian..by sorta dressing more feminine...but clothes-wise I was very clueless..but on the eccentric side...up through my teens......and beyond..... :roll:



poopylungstuffing
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21 Aug 2009, 6:17 pm

I think that one of the reasons that I was not very routine-oriented was that I was sorta raised in a somewhat chaotic and non-routine oriented household...There were some things I HAD to do...like watch David Letterman every night...but I can't really recall much else...



timeisdead
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21 Aug 2009, 6:21 pm

Quote:
In the 4th grade, I was sent back to the third grade after having a major meltdown in class...
The principal said it was due to "emotional immaturity"

That's extremely unfair, especially since you were considered gifted. If I was your mother, I would be outraged and pull you out of the school at once. I was prevented from skipping grades because of my emotional immaturity at the time.



timeisdead
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21 Aug 2009, 6:24 pm

poopylungstuffing wrote:
I think that one of the reasons that I was not very routine-oriented was that I was sorta raised in a somewhat chaotic and non-routine oriented household...There were some things I HAD to do...like watch David Letterman every night...but I can't really recall much else...


I was once more routine oriented but since I live in a chaotic and non-routine oriented household, that tendency was bred out of me over the years. However, I still prefer systemic methods of doing things. As a child I had many rituals such as not stepping on the cracks of the sidewalk for x amount of distance or reading x amount of pages for the day.



timeisdead
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21 Aug 2009, 6:28 pm

Just curious poopy, did you love video games as a child? I absolutely loved video and computer games. One of my favorite aspects of school would be when we used Macintosh and later PC computers to type and game. I loved my SNES and Sega as a child and often spent hours gaming.



Last edited by timeisdead on 21 Aug 2009, 6:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.

poopylungstuffing
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21 Aug 2009, 6:44 pm

timeisdead wrote:
Quote:
In the 4th grade, I was sent back to the third grade after having a major meltdown in class...
The principal said it was due to "emotional immaturity"

That's extremely unfair, especially since you were considered gifted. If I was your mother, I would be outraged and pull you out of the school at once. I was prevented from skipping grades because of my emotional immaturity at the time.


I had just moved to a new school where the whole system was different. If I had stayed in my old school, I would have automatically been in the gifted program, as I had been selected for it. At my new school, there was a waiting list. I had to take certain tests in order to qualify, and although I took those tests and did qualify, there was no room in the classes...also my counselor expressed concerns that I would be even more of a bully magnet, seeing as I was already bullied by some of the "Vanguard" girls even though they were located in a temporary building on the other side of the school.

Even if I had stayed at the school where I had been automatically chosen for the gifted program, there were still the issues of my learning problems and emotional immaturity...and in that regard, I probably would have done better with some form of special ed to help address those issues....

Later, when I eventually made it to the Gifted and Talented classes at another school in Jr. High in a different school district....it was really cool because technically those classes did count as "Special Ed"...and they were very accommodating to students with different social and learning needs.

I was really poor, growing up and I wanted so badly to go to a different kind of school...but it was not affordable. Instead my folks sort of accepted my problems and were really lenient about my horrible grades and ablout letting me stay home from school a lot and whatnots...



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21 Aug 2009, 7:27 pm

timeisdead wrote:
Just curious poopy, did you love video games as a child? I absolutely loved video and computer games. One of my favorite aspects of school would be when we used Macintosh and later PC computers to type and game. I loved my SNES and Sega as a child and often spent hours gaming.


I LOVED computer games when I was a kid...mostly on PC...I would seek them out at every opportunity....
I was not so good at conventional video games...but when I was little I would spend inordinate amounts of time staring at the demo screens of video games in restaurants.

I did not have a computer at home, but whenever I went to someone's house with my parents, I would beg to be allowed to play games on their computer..if they had one...(this was in the 80's)

I was never good at motor-oriented games...I liked story games like Shadowgate and Carmen Sandiego, and Oregon Trail and whatnot...though I did like the Olympics and Golf games for the Macintosh.

When I was a kid my dad worked at the Mall...and I would go with him to work and I was a nuisance at the book store because I would dominate the demo-computer for as long as I could before they asked me to leave.

My younger NT sister was way into the Nintendo type games and was way better at them than I was...She teased me a lot because I was so horribly unskilled at them compared to her.



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21 Aug 2009, 10:45 pm

Sounds pretty typical to me.

