Before AS, there was the 'Emotionally Stunted Genius"..

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I was just thinking about the path of self-discovery that led me to Asperger's, and the stops along the way. For many years, beginning in middle school, I had a perception of myself that I refer to as the 'Emotionally Stunted Genius.'

Growing up, I couldn't understand how I could be so advanced in terms of intellect and perception (began reading at age 4, reading at a college level at age 9, adult understanding of sex, etc), but so young in terms of my interests, likes/dislikes and general behavior. I played like a child, ate like a child and cried like a child. How could people consistantly refer to me as an 'old soul', remark that I was born in the wrong era/decade, but feel like a 10-year-old on the inside?

Well, I eventually came to the conclusion that I had an unknown disorder that made my brain stop maturing socially and emotionally, so that at age 16 I was probably mentally an 8-year-old, but that I was a super genius 8-year-old, like the ones I would see on TV going to college when they should be in 4th grade.

How funny that the 'Emotionally Stunted Genius' disorder turned out to be AS. I just think it's funny how self-perception can work when you don't have a name or label to assign to yourself.

Hear, Hear!
When I was a little girl, at about the age of 3, I was reading Magic Treehouse books, I understood where babies 'came from' and spoke fluently with my 7 year old Mexican American neighbors.

I've been trying to consider how my daughter would be perceived, had she been born 30+ years ago. She's too well behaved to have been sent to a reform school and she's way too smart to have been sent to a special needs school. She would probably have been told off constantly, for being lazy and not getting on with her work, resulting in considerable issues with self esteem. As for the social skills, I'm not sure - a target for bullies perhaps, but I don't think anyone would have looked at the real reasons for this.

I'll come back to this thread later, when I've thought some more.