Childhood quirks.

[Voltaic]

when i first heard my dignosis two years ago, i didnt agree with it. i have done research in the past to try and disgnose myself with something, to give rhyme and reason to why school life was so horrid. autism was suspected, but i couldnt line anything up.

soon, like my childhood, i started to line things up.

the memories had to be interpreted, and with so many to choose from, i didnt see anything right off the bat. first thing i remembered that linked up to me being autistic where trains. lining up wooden toy tracks, listening to the locomotives pass by, and even memorising all of The Polar Express.

after two years of sitting on this diagnosis, the memorise that link me are now plentiful. there are those media portrayed stereotype autistic kids, but i am more interested in the real stories.

what are you autistic childhood quirks?

 

[Mia]

Don't know if I'd call them quirks, behaviors maybe?

Had dolls, but played with them differently than others. Set them up in diorama's (Thanks Tree for the new word), posed, usually outside, in clothing made from grass and leaves and mud. Ready for adventures, would leave the dolls and go on the adventures.

By the time I was nine or ten I had identified most of the local wild plants in the area I lived in, and dried and mounted them in scrapbooks.

I could read and write before kindergarten, and carried around a large dictionary. I may have taught myself to read and write, or emulated what my older siblings were doing.

Collected rocks, wood, bark that fell off trees, lichen, and things I dug up like old bottles. I still collect the same things as I did back then, I'll just a little more choosy as to what I bring home.

 

[Sabrina]

The way I used to control-freakishy eat (foods not touching or in different plates, or in order, never mixing, always simple food).

The need to hide or look for a solitary place during recess (not always, but very often). You could see me a lot in the school’s chapel, not because I was praying, but because I longed to be in peace and alone. I used to also hide in bathrooms a lot, to read during recesses or at parties.

The way I used to be the boss with my neighbor friends who were younger than me, but struggled with girls my age.
The fact that I read whole books at seven, while my peers started at 9 or 10, and then at 12 reading grown up books.

The fact that everybody would point out that I lived in the clouds, or that I was too good (an euphemism for innocent).

I also loved nature, hiking, camping and being a girl scout. I loved the fact that I could be free out there, no one asking me to put on make up or stuff like that.

BTW The Polar Express is awesome.

I used to watch The Goonies over and over, and The Never Ending Story was my favorite movie. I identified (still do) with Bastian and Atreyu, because it was like having two lives, the “real” one and the one that went on in my mind.

 

[Thinx]

Yes solitary adventuring from early age on my bike. Making up stories about myself as someone else, I still do that, just in my head not written. Collecting things. I had a bag of Important Items under my pillow, it became uncomfortable. I used to put some of my sweets on each of my parents bedside tables often, thinking they'd be pleased to have them. I mentally classified the children in my class accoraccoaccording to popularity aput myself second from the bottom.

 

[SusanLR]

Collecting rocks, dried leaves, all the bird feathers I could find because I had a fantasy I would build wings and fly.

Not social with other kids. Liked to walk and explore in the woods. Talk with the animals. Sing alone when walking.
When I was a toddler I had an obsession with my plastic record player and a box of 45 RPMs. It only played one at a time but I sit on the floor with it and played the records
over and over. Had a box full of those plastic fillers to make them fit on the skinny spindle of the player.
The original 'spinner'! Held them between thumb and forefinger and spun them.

Very picky with food. Had a special three section plate to
keep food from touching, MY special cup, and MY special spoon. Lots of strange things like that.

 

[Bolletje]

I was a very precocious child, speaking at a very early age and reading well beyond my age. I liked using big words, and when I had to write essays for school, my classmates would usually tease me over my pompous language (which I didn’t realize at the time)
I read encyclopedias and dictionaries for fun.

I collected rocks and fossils, and memorized dinosaur facts. I memorized the wildlife guide to animals, trees, shrubs and flowers in Europe so I’d point out everything I recognized and knew which plants were edible.
I had a very vivid fantasy and, when playing with other kids, got quite upset if they didn’t play along “right”. I would get upset at anachronisms, or at alterations to my story. I loved playing Neanderthal or pretending to be Greek gods, or pretending to be birds and spending all day building a nest.

There’s also this one time when I was a toddler and decided to cut the grass with my little plastic safety scissors. Spent hours happily cutting away, trying to make sure the grass was level.

 

[Progster]

Some of my childhood autistic traits are:

Refusing to hold my parents' hand to cross the road.
Aloofness: lack of affction, such as hugging.
Prefered to play alone, rarely played with other kids.
Didn't have friends until I was in middle school.
Collecting rocks (not sure if this is really an autistic trait, though)
Refused to wear certain clothes (dresses with elastic).
Unusual fixations, for example with Sellotape, with music, later with dogs, then with astronomy and space, then with language learning.
Tomboy (not exclusively an autistic trait, but often associated with autism in girls).
Lining up soft toys.
Fussy about how bed was made, needing it to be really tight round me.
Not using toys for the purpose they were intended.
Curious, investigative, asking why, experimenting, examining (not in itself an autistic trait, but often associated with Asperger's)
Frustration meltdowns.
Not liking being touched.
Terrified by loud sounds.
Large vocabulary at early age, was more like an adult than a child.
Reading at early age.
Difficulty interpreting other's intentions.
Difficulty understanding and reacting to humour. Not coping with teasing/banter. Sometimes too 'silly', at other times too serious and not 'fun'.
Difficulty controling emotions.
Issues aroung food/eating: insistence on eating at the same time every day, very stressed if meal is late.
Needing alone time after school: shutting myself in the bathroom for about an hour every day.
Not wanting to share things, for example: won a prize in an art contest, but didn't tell anyone, not even parents.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

I read encyclopedias and dictionaries for fun

At a xmas party once.... I won an argument about word orders..

