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Repetitive behaviours and restricted interests in childhood - girls

NAS72736

Hi there,

I have posted a few times on this topic - I'm an adult woman having my assessment next week.

I was wondering if there are any other women out there who have been diagnosed who did not display many of these 'repetitive behaviours and restricted interests' as young girls? I am trying to gather as much evidence as I can before my diagnosis (which I am getting quite anxious about). However I did not have many very intense interests - I had some strong interests but they were not 'obsessive,' neither did I have to follow a strict routine or get upset when things were changed - that I can remember. I did suffer anxiety though when transitioning up to secondary school and when changing classes in primary school.

I have plenty of examples of these repetitive behaviours and restricted interests in myself as an adult woman, including anxieties and phobias - but the childhood evidence is a bit lacking. 

I am just a bit worried that this might impact the assessment. 

I know that girls display less of these repetitive behaviours/ restricted interests and was wondering if anybody else could share which of these they remember from their childhoods in case there are any things that I did/thought that I overlooked.

Thanks all

Slight smile

Parents

  • My interests as a kid were "normal" in that they were all things other girls do, dolls, drawing...

    They key lies in how you engaged with those interests and the difference might be quite subtle. My activities with dolls for instance...there was lots and lots of washing them, dressing them, making clothes or dolls houses out of shoe boxes for them, and constantly re-arranging them and their stuff, but no pretend or role play and no inclination to interact with other girls and their dolls. I'd play nicely beside other girls rather than with them.

    If there were a series of dolls such as the Pipa dolls, I want to collect them all, of course and line them up smarty together.

    Likewise with my bedroom, I always had that in perfect order - a mother's dream, lol. She never had to clean or tidy my room, 'cos I'd already done it. I couldn't bare disorder.

    I loved my pens and pencils, I'd arrange all the colours in order...browns and yellows together from dark to light. Sometimes I'd mix them up for the pleasure of sorting them out again. I loved to colour, but more than pictures, l loved the colouring books that were repetitive patterns that were popular in the 70s. And I really loved Spirograph. See simple normal things, but repetitive patterns and a need for order are dominating and pleasurable and way more so than interactive, social play.

    Have a real deep think about what you played and how. The evidence may well be there, but in subtle ways and that an untrained eye from the outside might just never see.

Reply

  • My interests as a kid were "normal" in that they were all things other girls do, dolls, drawing...

    They key lies in how you engaged with those interests and the difference might be quite subtle. My activities with dolls for instance...there was lots and lots of washing them, dressing them, making clothes or dolls houses out of shoe boxes for them, and constantly re-arranging them and their stuff, but no pretend or role play and no inclination to interact with other girls and their dolls. I'd play nicely beside other girls rather than with them.

    If there were a series of dolls such as the Pipa dolls, I want to collect them all, of course and line them up smarty together.

    Likewise with my bedroom, I always had that in perfect order - a mother's dream, lol. She never had to clean or tidy my room, 'cos I'd already done it. I couldn't bare disorder.

    I loved my pens and pencils, I'd arrange all the colours in order...browns and yellows together from dark to light. Sometimes I'd mix them up for the pleasure of sorting them out again. I loved to colour, but more than pictures, l loved the colouring books that were repetitive patterns that were popular in the 70s. And I really loved Spirograph. See simple normal things, but repetitive patterns and a need for order are dominating and pleasurable and way more so than interactive, social play.

    Have a real deep think about what you played and how. The evidence may well be there, but in subtle ways and that an untrained eye from the outside might just never see.

Children
  • in reply to Dawn

    Oh  that's so interesting about the dolls. This makes me remember that I used to have these mini baby born dolls which came with these boxes and accessories (eg. like a room) and when I played with these I loved building different house and room combinations, staking the boxes and positioning furniture... but I never did any role play... would not have occured to me. 

    And now that you mention it, I also collected these little animal figures which I liked to sort and arrange in different manners... I had completely forgotten.

    I occasionally played with other children- when I did it was usually of school on a one to one basis mainly (my mum sorted out most of my social contacts- eg. kids of her friends) and we would play very elaborate imaginative games (like fictive worlds)- but always the same game with the same friend. So with these 2 sisters I always played this dragon fantasy world game. Whilst with an other friend we played this "let's pretend we are native americans game".