Do you ever wonder if you're ret*d?

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I had a similar problem growing up. When I started kindergarten they thought that I was "gifted", however it didn't take long before I started to fall behind the other kids in class work. I was always in the "slow" classes for reading and math. Since I couldn't read well, I did poorly in all of my subjects because I couldn't read the directions and/or questions very well. I had so many teachers tell me that I was "lazy". The most traumatic comment that still rings in my head... nearly every day... was a teacher who said to me "either you are very lazy or you are stupid.... I don't think you are stupid, so you must be lazy." Well... in my Aspie mind I was sitting there thinking "I'm trying as hard as I can, so I must be stupid." I obviously didn't understand the nature of the comment, so I drew my own conclusion. It was logical and reinforced for me that there was something "stupid" about me. To this day I can't seem to get over that. I even had a psychoeducational assessment recently for university and discovered that I have an IQ of 120 (not gifted, but not "dull" either). I just look at the paper with the number on it and think "I must be stupid". It's awful!! ! My daughters psychiatrist seems to think that I have an auditory processing issue that is very severe. She thinks it may have caused me a lot of trouble in school. Nice to know, but it just reinforces that there really IS something "wrong" with me. I realize that this lady wasn't trying to make me feel bad. She was trying to be helpful. I guess it just shows how much the comment of one idiot teacher can effect the self esteem of a child coping with AS.

i thought of myself as evolved human

Hearing tragic stories like this from members tells me how lucky I was because I didn't get this kind of crap from teachers maybe because of my early childhood. Lets see, ear infections and then hearing loss, doctors thinking I was autistic and me having the behavior so it was like all an explanation for my behavior later in life so I don't think any grown up ever thought I was being a smart ass if I took things literal or I was hyper in school and had troubles being still and controlling my actions.

I don't think one teacher has ever told me I'm stupid or I'm lazy but I do remember getting in 6th grade I was disrespectful so it was like I can't even express myself or say any of my opinions.

I can remember getting in trouble at school and along with my bullies when we get in fights but then as I got older it was me only in trouble, not them. My school got worse as I got older because the good staff left that school and went to the other school instead to work at. Then my speech therapist left in 1997 because she didn't like how the school was running and didn't like the principal so she went to another school, plus it was closer to her home.

I think the reason why lot of aspies got crap from teachers and their parents is because they didn't have a medical history from their early childhood so there was no explanation for their behavior, plus aspies develope normally except for in social skills and emotions so they seem normal but come off as odd but today the youngsters are lucky they are being diagnosed early as age three because AS is more known than it was ten years ago. Even kids are lucky they are being diagnosed young like at age six or at age five or at age seven.


I only got crap from kids growing up and from some staff but not the same crap the other aspies got.

Spokane Girl... I think that the biggest difference between older Aspies and younger ones is that the diagnosis didn't exist when I was little. In fact, most learning disabilities were not really recognized. The most popular way of dealing with academic issues was to stick ALL of the slower kids into one class that moved at a slower pace. This was a nice gesture, but no one ever was "behind" for the same reasons so it didn't really work all that well. I can't recall anyone ever being promoted to a higher level once they were "tracked" into the slow program. I think a lot of these teachers were probably just as frustrated as us kids were because simply moving slower didn't help much. As much as I would like to blame the teacher who said this to me; I tend to think that we were all victims of ignorance. Information and understanding about learning disabilities and ASD's has really come a long way, I think. You are right!! You are lucky to have been "discovered". Things may not always be easy for you, but at least you will be able to preserve your self esteem. That is a HUGE deal!

I was stuck in a class with ret*d and autistic kids when I was 6 and 7 because they were still doing it then. My bf was also in that kind of class. He told me when we met he was too stupid for regular ed but too smart for special ed so he was like in between. There was no between ed.

The problem with sticking all the kids with disabilities in one class is it causes more problems because they all pick up one each other's behavior. Stick all the autistic kids in one class, they will act more autistic. Stick all the ret*d kids in one class, they have more problems and act more ret*d. Stick kids with behavior disorders in one class, they have more behavior problems. Another part is, all of them have special needs so they will each have different rules so it's confusing for the kids because they don't know what the rules are thin.
I can remember my teacher having to tell us students not to do what (insert name here) does. I thought that person gets to do it because he is (insert name here). My mom told me it was all BS by giving each kids their own rules and letting them do things and said the teacher was lazy. It was okay for one boy to run in class with his pants pulled down but not okay for the rest of the class. Ironically, when he wouldn't come back to class after recess, he get punished but not punished when he run in the class with his pants down after using the bathroom. The teacher would just tell him "No" and there was never a punishment for him.
There was an autistic boy who was allowed to say numbers out loud when we get to the number 9. We be counting and he go "29, 30" and then shout out again "39, 40" but the teacher allowed him to do it but not the rest of us. He was even allowed his own basketball and he didn't even need to share it while all the other kids had to share balls and didn't get their own.

That was the problem with sticking kids with disabilities in one class. I acted more weird at school but more normal at home because I knew the difference between school behavior and home behavior. Sometimes I would accidently bring home school behavior. I have even brought home behavior to school and then learned they didn't allow X at school such as snowballs, putting bark dust down the slide, twisting on the swings.

I couldn't tie my shoes until I was 9 too! My mind just can't tie the shoes with the one loop, and I have to do it the two loop way. It doesn't mean that I'm ret*d though, and I think that you're using a bit of an extreme word to describe your problems.

I couldn't help it laughing at the name of your topic!! ! Of course I don't! Do you?
Personally none of those things make you ret*d. I have actually done that same thing with a cop before. You act like you're doing nothing wrong and you won't get pulled over, why should you automatically assume they are following you? what if you're wrong and then they pull you over just because you pulled over. Furthermore why should you block traffic and stop in the middle of the lane! Someone could hit your car and it would be the cop's fault!
Being insecure about your body doesn't make you ret*d, plenty of people are insecure about their bodies.
some people take awhile to learn to stand up for themselves, that doesn't make you ret*d.
Sometimes things keep you from learning as early as others learn, for example if your mom shelters you it can cause delays in learning.
Don't worry, you aren't ret*d!! ! And neither am I!! !
lol!! !

Hey OP I'm just like you. I dont know a lot of stuff that people say i should have known. I didnt know what crabs was until I was 16. I didnt know what an OG was until I was 16. Until I was 15, i thought the term "sleeping with someone" meant to literally get into the bed with them and fall asleep. (i was told that if i sleep with my family memebers like sisters, cousins, and so forth, my children would come out ret*d) which is probably true, but I took it too literally. I was afraid to get into the smae bed as my cousin when I was 15 because I thought it would magically defect my sperm somehow, and when If i have sex with a woman, my kids would be ret*d. But no, it means if you have sex with your cousin, then her baby will possibly have some metal defect. I was embarrassed when they found out my interpretation of sleeping with someone.

so dont worry about it. i used to lierally beat myself up over it. i mean, i would hit myself in the face and cry and have a meltdown. but now I dont care if i dont know what stuff is. and I have also barely learned some new stuff, and there is probably more out there to learn

I also used to take sleeping with someone literally. When I hear on TV "You slept with him" I slept with her" and hearing kids saying in my school they slept with their boyfriends, I thought they meant they slept in the same bed. But my mother told me when people say that, they mean they had sex. The whole time I was saying I slept with my brothers when I was little, I sometimes sleep with my dad or with my mom. Just imagine what images went on through their heads.

Don't feel bad. I didn't know what poon tang was until I was like 18.

I never wonder this.