Were any other Aspies really sociable as a child?

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I'm really intrigued about this.
When I was a child I loved having a playmate, and hated having a day go by where I didn't see another child to play with and talk to (apart from my brother). So my parents often had to arrange playdates with me and my cousins (I was close to my cousins and they often wanted to see me too). Sometimes my mum used to ask me why I couldn't just play on my own for a day but I'd just crave company throughout the school holidays. It's like I wanted to share the day with another child my age and play make believe games with them and do other stuff kids do.
There were some children my age in my neighbourhood, and as soon as I got home from school I would go back out to play with them, and never get exhausted from socializing.

This is another reason why I don't understand how I got this diagnosis. But I was a very sociable and articulate child and enjoyed being around other children. Whenever my brother brought friends back I'll immediately stop what I was doing and run outside to join them.

But I was shy in the classroom at school, but loud in the playground. I don't know why.

But anyway, was anyone else sociable as a child and was able to get along with your peers and always wanted company? Or am I just some weird NT Aspie?

Many of of are not introverts. I have always wanted friends as far back as I can remember. Unfortunately, my parents were never much help with teaching me how to make friends. I usually had some friends though. The diagnosis includes traits that make it difficult to make friends, not introversion.

I liked talking to people as a child—but I was very awkward socially.

Yes and no.

I was loud and outspoken when I was very little, rambling to you.

I enjoyed playing with peers at first, but as soon as more sophisticated social dynamics began to emerge, I fell behind and became quiet and introverted.

As to "wanting company," I desired this more in youth. As I got older, I realized I never got what I wanted out of this. The difficulty in maintaining close attachment made long term networking very difficult. I stopped developing real friend circles years ago, although I see value in fostering good relations with people around you and making acquaintances with similar interests.

I liked playing sports. I didn’t like most of the kids who played sports with me.

My parents said so. Some of my childhood friends said so.

In my point of view, I just do as it goes, issue or no issue. I never put socialization on a higher hierarchy of priorities for me -- I just want what I want.

Don't have the needs and longings of an extrovert, yet I don't also act like an introvert.
I'm not even rebellious and outspoken.
While I never see myself as a nice person and refuse to be one.

I'm just sociable enough, and I happened not to care very much except to the very narrow scope of view of what relations and respect meant and my pride.

In other words, sociability never truly entered my mind and wondered why I wasn't even noticed then diagnosed earlier.


Overtime, I just fell behind.
Realized I'm different from then on -- I accepted that. But why it was and as I found out quite a while I didn't.

Sure, my parents tried to make me catch up and took years to realize I don't like what they're doing.
Yeah, I happened to dislike being forced or even setup to socialize and have 'friends' with.
It just made me more distrusting about socializing than bullies involved, as I dislike the idea of masking even more.

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I was an "active, but odd" Aspie. I was fairly outgoing but my weird presentation made real friendships unlikely.

I was so lonely that it hurt.

I was very sociable as a child, I liked being around people and having someone to play with. I also liked having friends. But it always hurt whenever I got rejected or got told to go away. This was just a normal thing for me.

I recall being a lot more outgoing when I was very young, and can remember (after the fact, being told by others typically) that some things I did were embarrassing/socially inappropriate - I loved playing with people, especially in 'pretend' games which is actually something I have heard that is uncommon for aspies? But IIRC, I was much more fixated on my own imagination than what everyone else was doing, so I was just playing out my own story through the rest of the roleplaying everyone was doing.

Also, like others mentioned, I was very outspoken and tended to enjoy talking more to adults than kids my own age. I was thought of as being very smart and articulate when I was young, and it felt like grown-ups appreciated this more than other kids (although some of that might just be adults trying to indulge a kid who talks a lot haha).

As I got older, particularly by the time I was a teen, I was both less interested in playing with large groups of people, and less inclined to form strong friendships. On average, for each school-year I went through, I had 1-3 casual friends, and typically only 1 or 2 of those people who I would occasionally see outside of the classroom (if at all). Sometimes I felt lonely, but I have found I'm able to be very content with myself because I have a very active imagination and have imaginary friendships/otherwise social relationships with folks of my own imagination/from media I enjoy. I've always been like this, and probably always will be considering that I'm formally an adult now. Overall, accumulation of 'negative' social experiences, particularly being talked down to by people for doing something 'wrong' that I wasn't aware of, has resulted long-term in my being much more socially anxious and self-conscious.

During my grade school and middle school years, I (like a few fellow misfits) was an easy target for bullies.

In fact, two teachers (during my middle school years) joined in thinking bullying was a good thing and that there would be no consequences for the perps at all.

During my high school years, I was so desperate to fit in and make some friends, but many of my peers viewed me as a "creep", a "weirdo", a "dumbass", etc. However, I am glad I hardly made any friends during this time because the majority of my peers were hipster-wannabes, punk-rocker types, or types who took themselves too seriously.

Maybe...? At least not that far from average. I played with other kids in school on breaks and liked to have classmates over, but they didn't come often. I think the reason was a mix of them not really liking me and the fact that I didn't live within a walking distance or in a place with public transport, so they would've needed their parents to bring them, but many parents didn't want to bother, especially when their kids had other friends who lived closer.

I think that part of the reason I, and at least some others on the spectrum, want to socialize less as we grow is that we become more aware of social rules and norms and realize we don't fit in, so it makes socializing more exhausting as we try not to break any rules.

Yes, I've always liked people on some level. I felt good about every kid in my class for the first few years of school. I used to spend hours playing with other kids. It didn't always go well, but I got by. I was probably less likely to try and run with the pack, I turned out to be rubbish at sport, and would stick to small groups and one-on-one, but I think it would have been hard to see any difference between my social behaviour and that of any other kid. On my first day at school I chattered away with the teacher as if I'd known and liked her for years. It wasn't till I was about 9 years old that I started to flounder socially. And I was never particularly shy. Having said that, I was often happy to play by myself if I had an idea of something to do and there didn't happen to be anybody around to share it with. It only bothered me to be alone if I noticed it was happening a lot and if it was starting to look like I wasn't going to be able to re-connect with people.

I'm still much the same now. I like spending time with people, just that I don't know many with whom it's likely to go well. There aren't many who share my obscure interests or want to talk about the things I talk about. I've had this morbid fear of spending the last phase of my life alone since I was in my 20s. It doesn't haunt me much but it's a nasty feeling when it does. There was a time when I had a lot of friends, we'd always be phoning each other up, visiting each other, and going here and there together, and I thought it would stay that way.

Yes! I socially peaked in 3rd grade when I became I minor celebrity in school after being interviewed on Nickelodeon's Slime Time Live during a family vacation. I was also very fortunate to be on relatively friendly term with the jocks in high school, considering the negative experiences many Aspies have with that particular clique It probably didn't hurt that I was able to utilize my various family connections to pro sports to be able to relate to them.

about as sociable as I am now. which is not at all.