As A Child... ?

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Describe yourself...your mannerisms, your behaviour, how others today describe you?

Are all aspie children quiet and withdrawn and hateful of hugging and contact, or can the reverse be true?
I am always confused as to whether being quiet, withdrawn and hating touch is a prequisite for an aspie child?

I was, from memory, either all over the place, controlling, questioning, lively and over confident and bossy, and at times thoughtless in what I said, or I was quite, spending time in my room in my own world, ordering the things on my shelves, reading alone in the garden, climbing things, collecting things, wanting to know things, clumsy etc.

According to my mother, I was bossy, controlling but very self confident and I was always hugging people and over affectionate, always asking questions.

I also remember throwing tantrums regularly.

Oddly, as I got older, I have become almost the opposite except for the tendency to be controlling at times and living in my own world.

I am no longer self confident, outgoing and certainly not a huggy or affectionate person.

Are there any others here who started out the opposite as a child to what they are now?

Hi Graelwyn!

I can relate to what you write. First of all, I don't have a formal diagnosis (yet), but I read a lot of books about AS, self-diagnosed, and got my suspicions confirmed by a specialist on ASDs. So, while I'm not in doubt myself, you are allowed to read my writings with a grain of salt or more

Anyway, my behaviors changed completely in my pre-teen years! I went from an extrovert person, teasing everybody, speaking in class all the time, and having lots of self-esteem, to an almost opposite introvert person. Suddenly I stopped being as talkative as before and got very quiet. I can just guess that the change to puberty caused some kind of awareness of others that made me feel subordinate and, consequently, made quietness the most appropriate answer to other people's teasing. In a way, I tried to "stay under the radar", and it worked, at least for some time. I continued to be questioning for some time, especially towards adults, but eventually that behavior "faded out" too.

Now, ten years later, I like to think of myself of "going in the other direction", slowly becoming more "open" and self-confident again, but it's a long process to revert such a change I guess.

Best wishes,
Xanadu

I was quiet, calm, never spoke unless I had to or I got angry, never smiling (couldn't find one single childhood picture of me smiling), introvert, spent all my time playing alone, reading books or cartoons.
Could always find a nice spot where I could be alone, at least until one of the tall people came and led me back to the boring games.
Didn't really understand what playmates were for. Only knew them as those loud annoying kids outside that did strange things and that my parents more or less pushed me out the door to play with.
Never really felt affection for my parents until recent years.
Only saw them as the tall people I was supposed to obey and that I saw the most.

I was an odd child. I didn't share many interests with my peers. My life was skating, that was pretty much all that mattered. I remember always saying odd things, and being picked on for it. Funny enough, what I was picked on for most was "talking like a grown-up". I think my peers found me condescending.

My mother always told me I was cruel and disrespectful - mostly because I didn't understand how to moderate my comments and I just spoke my mind. Cruel just meant refusing her hugs sometimes or telling her that her cigarette breath smelled horrible. Disrespectful meant that I told the truth. For example, when my parents would fight in front of us, then my mother would use us children to air her grievances about our father afterward, I would point out all the things she did wrong in the argument when she was playing innocent party. Not that you should use children for this purpose in the first place, much less expect a comforting response from an AS child.

I've learned to filter a lot of that now, but I'm still known for being brutally honest and just saying what I think.

I was an extremely quiet child. I was never affectionate, did not understand why people needed human contact, friends or some other kind of interaction. People always said I showed no emotion.
I read tons of books and did not see no point in playing with toys. I would always quietly wait for my siblings to be done watching cartoons and would then try to catch some National Geographic or at least the news. I did not have any friends until our teacher literally forced me and an other geeky girl to become friends in 4th grade. She invited me to her house for the week end (she lived in the bush) and I had no idea what we were supposed to do.
I had no social skills whatsoever, said inappropriate things, despised my peers, was constantly lost in my own mind and already knew everything we were being taught in school. If the teacher dared simplifying something for the class, I could not stop myself from getting deeply annoyed but usually unable to say what was on my mind. I would just play it out in my head and hate myself for not being able to speak up.
I had anxiety attacks over incorrect French grammar (and I'm an anglophone, so that's saying a lot).
I was, however, quite the comedian if I was around people I knew well. Yet, then again, I don't think anyone actually got my jokes, they usually referenced science or something and were very cynical.
Overall, I think I was very much the standard aspie child.
It feels so good to be able to say I was a standard anything!

