Did you notice you were different when you were a kid?

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I realise that many people have known they were different when they were a kid, nearly all of us did, but I'm wondering about how much, and also so that we can compare notes and all that. As with any poll, you dan't have to vote if you feel uncomfortable about it. When I grew up, I fell under the not really noticing category, partly because people were kind and accepting to me, but mostly because I've got a fairly mild case of AS. To that end, I consider myself very lucky.

I've known that I was different, since day one. Despite the fact that I was born in Canada, I knew what a Union Flag looked like at the age of Four, before I knew what a Canadian Flag looked like, at the age of Six. I didn't really play with my Pre-School Classmates at first. I was sitting back, "Practicing for when I become a Teacher!" In Kindergarden, I've noticed that I didn't speak like my Typical Peers, or my Special Needs Classmates. I was finding out that I was speaking like "The well-dressed, well-behaved Rich Kids on Television!" In other words, that I have a British Accent but I was too young to know what an Accent was. I knew what a Double Decker Bus looked like, before I knew what a Hockey Player looked like, despite the fact that I was born in Canada. I'm not much of a Canadian, but I was born in Canada. I didn't play with Dolls like most little girls. I played with Cars, instead. (Now I play with little red Buses.) I was in Special Ed, and that's the most painful way to know that you're different! Being called, "Special", in the Special Needs sense of the word didn't help, either. That lasted until I was Mainstreamed in High School, with a couple of Periods in the Resource Room. I'm still different from most people. Most people my age are selecting Soul Mates. I'm selecting the very best little red Buses that I can find.

I didn't start noticing anything wrong with me until fourth grade. Before then, I was the most popular in class (with the exception of a couple bullies) and me and everyone else loved the same things. And everyone wanted to play all the pretend games with me, too, since I was always the best at making them up. But in fourth grade, I started becoming really bad at memorizing names, everyone was already getting into teen stuff that I was the least bit interested in, people started forming cliques, and school became harder for me to bear. It's gone down hill since. And by ninth grade, I started having a lot of trouble recognizing faces as well. Is it just me, or is my AS getting worse?

hmm,

well, for a first thing people were always saying that i was different. then they kept sensding me away to be tested... then they made me go to Learning support. I did finally get what they were syaing only quite recently, i knew i was different but only relised how different about 2 months ago!

i quite like the unit at school though, i can go and then curl up with lion under a good table. or in my corner.

^licks^

jammie & lion

Ive always been the odd one out

I knew I was different from Kindergarten on. I didn't (and still don't) know how to socialize with the other kids, and I got picked on and bullied constantly throughout my school years. Even the weirdest, most geeky kids thought I was too wierd to hang out with. On the other hand, the acedemic aspects of school were usually very easy for me, and didn't understand why some of the other kids had to struggle to get decent grades, especially in the really interesting classes like science and electronics. I didn't find out why I was different until many, many years later learning of AS.

I didn't feel different (because different always sounded like something so great, that I wasn't up to), but I felt I had trouble. Starting from the 2nd or 3rd grade I noticed that I was bad at making friends, and 5th/6th grades were almost completely friendless. Also my mom's pressuring me to socialize more made me feel bad. But different was too cool for me.

Before that I think I had the same troubles but was too blind to see them.

I voted: Quite a bit, I always wondered what the heck was going on

I knew something was going on, but I didn't know exactly what and I always thought I was wrong or something was missing in me. I wasn't able to expres myself outside the house. Inside wasn't always easy either. When I got older I was convinced people were lying about their capabilities all the time. And that it didn't work for me because I couldn't do the lying and I couldn't cheat on myself. It was only untill my daughter went to primary school that I got sight on in what we differ, and how, compared to other people in general. It couldn't statistically be that my daughter was in a class with only nasty kids or kids with nasty traits. That was the start of a three to four years search for answers, resulting in the knowledge that we both have Asperger's.

i've always known i was weird, but i think early on, i pawned it off soley on depression and such... that my social status was due to the fact that i was a young nerd going through an ugly awkward stage... those two things alone will peg any kid a loner/target in school.

but now that im older and socializing isn't strictly about being whatever cookie-cutter personality is needed to fit in (it still is in a way, just not so much)... i feel it even more. i still just don't get people. i guess i had hoped that i would grow out of it at some point...

but having found out that AS is probably why i am how i am... i find some comfort in it... but at the same time, it doesn't solve any of my issues. it doesn't really get rid of my social disatisfaction; i'm just not as hard on myself.

if i have AS, it's not that bad... of the few people i've tried talking to about this; they don't really believe i have AS... most people just think i'm shy. but i know myself and all the small things just seem to fit.

I've known I was different since I was 3. It was a feeling I got. I noticed there was something the other kids had I didn't have. I felt I was missing something but didn't know what was going on. Other times I'd feel normal like everyone else when I was playing with other children and when I was getting the same treatment as everyone else was. When I was six, I was placed in a special class with other kids who were ret*d. Back in those days they placed kids with any types of disabilities in one room. I was there because I didn't talk very well. As I got older I noticed I was being treated differently and I had troubles when it came to having to gather up in a group. I hated group projucts because I found it real difficult so I misbehave but when I was 10 I learned to stay with the group but I didn't speak unless spoken too. And I also noticed my friends were growing up faster than me because their interests would change because it got more social. They wanted to hang out and talk, not play and I wanted to play and they didn't so I started playing with younger kids when I was around 10 and 11. Then by the time I was in sixth grade, I had no friends. I was alone now because none of my best friends wanted me around so I would be by myself on the playground. But then in middle school I felt better about myself because we moved and my middle school had aplayground, no track field so kids liked to hang out, they swung on the swings, played on the monkey bars, played basketball or football and there was this new toy equipment we played on too. I played with other kids by playing on the same toy equipment and soemtimes my peers would have me join in their games. I guess I was one lucky aspie but when i reached high school it got hard again because we weren't allowed on the playground anymore because it was for middle schoolers only. So only thing we did was walked around in the hallways of our school and chatted while I be in the reource room doing the computer. I had no interest in having friends because they were so boring. I'd rather have friends who had the same things in common with me, not friends that are boring and all I can do it follow them around and just stand there waiting until they do soemthing interesting I like. I did that a lot in fifth grade. It was boring but I was always hoping they go back to the playground and do jump rope or something or playing on the playground equipment. In sixth grade they never did so I was alone walking around and I'd sit along the fence and write in my notebook.

But ever since I found out about AS, I have learned there were things like social cues, eye contact, non verbal language etc I never knew about. Before I learned what AS was, I never knew there was such a thing. I have found out more about me.

I always figured something was wrong with me and that I was a loser that nobody else liked.

I had always known I was different. While I was in college, I learned to adapt to society. But I am still not 100% normal, and never will be--because I have an official diagnosis of AS.

Tim

i don't think it's the official dx that does it.

im almost 25 and can't afford to get an official dx cause insurance blah blah blah...

but whether i get it or not is not going to change anything having to do with fitting in... if anything it might make you more aware of things and better able to "be normal".

Yes. I was raised by a kind colony of ants in the Arizona desert. I was always killing my friends during play because I was so much larger than them. Sad was the day when the Queen finally told me I had to fend for myself.

yeah sorry.... i tattled on ya

"Absolutely, I knew it was painfully obvious since day one."