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Autism In Hindsight?

Eryberrie

Hi!

Was wondering the other day, because I was diagnosed at age 31, if these two anecdotes are displays of autism when I was a child.

The one is that as a child, and even still as an adult, I have a great aversion to the word 'pardon'. I don't know why - I just hate it.  I hate the sound and it just makes me cringe.  Just typing it is horrible for me.

One such anecdote was when I was about six and my family and I were having dinner. They all stopped eating and were staring at me all of a sudden.  They asked me to say the word.  Apparently, I had burped but I swear I hadn't.  Even to this day, I won't concede it.

I refused to say it.  I didn't have a tantrum or anything, I just clammed up and said nothing.  I tried to say that I hadn't burped but they did not believe me.  They sent me up to my room - about six adults ganging up on a child!

I went to my room with my dinner getting cold downstairs.  Two family members came up to me.  One had a go at me and shouted at me to say the P word.  I didn't.  They gave up and went back downstairs.  Another came to see me and was much gentler.  But he basically backed me into a metaphorical corner and I then just said it under my breath.  This was enough.  I was allowed back downstairs.

One of my family members said that I had to say the word again but the person that came to me in my room said that I didn't.

The second anecdote was that, for a long time, I had a problem with the letter B.  I hated it and on one occasion, when playing make believe (I only liked doing this if I was in charge and decided who was who), I was told I had to be a character who's name began with B.  The name could not be changed as it was a character from a film.  I would not do it so I took no part in play that day.

I eventually got over my problem with the letter B when I read a book about a horse named Bella.  I love horses and the horse was extremely beautiful.  Bella means beautiful so now I associate the letter B with beautiful.

I don't know if this type of behaviour rings true for anyone else with autism.  Please let me know.

Parents

  • Really interesting conversations here!

    My experience of the word "pardon" during childhood is the same as Ferret's, in that it was a word I too always associated with lavatory related things, and I felt slightly embarrassed when anyone used the word.

    One thing I've experienced in childhood and adulthood as regards colours is that I felt that sky blue meant "intelligent". If I wanted to try and think of things logically I used to look up at the sky (when it was a clear day of course), and it made me feel as if I could think a bit clearer.

    I don't know if anyone is aware of De Bono's "Six Thinking Hats", but the Blue Hat is used for "thinking about thinking" and about what processes are to be used in a meeting. When I found this out, I found it quite easy to relate to my childhood idea of blue being an "intelligent" colour.

    Even now I tend to have that bias - if I download an app for my phone and there are a choice of 'themes', I inevitably choose blue. Even if I have a change sometimes, I will always go back to blue after a while, it just seems right to me.

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  • Really interesting conversations here!

    My experience of the word "pardon" during childhood is the same as Ferret's, in that it was a word I too always associated with lavatory related things, and I felt slightly embarrassed when anyone used the word.

    One thing I've experienced in childhood and adulthood as regards colours is that I felt that sky blue meant "intelligent". If I wanted to try and think of things logically I used to look up at the sky (when it was a clear day of course), and it made me feel as if I could think a bit clearer.

    I don't know if anyone is aware of De Bono's "Six Thinking Hats", but the Blue Hat is used for "thinking about thinking" and about what processes are to be used in a meeting. When I found this out, I found it quite easy to relate to my childhood idea of blue being an "intelligent" colour.

    Even now I tend to have that bias - if I download an app for my phone and there are a choice of 'themes', I inevitably choose blue. Even if I have a change sometimes, I will always go back to blue after a while, it just seems right to me.

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