I was generally always quiet, and my teachers in my first year of elementary school told my parents I would never be able to read Turns out I just had a different learning style. Thats pretty much all I know.

I guess I was pretty calm as a child. Wouldn't sat quiet but definitely not loud or anything. Always was described as being very stubborn. I had friends I guess, nobody I ever socialized with outside of school or anything. I kind of just did my own thing.

I have videos of myself from when I was a baby, a toddler and any age under 7 basically.

My behavior as a baby used to be very focused. I would focus a lot on one thing, for example I would go from an intense focus on a remote control to another intense focus on a square block (as I have seen on the video). I was very quiet, not so much in actions, but in words. I never used to talk alot, but used to move around a lot. My Mother told me that I was very fussy how my bed was made at the age of 1 and a half. If it wasn't made the way I like it I would throw a tantrum which included screaming and banging my hands on the ground.

As a toddler of about three years old, I was really talkative and used to never stop talking, completely the opposite from when I was two years old (hardly ever talking). I could name just about every flower in Mothers garden and the main parts of a tractor (I used to live on a farm at that age). I was very resistant to join in with other peoples games at play centre. Always walking around by myself looking at rocks and the flowers there. But at home as I said, was really outgoing. At that age I was hand-flapping, but stopped about at the age of four or slightly older.

Primary School years I was isolated. I was introverted and a "play by the rules" type of person. I liked rules at that stage and wanted to follow them at school. Therefore I hardly ever got into trouble. I made "superficial aquaintances" at around the age of 8. I would invite people to help me build my lego structures, but if they didn't do it right then I would not want them to play anymore. The rest of my primary school years I was by myself again. I had a lot of food texture problems back then.

I remember...I used to love school
was shy, but outgoing enough-and knew a lot about things I loved
(namely math) they really liked me and payed a lot of attention to me
I was they're little acheiver...then the world crushed my spirit
by 3rd grade I was harrased so much I just lost interest in school...
my parents never warmed back up to me like they had...
my dad will occationally still bring up "ohhh if you were obsessed with school..." like I get to choose my obsessions or its my fault they're there...
I don't like remembering my younger years
I am ashamed how I ahve turned out and wished I was normal and good at something useful
I am just some useless f*****g loner with a disorder

According to my mom, when I was a baby I passed a lot of time watching nothing, my eyes were lost in the void, and my mom thought maybe I was blind. She said I only tolerated hugs and kisses from her and my dad, and every time my aunts tried to hug me I was in "hedgehog position", and when they kissed me I inmediately rubbed my cheeks with my hands in order to clean the kissed zone . I loved throwing and crashing objects (toys, plushies, dolls, cars, and other objects) and bouncing on the bed.

I had some language problems when I began to talk, one of them was echolalia, I used "you" instead of "I"

Also, my mom says when my sister Alex born (I was 20 months old), it seemed like I hadn't noticed there was a new baby in the family. I wasn't interested in touching or hugging her, as a normal kid does. I only watched her for a few seconds, next I followed my mom and asked her questions about everything except my baby sister. Some months passed and I told my mom "I don't want a sister, can we change her for a boy?" I'm not sure why I wanted a brother instead of a sister.

I had a notebook, and my mom used to draw things for me. When someone visited us, I showed me my notebook and ask the person for a drawing. That was my first collection: visitors' drawings.

I didn't want to go to kindergarten, my mom gave me a lot of reasons for attending kindergarten and I had a smart answer for everyone of them. My parents promissed me I would have had a videogame if I attend to classes, they bought me a NES . I knew to read the clock, and learnt to read before my kindergarten classmates did it.

I was bossy with my sister, I always tried to control the toys, first I chose the best toys, and the old and worst toys are for my sister.

There are a lot of aspie traits I didn't write, but I don't wanna bore you, so that's all for now

Lets see...I was born a month late, but I weighed only 5 lbs. I was also a forceps baby.

