Autism In Hindsight?

Hi - I can identify with this in several related ways, though none are quite the same thing you report.  I'm 56 (and recently diagnosed with Asperger's) so my childhood was in the 1960s & 70s.

My mother - who I now suspect was also autistic - taught me simple maths by writing numbers on picture cards which I think were from a "Happy Families" pack.  Although I've forgotten most of the number/picture associations, two still stick in my mind:  32 = birthday cake and 27 = ironing board.  The latter has always been particularly vivid for me.  Whenever I look at an ironing board, I think of the number 27 - which, when written in a certain way, even resembles a traditional ironing board to me, though it was probably pure coincidence my mother chose that number!

Among our collection of pop records was one called "Needles and Pins".  I could not bear to be in the room when this was played (I'd run out of the room and put my fingers in my ears) because I already had - and still have - a huge phobia about being pricked or pierced, mostly in a medical context, though I find even sewing quite stressful and always worry about accidentally catching myself with a needle or losing one.

Although I don't have any particular aversion to the "P" word, as a boy I found it terribly difficult to apologise or be polite in a way that (to me) was an admission of inferiority.  At primary school we never had to address the schoolmasters as "sir" so when I moved to a more traditional secondary school, where that was required, I found the word almost impossible to utter and would avoid doing so unless the omission was really obvious (as in class register) and even then I mumbled it!   Similarly, when I visited my posh aunt, it was expected of children to ask, "Please may I leave the table."  I could not bear to say this, so always remained at the table, with the adults, regardless of my boredom!

Hi - I can identify with this in several related ways, though none are quite the same thing you report.  I'm 56 (and recently diagnosed with Asperger's) so my childhood was in the 1960s & 70s.

My mother - who I now suspect was also autistic - taught me simple maths by writing numbers on picture cards which I think were from a "Happy Families" pack.  Although I've forgotten most of the number/picture associations, two still stick in my mind:  32 = birthday cake and 27 = ironing board.  The latter has always been particularly vivid for me.  Whenever I look at an ironing board, I think of the number 27 - which, when written in a certain way, even resembles a traditional ironing board to me, though it was probably pure coincidence my mother chose that number!

Among our collection of pop records was one called "Needles and Pins".  I could not bear to be in the room when this was played (I'd run out of the room and put my fingers in my ears) because I already had - and still have - a huge phobia about being pricked or pierced, mostly in a medical context, though I find even sewing quite stressful and always worry about accidentally catching myself with a needle or losing one.

Although I don't have any particular aversion to the "P" word, as a boy I found it terribly difficult to apologise or be polite in a way that (to me) was an admission of inferiority.  At primary school we never had to address the schoolmasters as "sir" so when I moved to a more traditional secondary school, where that was required, I found the word almost impossible to utter and would avoid doing so unless the omission was really obvious (as in class register) and even then I mumbled it!   Similarly, when I visited my posh aunt, it was expected of children to ask, "Please may I leave the table."  I could not bear to say this, so always remained at the table, with the adults, regardless of my boredom!