I was almost the same way. Only I fought with my younger brother all the time. I remember being obsessed with building blocks and later legos at an extremely young age and I would attack my brother for touching anything of mine. I was possessive. This was when I was 7 and he was about 3. I was an extremely picky eater as well.

I also had favorite books that I would read over and over again. I was obsessed with things like volcanic eruptions, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, etc., basically violent natural phenomena. I read books on those types of things from the age of 5. I remember a book about the destruction of Pompeii by Mt. Vesuvius that I used to read over and over.

I got into video games as well when I was a little older.



poopylungstuffing
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22 Aug 2009, 1:29 am

I was protective of my NT younger sister...but though she was 4 years younger than me, she rapidly flew past me in terms of various forms of maturity. Often any friends I would make would forsake me and become better friends with her because she was more socially acceptable than i was....she also bonded better with all my cousins and whatnot...A lot of our sibling rivalry had to do with her bullying me because I was so weird.



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22 Aug 2009, 7:32 am

timeisdead wrote:
As a girl I was considered both a gifted child and a problem child. I was very much a math whiz and at the age of 5 I knew addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, pre-algebra (x+3=5, 5x=25, x+2+3=9), fractions, and small squares and square roots (x squared = 16, the square root of 9 is 3). I loved to read, write, and draw. I was constantly doodling in class to pass the time. At some times I would spend hours in imaginative play but other times I would read, count objects, or observe whatever was around me. I was in my own world much of the time so to speak. I stood in abject amazement of all there was to see. I was very creative, often drawing and imagining movie ideas.


Aggression was one of my greatest difficulties and at times. As a result, I came across many conflicts in my youth and had difficulty getting along with others. I would hit others if they pissed me off. When I was 8, I beat up a 13 year old boy for calling my shoes ugly. I remember his mother screaming for me to stop! As a child I was very hyperactive and unconcerned with the feelings of most others. However, if I truly cared about the person or character, I felt much empathy.

I was constantly climbing trees as well as the outside of playground equipment. I could spend hours wandering or riding my bike alone, especially over hills. I would always spin around just for the hell of it because I needed stimulation. For my nature I was constantly getting suspended. However, my teachers adored me and considered me very intelligent. It was extremely difficult for me to sit still unless I was spending time on a special interest or playing video games on my SNES or Sega. As such, I was always wandering around in stores. I did, however, manage to sit still for much of class. I loved playing video games for hours and would constantly think of game ideas and different ways in which they could be played.

I had a deep fascination with history and the sciences. As such I loved to read. When I was 7, other children didn't believe me about subjects like the Lucy Skeleton or even the Milky Way Galaxy. They assumed Milky Way was only a candy bar! At age 8 I would ask myself questions such as what would happen if there was no such thing as gravity and pictured the planets floating apart. I wondered what it would be like flying a ship between the edges of our atmosphere and outer space. I loved reading encyclopedias and going to stores like Store of Knowledge and Borders Books. I was fascinated the layers of the earth, volcanoes, and geodes, learning all I could about each subject. In the 5th grade I was obsessed with medical science, reading college medical textbooks such as anatomy and physiology as well as nutrition and diagnostic handbooks. Another obsession of mine was American History.


I was extremely routine oriented at times, demanding I had to watch certain programming or go to bed at certain times. If I didn't, I would become extremely upset. My friendships with other children were typically intense and one on one. I also loved talking to adults, especially about my special interests. However, I preferred being alone most of the time.


Very much me..The only difference is, I don't hit and kick others.


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ruveyn
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22 Aug 2009, 7:44 am

That is very similar to the story of my younger life.

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22 Aug 2009, 10:20 am

timeisdead wrote:
I would always spin around just for the hell of it because I needed stimulation.

Very autism(or asperger) like.

timeisdead wrote:
I was spending time on a special interest or playing video games on my SNES or Sega. As such, I was always wandering around in stores. I did, however, manage to sit still for much of class. I loved playing video games for hours and would constantly think of game ideas and different ways in which they could be played.

Aspie obsession????

timeisdead wrote:
I had a deep fascination with history and the sciences. As such I loved to read. When I was 7, other children didn't believe me about subjects like the Lucy Skeleton or even the Milky Way Galaxy. They assumed Milky Way was only a candy bar! At age 8 I would ask myself questions such as what would happen if there was no such thing as gravity and pictured the planets floating apart. I wondered what it would be like flying a ship between the edges of our atmosphere and outer space. I loved reading encyclopedias and going to stores like Store of Knowledge and Borders Books. I was fascinated the layers of the earth, volcanoes, and geodes, learning all I could about each subject. In the 5th grade I was obsessed with medical science, reading college medical textbooks such as anatomy and physiology as well as nutrition and diagnostic handbooks. Another obsession of mine was American History.