I said its EUPHUISTIC next and recited the meaning (sort of high faluting language, i think)
But I used to love reading tje dictionary, a whole history in each word.

Btw - aardvark is not in samuel Johnson's dictionary, I looked (obscure british comedy reference to test you)

There’s also this one time when I was a toddler and decided to cut the grass with my little plastic safety scissors. Spent hours happily cutting away, trying to make sure the grass was level.

Don't know why I quoted that. I just like it.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Some of my childhood autistic traits are:

Refusing to hold my parents' hand to cross the road.
Aloofness: lack of affction, such as hugging.
Prefered to play alone, rarely played with other kids.
Didn't have friends until I was in middle school.
Collecting rocks (not sure if this is really an autistic trait, though)
Refused to wear certain clothes (dresses with elastic).
Unusual fixations, for example with Sellotape, with music, later with dogs, then with astronomy and space, then with language learning.
Tomboy (not exclusively an autistic trait, but often associated with autism in girls).
Lining up soft toys.
Fussy about how bed was made, needing it to be really tight round me.
Not using toys for the purpose they were intended.
Curious, investigative, asking why, experimenting, examining (not in itself an autistic trait, but often associated with Asperger's)
Frustration meltdowns.
Not liking being touched.
Terrified by loud sounds.
Large vocabulary at early age, was more like an adult than a child.
Reading at early age.
Difficulty interpreting other's intentions.
Difficulty understanding and reacting to humour. Not coping with teasing/banter. Sometimes too 'silly', at other times too serious and not 'fun'.
Difficulty controling emotions.
Issues aroung food/eating: insistence on eating at the same time every day, very stressed if meal is late.
Needing alone time after school: shutting myself in the bathroom for about an hour every day.
Not wanting to share things, for example: won a prize in an art contest, but didn't tell anyone, not even parents.

Very similar apart from not being a tomboy.

Ugh I'm similar to you.

 

[Progster]

Very similar apart from not being a tomboy.

Ugh I'm similar to you.

Not sure how to interpret the 'ugh' in that statement

 

[Major Tom]

Mine had to do primarily with nature, I'd collect rocks, feathers, cool looking sticks, beetles, butterflies, lizards, frogs and learned about all the wild plants in my area. Shall I go on?

Also, I had a very hard time in noisy places, wet the bed until a late age, had a very hard time socially, never liked to be the center of attention, got into fights,(sometimes very physical and usually to protect the few friends I did have).
I also had a very hard time with school.

 

[Bolletje]

Mine had to do primarily with nature, I'd collect rocks, feathers, cool looking sticks, beetles, butterflies, lizards, frogs and learned about all the wild plants in my area. Shall I go on?

Ah yes, collecting beetles! I had a few “pets” in matchboxes and shoeboxes, lined up on a shelf in my bedroom, different types of bugs and snails. My mom wasn’t too fond of that. I also didn’t quite understand why they didn’t want to stay put, or why some didn’t survive (I gave them all a leaf as food)

 

[Lia]

I would line up my toys too.
I also sort of "became" my favourite characters. I would talk and move like them, and since most of my favourite characters were from animated movies, I acted quite strange.
Oh, and I had an obsession with daydreaming, and would hide from the other kids at school so I could daydream in peace (usually about me being part of my favourite stories).
This may be very common for kids to do though, and not autistic quirks at all.

 

[Suzanne]

I was told when I was about 3 or so, that my poor grandpa had to untie all his shoes that I had tied together in a row. I actually have no memory of it, but my gran told me and I was like: no way, but we had a giggle.

In truth, I do not think I had any particular autistic quirks. I loved playing with my dolly's but got bored after changing their clothes and so, would think of excuses to change them lol

I hated the barbie doll and felt sorry for cindy doll and so, would go out of my way to make sure that barbie knew who's side I was on.

Never really into teddy bears.

 

[LucyPurrs]

Does imagining that you are riding a black stallion everywhere count?

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Does imagining that you are riding a black stallion everywhere count?

I'm not black.

 

[Judge]

Playing all by myself for hours on end. Something my parents consistently found to be disturbing. And "stilted" walking, for which some kids mercilessly made fun of me.

 

[Nervous Rex]

Compulsively reading everything. I don't remember learning to read - my mother says I taught myself to read by age 4. But all the way through school, if there was anything with any text on it, I had to read it. Cereal boxes, soup can labels, junk mail, my siblings textbooks, anything. It didn't matter what else was going on, who was talking about what - if there was something printed, I ignored everything else to read it. I was aware of it, but couldn't change my behavior.

Counting things. I wasn't aware of how much I did it until one time my mother commented, "Rex must be bored. He's counting things again." I was in college at the time.

 

[Gracey]

I’m not sure if I had ‘quirks’
I just did stuff.
I had no sense of how I was supposed to be conducting myself.
Me and my imagination enjoyed our adventures.

 

[Gracey]

Does imagining that you are riding a black stallion everywhere count?

Were you riding Black Beauty by any chance Lucy?

Couldn’t get that theme tune out of my head at one stage of my younger years