Quick List of My Undetected Autistic Quirks as a Child.

Looking back and going, “OOOoooohhhh….”

I wanted to make this article easy to read and straight to the point. For a more back-story and elaboration, checkout my article here:

Of course this list isn't exhaustive. Just some quirks that are easy to spot in retrospect.

Curious to hear your own experiences and feedback in the comments —

• Meltdowns, often.
• Emotional dysregulation, level 10.
• Sensory sensitivity
• Direct, blunt, and often reprimanded for being too outspoken, or socially inappropriate
• Too emotional, too sensitive, too loud, too dramatic, too intense…

Too Much.

• Controlling
• Intolerant and reactive to unexpected change or simply change NOT on my terms.
• Preferred and thrived in expected routines.
• Passionate about special interests and could spend hours hyper focused
• Mature for my age and often gravitated toward time with adults
• Very early to talk, read, and write/spell
• Advanced performance in reading/writing/comprehension
• Placed in the gifted program
• Offered/Recommended to ‘skip’ a grade (according to my mother)
• Routinely the “Teacher’s Pet”
• Regular stimming: bouncing leg, tipping chairs, side to side sway/rock, cracking knuckles, twirling hair, biting inside cheeks, chewing on inanimate objects, fidgeting with hand-toys, intentionally covering my hands in Elmer’s Glue to peel it off (over and over and over), laying in front of my boom-box on the floor listening to music…swaying with the rhythm (always rhythmic/needing and finding a rhythm), or the mobile-version walkman with those horrible foam headphones (the foam feeling still gives me the willies just thinking back…ugh…I hated the feeling/sensation of that cheap foam), skin feeling/rubbing, SKIN PICKING, finding patterns and rhythms to walking while missing cracks/imperfections on the ground, counting steps, counting eye-blinks, finding the patterns of and counting the tiny holes in the tiled ceiling of my bedroom, scanning the hardwood floor grain for patterns and counting imperfections, lots of pattern finding and counting…
• OCD-like behaviors and traits (more stimming and attempt at self-regulation and control)— although I feel I was very skilled at intentionally hiding these.
• Struggled to make friends upon puberty/middle school (middle school…the worst, most traumatic, bullied, cruel years of my entire childhood)
• Impulsivity/Hyperactivity
• Consistently inappropriate voice levels
• Integrity/Deep seeded principles of moral identity, right and wrong, and a high confrontational tolerance for demanding justice
• Pretend play was always 1st person and centered around directing real-life circumstances (not using toys/props for story-creation outside of myself: barbies, figurines)
• Didn't hold interest in ‘fantasy’ play that wasn't real-life literal — couldn't identify with dragons and goblins, exaggerated or intense-action in movies or books (jumping from a 2 story building and not breaking a bone or getting hurt)— instead preferred — playing (and directing) house, a career focused pretend play like doctor, veterinarian, teacher, or playing a real-life-character. (I still can't…)
• Preference to puzzle-type/brain teasing play versus general toys. Rubix cube, handheld thumb-play challenge games, jax, adult cardboard puzzles, pattern seeking play (matching and memory games, I-Spy and Where's Waldo books), memory challenge games like Simon
• Enjoyed test-taking. Craved the stimulation and challenge (and probably the praise for doing so well at it). Very competitive with myself. I got so pumped for those timed math sheets with quick addition/subtraction/multiplication/division problems.
• Major sleep issues, including nightmares/terrors, talking, yelling/screaming, movements
• Sleep walking (extreme/sometimes dangerous)
• Odd preoccupation/fixation with mimicking others
• Talking in intentional accents
• Facial expressions were very animated and over the top, or stoic/unaffected
• Very theatrical when communicating and a need for using my body to express myself more thoroughly
• Struggling with language to explain a situation — would often need to reenact a circumstance to show what happened.
• The need to re-impress pain or a feeling on others so they would understand (hitting them in the head with the same force as I was hit in the head with — not realizing that actually caused hurt to someone, and wasn't necessary)
• Strength and force used often was inappropriate (but impressive…)
• Having a strong empathy and connection to animals/creatures, as well as inanimate objects (possessions, toys, plants), but often lacking an instinctive, reactive empathy for human beings
• Hiding/spending time in private, small spaces, hideouts, forts
• Structured, organized, and often oddly particular. Everything had a place, purpose, or meaning.
• The need for just right

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