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Memory. Can Aspies remember earlier in life?

How early in life do you remember?

  • Birth

    Votes: 4 7.3%

  • 2-3 years old

    Votes: 33 60.0%

  • later than three years

    Votes: 18 32.7%
  • Total voters
    55
SusanLR

SusanLR

Curiosity's Cat
V.I.P Member
I've read articles that some people can remember all the way back to birth.
Science tells us our brains don't have that capacity and anything before three years old would be almost impossible. That is the age most people I've talked with say also. No earlier than 3 or 4 yrs. really.
I can remember vividly things that do go back to my birth. First memory: Laying on my back scratching my face with my hands in incubator. They put extra long sleeves on me in the hospital and tied the ends so I couldn't scratch at my face. I remember being on the hospital bed with my Mom when she got up to go to the bathroom and the nurse telling her never leave a newborn unattended like that, not even to go to the bathroom. I remember the nurse putting me and Mom into the car to go home. A couple they knew, came to pick us up. Dad was in the back seat. Me and Mom sat up front with Charlie, the driver. His wife and Dad in the back seat. Charlie reached for me and handed me over the seat to Dad and said "Here, want to hold your baby girl?" Back then, Fathers weren't allowed to hold the babies until they left the hospital. We went home and Dad didn't have the crib assembled. Mom was mad. He said we can make her a bed in a drawer of the chest of drawers! And I could draw the layout of the house I was brought home to even now even though I only lived there until I was four and where every piece of furniture was.

My psychologist says she believes it's possible for Aspies and those on the spectrum to remember that far back because we think in pictures. But, what if you were born thinking in words? This may be a savant issue. I was so disgusted as a baby being able to think in English, but, not able to speak in the baby body yet. When I did learn to talk, I had selective mutism but no learning problems. All of these memories I later asked Mom about and she confirms them true. There are many more unique experiences.
I could write a book on this.

Anyone else here have this experience? Or a Savant type oddity that science can't explain?
 
I can remember as far back as when we lived at 16 Cherry Tree Walk in Chapeltown, Sheffield, because I can remember driving a small red toy car when I was about 2 back in '78, that's when we moved to Walkley, Sheffield.

Back then the area of Walkley was respectable, full of Pensioners, young Families, and students, and it kind of still is.

Some people would point out that some parts of Sheffield are full of Chavs, but they're mostly wrong.
 
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3 upwards. I have no memory as a baby and if it were not for a photograph of me as a baby, I could easily believe I was not a baby lol

I only know I was around 3, because I was 7 when we moved and I started a school for those who are considered stupid. So, I had to have been 3 with many memories from the hold place we lived.

My most vivid memories, is when I got so sick, I could not cope with white. I would hide myself, because the walls were white and would cry and be sick, but could not explain to anyone, so I did suffer. Another time, was in a party dress and it was my birthday and many from my nursery were there, but I knew none of them and someone else had to blow my candles out, because I was too shy to do it myself.

Another, was when I punched a hole in a door. I have no recognection of what it was that caused such rage, I just knew I was white hot with anger and father refused to speak to me for several months. All this happened in the "old house" and so, I was very very very young.
 
I can remember a few snippets from around 4/5. Mainly knocking a front tooth out at 4 in nursery and a few small bits of reception in primary school at 5.
 
I can remember back to a point before I could sit up on my own. I was having my picture taken, though I didn't understand that at the time. I recall being propped up by these humongous hands and being caught as I tipped over. The owner of the hands (who I mistook for my grandfather) appeared a giant blur. A bright light then emanated from beside his head. I rather liked bright lights and would stare at light bulbs at that age (how times change) so that, combined with the experience of sitting up, made for a rather novel and memorable experience.

I can also recall having my diaper changed, escaping from my crib, waiting for my mom to come home, and many other instances going back to infancy. My memories aren't as clear as Susan's though. I find it rather impressive that you can even recall what people said going back to the day you were born.
 
My oldest memories are from when I was about 7 actually. I'm always surprised when people say they can remember being a toddler. My memory as a whole isn't that great though so that might be part of it.
 
My brain can't seem to decide.

There are some things that happened ten years ago that I could tell you the exact details, time, and place of. But sometimes, I couldn't tell you what happened five seconds ag... wait, what was I saying again?

But, in all seriousness, I wonder if that's a trait of being on the Spectrum or just another thing that makes me unique.
 
First real memory is 18 months. I remember standing in my crib, rolling a chain around in my mouth, and thinking it had a texture like hamburger. Took this too far and swallowed it :)

My mother -- got it back -- and confirms my age.

I am astonished at how little some folks remember. One of the things that early on in my research kind of confirmed my Aspieness was a post by a college student who remembered how his friend liked their hamburger from months previous. So when sent to get a hamburger, he made sure it was the way his friend liked it. I do that kind of thing all the time.

The sad part is how the friend got suspicious and upset! Gee, way to not get it, not-that-much-of-a-friend.
 
