My childhood:
During childhood, no one new what I had, I was considered "crazy" by a doctor at age one, because I had constant tantrums, which only ended, one day, when my mom, took me to the beach, during a vacation. My nerves suddenly calmed down, by the sight, and the soothing sounds of the sea. The waves, the reflections of sunlight on the water, and the pebbles. I was beginning to say my first words, and started some progress.
Despite the progress, which also soothed my mom's nerves, I still had strange behaviors, like spinning plastic lids, jars and coins. I rejected teddy bears that other toddlers liked, but held on to other objects, like dice (which had a smooth surface and were pleasant to touch). I was terrorized by everyday noises, like planes passing by, thunder, machinery, jackhammers, balloons bursting, and any sudden noise.
Being the firstborn, my mom did not take note of behaviors like rocking back and forth, or spending time on a rocking horse in the day care center as a toddler, instead of playing with other kids.
Despite socializing difficulties, my interest for reading, and learning the alphabet, pleased my mom. Instead of pointing out pictures on a newspaper my mom was reading, I asked her what the letters were, and that prompted her to teach me to read before starting school. In grade 1, I had such good reading skills, that I was sent to the principal's office to read to him. I was granted privileges in the library, like borrowing grade 6 books in grade 2.
Socially, I had problems that worried my mom, and school personel. I was not able to recognize people easily, and was not able to decode non verbal cues. My mom complained about always having to spell things out to me. While my younger (non-autistic) brother seemed to know instinctively when to bring up a subject, or when to say a joke, I was a nuisance, because I couldn't tell if somebody was angry, sad, tired, etc, just by looking at him/her. I took things litteraly, and was terrorized by my mom's "threats" which my younger brother did not take seriously. My mom uttered threats like (I will send you away, etc..) when discouraged by bad behaviour. My brother was able to understand that she never means it, however I was terrorized by them.
I despised noisy environments, and situations that required constant attention shifting. I was a bookworm, who was happiest in the predictible environment of a library. One thing that discouraged socializing, was that most others did not like to talk about insects, calculators, or space all the time. Other people liked my subjects "once in a while" and got angry if I went on and on. My mom constantly reminded me not to talk about the same things over and over. Changing subjects was hard for me. I was fixated on certain subjects like entomology, and archnology. Nobody cares to hear about the chelate pedipalps of pseudoscorpions.
I also liked calculating machines, and my mom bought me, in 1970, a
machine, like the one below, which is an ancestor of the electronic pocket
calculators.
.
As a child, I had frequent tantrums, which often happened, when the home environment became too noisy. I would tantrum, when there was a change of mind on the part of my teacher, or mom about a family outing. I enjoyed outings with the family, to Mount Royal Park, which is a paradise for nature lovers, with a twide variety of fauna, and insects. I enjoyed the monarch butterflies, their catterpilars in the milkweed that grew their, the orange milkweed beetles. I enjoyed ladybirds as well.
My mom had to avoid changing her mind, and, being concerned about my socializing deficits, made me join a nature club. That dispensed my mom of "having to" take me to Mount Royal or the Botanical Gardens each time it was sunny (My mom prefered to lay in the sun, or stay at home to rest).
A stylus operated calculator like the
one I had at age 11.
The PDA of the early 1970's