As a little kid, I was very artisticly inclined and loved to play on the organ and I sang alot, but I also sorta ran wild. I went all over the neighborhood unsupervised before I started kindergarten. Some bad stuff happened to me here and there because I wasn't always being watched.I was sorta in my own little world, where I couldn't relate to the other kids, but I really really tried. I was very niaeve and I got made fun of alot and there was alot that went completely over my head, but that was to be expected because I was just a little kid. Older kids often liked to trick me. I was definitely not a boy...but the girls were so different from me....they had more rules and um...dressed/ looked like girls...They were sorta exotic and mysterious....and the parents of the neighborhood girls sorta didn't like having me around because I was so unruly I guess...and didn't understand boundaries...I would invite myself over for dinner and stuff like that and not understand why the parents seemed to get mad.

I spent alot of time at various day care centers, and had issues with not fitting in that were sometimes reenforced by the teachers who were often weird or even abusive towards me because I was different...

Alot of people who didn't know me thought I was a boy...and this was sorta reinforced by my folks kinda dressing me that way...which I didn't mind...Dresses were like costumes to me
..and i did play pretend games by myself...and frequently would go around "In character" and often the characters i would pretend to be were male...(but I wasn't pretending I really was those characters..Mowgli or (especially Pinnochio)

When I entered kindergarten, I was smaller than the other kids and would suffer dizzy spells from forgetting to eat, and I was also student most likely to wet their pants in class. I was always landing in "time out" with the boys. Had trouble following instructions...and had a tendancy to repeat the same assignment over and over again without realising it..(colorig sheets) That was the year of mysterious out-of-class testing and multiple hearing tests. I would also do stuff, like wear my tap shoes to school, or carry big heavy books with me because I saw students carrying books on tv.

Things rapidly went downhill for me in the education department when I was in first grade.
I went to a new school where the teacher was verbally abusive....and every day was a nightmare...I have talked about her in other posts....I was seriously picked on all though school by boys and girls, and spent alot of time reading by myself outside of school. I had a few friends for a while, but they were just as likely to turn on me and i was very tactless and disliked by parents and kids alike.

My first time in fourth grade I went to another new school and had a nervous breakdown and placed back in third grade. The principal commented that I was immature for my age, but that's all I can recall....by then I had developed a pretty serious weight problem...Pictures of me show a chubby kid with a very bad haircut, ugly glasses and dark circles under my eyes. My main refuges were books and food. I call that part of my life "the dark ages"....I was constantly having my doodle notebooks confiscated from me and was constantly going home from school sick....My self esteem hit rock bottom, and I really felt like there was something wrong with me, but didn't know what it was. I longed to go to a special school with kids who were more like me.

Things gradually improved when I hit adolescence

sorry for the long post.

Quiet, aloof, focused and I was really, really and really attached to my mother. O yeah, I really, really and really liked watching sci-fi -- I'd sit and watch Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars and stuff over and over again all day long.

This was before 5, I haven't really changed much since I was 4-5.

My parents said I was very isolated. Not so much from them, and others I knew, but often showed no desire to socialize with others. Tho by about age 6-7 I did begin making some friends when i never really had any before, mostly because if I can recall correctly I never tryed. I was smart they said, but had a difficult time picking up language, tying shoes, learning lifeskills ect...

I was good with math, sounds pretty generic, I was first to learn to count $$, first to learn how to tell time, dates ect. Writing and stuff like that was a different story.

I started making friends around the neghboorhood and at school. Even being invited over for b-day parties and to chill. Well... it never went well, I ended up getting into a fight with a kid 2 doors down at his b-day, and pushed him several times, it happened 19 years ago, and to this day I feel horrible about it, and think about it on occasion, along with other events. I was seen by parents as weird and a bad influence, and after about 7-8 the kids around the block no longer could come out and play. that was good enough, I had my own thing I could do which consisted of turning on the nozzel to my neghboors or my house and letting the water come out, filling a bucket and dumping it by the side of the road to watch it flow, i liked the drains and stuff, so i did that alot.

I loved being outside and would swing by myself, or even quietly isolate myself in the courner of the yard, go for walks in the woods, and as I got older I talked WAYYYY to much.

Now ive gone kinda the opposite, i think we all have very similar stories for the most part, its funny how things go the opposite as u grow up... I wonder if a study hasd been done>?