I have one specific memory from when I was max 2 years old. I have other memories which I think are from early on too, but I can't be sure about those in terms of when they happened. But definitely that one memory.
But nothing as far back as birth.
 
Spotty01 said:
My brain can't seem to decide.

There are some things that happened ten years ago that I could tell you the exact details, time, and place of. But sometimes, I couldn't tell you what happened five seconds ag... wait, what was I saying again?

But, in all seriousness, I wonder if that's a trait of being on the Spectrum or just another thing that makes me unique.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is a trait. I know of a chap who was diagnosed with aspergers as a child and his mother said to me that someone would phone, but he could not remember at all what the person said. But can remember the longer the time goes on.

I am not officially diagnosed, but I am that way too. I have a very long memory, but a terrible short term one.
 
SusanLR said:
I've read articles that some people can remember all the way back to birth.
Science tells us our brains don't have that capacity and anything before three years old would be almost impossible. That is the age most people I've talked with say also. No earlier than 3 or 4 yrs. really.
I can remember vividly things that do go back to my birth. First memory: Laying on my back scratching my face with my hands in incubator. They put extra long sleeves on me in the hospital and tied the ends so I couldn't scratch at my face. I remember being on the hospital bed with my Mom when she got up to go to the bathroom and the nurse telling her never leave a newborn unattended like that, not even to go to the bathroom. I remember the nurse putting me and Mom into the car to go home. A couple they knew, came to pick us up. Dad was in the back seat. Me and Mom sat up front with Charlie, the driver. His wife and Dad in the back seat. Charlie reached for me and handed me over the seat to Dad and said "Here, want to hold your baby girl?" Back then, Fathers weren't allowed to hold the babies until they left the hospital. We went home and Dad didn't have the crib assembled. Mom was mad. He said we can make her a bed in a drawer of the chest of drawers! And I could draw the layout of the house I was brought home to even now even though I only lived there until I was four and where every piece of furniture was.

My psychologist says she believes it's possible for Aspies and those on the spectrum to remember that far back because we think in pictures. But, what if you were born thinking in words? This may be a savant issue. I was so disgusted as a baby being able to think in English, but, not able to speak in the baby body yet. When I did learn to talk, I had selective mutism but no learning problems. All of these memories I later asked Mom about and she confirms them true. There are many more unique experiences.
I could write a book on this.

Anyone else here have this experience? Or a Savant type oddity that science can't explain?
Click to expand...
How can you understand english since birth? Language is a learned thing so it would be impossible for you to understand it in the first few days you were born...
 
I can remember looking up and seeing walls with rainbow and cloud wallpaper, and can remember red and white furniture, my Mum said I had those things in my room before the age of one, so can remember snippets from that long ago.

Ask me what I had for lunch yesterday and I probably couldn't tell you lol. I have an awful short term memory.
 
Around three. When my family left the US bound for Guam on a ship. I remember the port terminal along the water in San Francisco because I was terrified of these huge machines all around me that seemed like ten stories tall. LOL....they were just busses delivering people.

Aboard ship my mother usually had me by a tether for good reason. At least it wasn't a muzzle!
 
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Let's see...

Childhood memories in general? I remember very little

Five minutes ago? A little spotty unless it was something to do with facts/trivia

Ten years ago? Excellent recall! I can point to a photo I took 10 years ago and remember specific details of the encounter with the person (street photography), maybe not all the photos but many of them. I can also remember certain articles and/or books I read years ago, I remember the facts, but of course can't remember what the publication was.
 
I can't remember my birth, but I have a few snapshots around the time of my second birthday. One I reach three, there's so many memories, way more than there probably are for most people.
 
I can remember when I was 4 or 5 years old, nothing younger. I do remember a lot of events as a small child. At my age, my long term memory is good. Short term memory is something different all together. I am always going from a job, out to my truck to get something, only to forget what I was going to get.
 
I have a good long-term memory and a bad short-term memory. I tend to forget things that have been said to me recently from time to time, yet some people from my childhood have been amazed as to how I remembered their names and which classes we had together in school. I'm also good at remembering birth dates and phone numbers, or at least portions of phone numbers.

I only remember some specific baby/toddler flashbacks. I remember lying in a crib surrounded by a swarm of mosquitoes; my parents think that's how my irrational fear of bugs came into existence. I also remember running around and peeling off wallpaper during my toddler years, I think I was 2 or 3. I also remember riding horse carriages and taking sled rides, as well as seeing tigers at the zoo; not sure why I remember just the tigers and no other animals. I also remember looking at dandelions and seeing a distant forklift (I was a toddler so I wasn't sure what the machine was yet).

Now at 5 years and older I can pretty much recall everything, unless I've forgotten about it - in which case a reminder of some sort would jolt it right back into memory. I remember constantly being afraid of bugs and dogs, and being extremely fascinated with streetlights, sprinklers and construction sites (I wonder if that forklift somehow sparked this interest).
 
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