Photos from Childhood suggest I am not Autistic

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I have been in therapy the last two months. One of my goals was to confirm the Asperger diagnosis I received last year.

Yeah – I know I am a bit obsessive (in terms of this confirmation thing). It's something I have been a bit skeptical about (see an earlier post <click>).

Anyhow, I was discussing the DSM-IV criteria (which I realize is no longer applicable) with the therapist and she suggested looking at pictures from my childhood to see if I looked in the camera, used facial expressions or engaged with others.

So, the first photo I found really looked “Aspie”. As I am staring out into space with my tongue sticking out. But, then I found some additional photos (fortunately, my parents live nearby) and shared them with the therapist.

She indicated that, based upon these photos (see below), I did not exhibit traits she would expect from autistic children. That in these two specific photos (taken when I was 12 months and 18 months), I am looking directly at my brother. I am smiling at him. I am engaged with him. I am sharing emotion with him. She did not see this type of “affect” in Autistic children.

As a note, my therapist did her dissertation on Autistic children. She has much experience working with Autistic children than with Aspie children.

There are, of course, other pictures (from my young childhood), where I am not looking at the camera and when I am not smiling.

Anyway, my question is this. For those diagnosed with Aspergers, do all your early childhood pictures (i.e. say, when you were younger than 30 months) show no affect, no smiling, no looking into a camera, no showing of emotion? Just curious about whether this confirms my suspicion. Thanks.

Rocket at 12 Months:
[img][450:373]http://www.anony.ws/i/2014/04/30/SlbBC.jpg[/img]

Rocket at 18 Months:
[img][450:373]http://www.anony.ws/i/2014/04/30/vwicV.jpg[/img]

I know what you mean, Rocket. My photos are just like that. I seemed to make eye contact, to smile, to be "normal" socially.

Rocket you were a really cute kid.

I am VERY curious about this because like you I have some photos where I was looking into the camera, smiling, and/or had my attention engaged with another person. And other photos where I just looked really spaced out.

Firstly aspie children are autistic children...also there are varying degrees of symptoms or how it effects people, and thirdly I really don't think whether or not you're autistic can possibly be based on photographs. Its not as though we can't show any emotions, never look at cameras, smile, make other facial expressions or interact with people in a connected manner not to mention sometimes photos are flawed and how the light hits it and such can make things appear different then they may have actually looked. So I'd be skeptical about your therapist saying your diagnoses is inaccurate based on old photographs.

I mean you obviously have the diagnoses for some reason, your therapist should focus on what symptoms you currently exibit not whether or not she thinks you look autistic in childhood pictures.

You must have had an affluent family LOL....All my pictures up to the age of about 4 are in black and white.

I noticed that my "Aspie stare" photos were between the ages of two and five. Before and after those ages I seem to be engaged. I also have quite a few "Aspie stare" photos in my preteen tween years. Between 6 and 10 I am pretty engaged and then around 10 I kind of zoned out again and then around 12 or 13 I am fully engaged in the pics again.

I found a photo of me from when I was a toddler in which I was gesturing to the sky by pointing.

Interesting. It does look like you were making eye contact. Quite possibly, you were. Imperfect eye contact, rather than total lack of eye contact, is not uncommon on the spectrum. Many of us will watch faces as a whole, or focus on mouths because it helps us understand what people are saying. Some stare. Others learn eye contact by rote, correcting themselves when others say, "look at me when I'm talking to you." If you don't have normal eye contact now, you probably didn't then, either.

Photos don't tell the whole story. Some of my early ones look pretty neurotypical, too--like there's one of me rocking a doll, singing to it. That's pretend play, so obvious that you can't deny it. On the other hand, there are ones of me wrapped in ace bandages (I liked the pressure), and ones where I had covered several chalkboards with stick-and-ball "trees", in a rather repetitive and lined-up fashion.

You have to look at the whole picture--not just those photos but the stories you get from your relatives, maybe your school records, the memories you can dig up. If there's a lot of evidence that somehow you weren't autistic as a child even though you have all the symptoms of autism now, that would be very unusual and perhaps a cause to go looking for an alternative explanation--but just looking NT in a photo, making eye contact or laughing, that's not really enough by itself to say you weren't autistic back then.

I haven't seen photos of myself recently, but I have seen old videos recently.

I didn't make eye contact or speak (at those ages, on camera), but I smiled. I also smiled "socially", but my face might not have been pointed in the expected direction (often, I seemed to be facing a wall, by choice).


I don't doubt that I'm on the spectrum. My diagnosis is Aspergers, though I'm pretty certain if I had been born 20 years later, I would have been diagnosed with Autism instead.

I don't think you can tell based on a few childhood photos. It's not as if people on the spectrum never look other people in the eye or smile.

But don't you think, in Rocket's case, that there are definite signs of engagement with his brother, rather than detachment? Engagement in the normal kid mode?

I've had pictures of me smiling. There is no indication, in my pictures, of any attempt to engage with anybody.

Thanks.



I tried to find the old 8mm movies. But unfortunately, I was unable to find any. So, pictures were the next best thing. I agree that you cannot make any assumptions from old photos (after all, it is only an instance in time). The therapist's comments were based upon, in her words, “severely autistic children”. My only reason for posting this, was to see how “out of the ordinary” photos like these were for little Aspies.



LOL. I suppose I was fortunate growing up.



It is interesting (about the eye contact). Because I “blocked out” my brother’s face, the photos are a bit misleading.

- In the 12 month picture, my brother is looking straight into the camera (while I am looking at him).
- In the 18 month picture, my brother is looking down on me (not into my eyes). I imagine we were told to face each other (in this photo). As my dad was quite obsessive about taking “staged” photos. I understand that getting an 18 month old to respond, can be difficult. LOL.

About eye contact, when young, I remember my dad demanding that I “look at me when I’m talking to you”.

It sounds like your dad was rather authoritarian.

Mine was in the 1960s. He wore suits. He wore his hair short. Whenever he had "company," I was sent to my room.

When he grew his hair in the 1970s, he became more laid-back.

No, I have Asperger's and there are plenty of childhood pics of me where I'm smiling or even grinning, (and some where I intentionally stuck my tongue out at the last second). There is also a pic where I'm intentionally looking down because I'm pouting; I didn't wanna pose for the pic and so I didn't. In one elementary school class picture I was so preoccupied with joking with a classmate that when the pic was taken I was still looking more in his direction than at the camera.
I only stopped monkeying about in front of the camera when I as an older child became self-conscious about my looks around the age of 12.

Baby pictures of you smiling or looking at the camera are NOT sufficient to determine whether or not you have autism. My son is severely autistic and until very recently non-verbal. He has been diagnosed with classic autism by four different doctors - two psychologists, a developmental pediatrician, and a neurologist. His symptoms are very clear and there is no doubt as to his diagnosis. Even so, I have a few pictures of him smiling and looking into the camera. My son won't actively engage other children, but he will play with his two sisters. Here's a few pictures of my son.

My son as a baby, crawling, and smiling.


My son a little older and still smiling and looking into the camera.


Here is a photo of both my son and I looking directly at the camera and smiling.

I look normal in my photos and there are some where I look odd in them and have averted eyes. There are also photos of me being silly. I also have smiling photos of me.