Newly Diagnosed

I feel some resentment, but no real anger. I was a child in the 1960s and 1970s, when virtually no one was diagnosed with autism who didn't also have obvious intellectual disability. So even my lengthy spells of selective mutism at infant school were not picked up on.

I was a child then too and it was rare to get any accurate, useful diagnosis. I was labeled "shy" but being well-behaved/an ideal student guaranteed that no teacher would report any concern about me. Instead, those who acted out and disrupted classes got reported and seen by professionals at that time.

"Never says anything in class", was on most of my school reports. I was shy and as compliant as I could possibly be, and also fairly good academically. I didn't cause any problems for anyone else, I suffered all the problems.

I changed school for 2 terms at the age of 15, to a single-sex one I often wonder what life would have been like if I'd stayed at the original (co-educational) school. Certainly, my experience of motorcycles would have been different.

Swimming was the one physical activity I was good at. I swam a mile, aged 11. Of course I was mostly made to play football and other team sports - which I loathe and hate to this day. It seemed to me, with little ability to even catch a ball and poor gross motor skills, like a repeated ritual of humiliation.

Swimming was the one physical activity I was good at. I swam a mile, aged 11. Of course I was mostly made to play football and other team sports - which I loathe and hate to this day. It seemed to me, with little ability to even catch a ball and poor gross motor skills, like a repeated ritual of humiliation.