It's quite typical of gifted kids. They're curious and want to learn everythings.They spend hours reading and learning on all kind of intellectual subjects. They also like to ask themselfs or others hard questions.

timeisdead wrote:
I was extremely routine oriented at times, demanding I had to watch certain programming or go to bed at certain times. If I didn't, I would become extremely upset.

That's very asperger.

timeisdead wrote:
I also loved talking to adults, especially about my special interests.

Typical of asperger, but of gifted kids too. Intellectually you're were apart from child of you're age after all.

timeisdead wrote:
I preferred being alone most of the time.

Me too...

timeisdead wrote:
I was in my own world much of the time so to speak.

That's so like me....



aspieconfirmed
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22 Aug 2009, 10:59 am

timeisdead wrote:
As a girl I was considered both a gifted child and a problem child. I was very much a math whiz and at the age of 5 I knew addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, pre-algebra (x+3=5, 5x=25, x+2+3=9), fractions, and small squares and square roots (x squared = 16, the square root of 9 is 3). I loved to read, write, and draw. I was constantly doodling in class to pass the time. At some times I would spend hours in imaginative play but other times I would read, count objects, or observe whatever was around me. I was in my own world much of the time so to speak. I stood in abject amazement of all there was to see. I was very creative, often drawing and imagining movie ideas.


Aggression was one of my greatest difficulties and at times. As a result, I came across many conflicts in my youth and had difficulty getting along with others. I would hit others if they pissed me off. When I was 8, I beat up a 13 year old boy for calling my shoes ugly. I remember his mother screaming for me to stop! As a child I was very hyperactive and unconcerned with the feelings of most others. However, if I truly cared about the person or character, I felt much empathy.

I was constantly climbing trees as well as the outside of playground equipment. I could spend hours wandering or riding my bike alone, especially over hills. I would always spin around just for the hell of it because I needed stimulation. For my nature I was constantly getting suspended. However, my teachers adored me and considered me very intelligent. It was extremely difficult for me to sit still unless I was spending time on a special interest or playing video games on my SNES or Sega. As such, I was always wandering around in stores. I did, however, manage to sit still for much of class. I loved playing video games for hours and would constantly think of game ideas and different ways in which they could be played.

I had a deep fascination with history and the sciences. As such I loved to read. When I was 7, other children didn't believe me about subjects like the Lucy Skeleton or even the Milky Way Galaxy. They assumed Milky Way was only a candy bar! At age 8 I would ask myself questions such as what would happen if there was no such thing as gravity and pictured the planets floating apart. I wondered what it would be like flying a ship between the edges of our atmosphere and outer space. I loved reading encyclopedias and going to stores like Store of Knowledge and Borders Books. I was fascinated the layers of the earth, volcanoes, and geodes, learning all I could about each subject. In the 5th grade I was obsessed with medical science, reading college medical textbooks such as anatomy and physiology as well as nutrition and diagnostic handbooks. Another obsession of mine was American History.


I was extremely routine oriented at times, demanding I had to watch certain programming or go to bed at certain times. If I didn't, I would become extremely upset. My friendships with other children were typically intense and one on one. I also loved talking to adults, especially about my special interests. However, I preferred being alone most of the time.


So, you think that because you liked to climb trees, ride your bike, play video games and learn about science you are autistic? get real....



poopylungstuffing
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22 Aug 2009, 11:47 am

That's not very nice.... :?



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23 Aug 2009, 12:32 am

I knew I was different as a kid because one of my best friends was a seventy something retired english professor that I was delighted to learn new things from. He was my neighbour for the longest time and sadly, died when I turned 15 from a lung disease. I visited him more than his own family did... But some aspects of your childhood do apply to my own. Of course... I can't speak for the rest of WP. All I remember about my earliest school memories is an exasperated teacher saying "Why don't you get math like the other children do? I've tried everything!" It turns out I'm dyslexic in math, so her efforts were for naught. I think the worst part about being raised deep in the woods is when you finally get out into the city, you look and sound like a hick without intending to. I still have a drawl after all these years on many words.