Age of self-awareness.

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As a mother of an 8 year old boy recently diagnosed with Aspergers - I am curious - at what age did people who believe themselves to be Aspie, become self-aware that they were different than NT's? Did you notice a difference in yourself as a child?

I recognized I was different from other children around the age of 2. However I should caution that even most people with AS do not seem to have had the level of consciousness I had as a very young child. My ability to remember such a young stems from the fact that my "special interest" was how far back I could remember.

Its my guess that after kindergarten ends, somewhere around 1st 2nd, and 3rd grade its going to show.

I have always felt different and have known it too, and not in the sense that "everybody is different" no its definitely not that.

For me it was 2nd grade.when the bullies came and such.

I must have been around three years old. kindergarten, my mother being pregnant with my baby brother (He is from april 1990).
I noticed in kindergarten that I was different from the some children and they did too .
I got along with some better then most others.

I got diagnosed at around seven (Classic Autism) and again around sixteen (PDD-NOS).
I was unaware of my diagnosis till my second one, my parents done this to prevent me going hypocondriac about it - I am glad they did.

Before and after my awareness of the diagnosis nothing changed but my perception, I am still me - I just know more about me, making me more aware I am not alone in me being me.

In one sense, I think I understood this even further back than I can remember. At the age of five, a cat was the first creature I recognised as an independent, intelligent being - and I instinctively understood that animals were trapped, trying to live in a world they did not make and could not understand. I won't say I consciously thought about this very much that early, but the instinctive understanding was there. And as I grew, and read about groups who were singled out and persecuted, I instinctively identified with them. That is one of the reasons one of my early special interests - an interest which has only grown over the years - was the Holocaust. This was long before I understood I represented one group the Nazis would have sought to eradicate (as "defective") and possibly a second (the AS).

On the other hand, my results might be skewed a bit. In addition to the AS (which I only figured out this past September) I was born with ocular albinism - crossed eyes and very poor eyesight. So I was set apart by that as well. But the understanding of animals seems to me more rooted in my neurological differences. So I am sure my eyes had some impact on my understanding, but I also think I would have developed a similar understanding relatively early in any case.

I'll echo what PPs have said. I recognized it once the other kids started to react to me accordingly.

I always knew I was different, and my parents and rest of the family often pointed out, I reached most milestones of childhood very early and parents never got tired of telling me how bright I was, my dad even helped me pursue my special interests (even though we didn't know that at the time). So, I always knew I was kind of different.

However, at maybe 5th grade, fully understood what this meant when we had a sex-ed class and everyone was so excited about and I was just annoyed they had cancelled a math class for this. I mentioned it to my mum back at home and even she wanted to know all about the class and just wouldn't believe I was annoyed because a class had been cancelled. At this point I realised I was different to a much greater degree than I had thought.

I became aware of it at 5 when I started school. I was totally shocked the NT children were so calm and never ever got upset about absolutely anything. Ever. However, I thought the NTs were weird and that they probably had some special thing done to them to make them that way that I hadn't had done.

I realized that I was the one who was "weird" at the age of about 9 or 10. I thought, hmmm. every single person I have ran into at school seems to never get upset about anything at all and I am not like that, I get it, I am the one who is different. Not them.

Of course, I didn't know about Asperger's when I was little, so I didn't think I was an aspie, I just thought I was a really weird person for a while there.

I'd always felt like an outsider, but it didn't fully hit me until I was nine and my best friend of four years (and my only real friend until that point) moved away.

six years old. I think i was in a play or assembly or something at the time. I was really not happy about something so i started shoving tissue into my mouth (to try and choke presumably). Up until that point everything was fine

Really only noticed I was different when others started reacting to me accordingly (as others have said.)

Probably about the time I went into year 2 at a new school, although I always had more intellectual curiosity then the others, and spent an unusual amount of time talking to the teacher.

I recognized that I was different when I was about eight, but I didn't try to cover it up until I was 13.

I conciously realised I was "different" at the age of 4. While at school all the other kids played inside, laughed and had fun. but I sat outside upon the playground staring aimlessly at the main road watching the traffic roll by. It was at that time I had an apiffiny and truly noticed that I was "different".

I always knew I was different from others. I mean, very different, not just the usual everybody seems to think they are different or unique. I had troubles throughout my entire life with getting involved socially, understanding what people wanted to say.

When I was 3, a neurologist diagnosed me with autism. My mother refused the diagnostic as I had so many 'normal' traits. So I was raised in a 'normal' way, which put me in troubles a lot. Well, I was a late talker, hated to look people in the eyes ( still do ), and felt an alien all the time.

But hey, I learned to talk, so my mother guessed everything was alright with me, despite of the gardenal I had to take daily because of my melt downs, which made me faint most of the times.

So, I only got diagnosed 1 year ago, when watching my older son ( who's now 5 years old ) and relating with him in every single aspect on my childhood. It's as if I could see my child ages through his struggles. So as we once, randomly got to watch the movie "Marry and Max" we all said BINGO! Me and my wife discussed about it, looked for a psychiatrist and me and my son got the diagnosis.

Like a fellow friend from WP says: "I've been looking for myself for my entire life, I found me in WP".

As an adult aspie, let me add some in-put. I always knew that I was different than others-at least from elementary shool on. Although intellectually advanced I was never permitted to "skip' grades, as was the common practice back in the l960's, and when I asked my parents why, they told me that the school officials had labelled me as "emotionally immature." How can a second grader be "emotionally immature?" I didn't know what that meant, but I knew it meant something bad. becuase I was "left behnd " with my own age group, I became bored and disruptive in classes, and was often sent to the principal's office or made to stand out in the hall. Then the schoolyard bullies saw that I was different and in need of a little atitude adjustment, so they started harassing me, and taunting me, and you know how something like this spreads like wildfire. oon I noticed that, although I was quite good at sports, I was invariably chosen down the line, after those not as capable as I. As a child, I blamed other people for my misfortunes --they were too stupid to appreciate me. As a teenager I began to blame myself for being unable to live a "normal," life, and basically continued to blame myself well into mid-life when I was fiannly diagnosed.

I have yet to understand what is actually neurotypical (or what "neurotypical" actually is).


Yes, see below ...