I have noticed that every case of autism is unique.
My sister was diagnosed by a neurologist when I was around nine years old. I was only diagnosed around ten-and-a-half years later by a different neurologist even though my sister is four years older than I am and my autism actually has more of an effect on my socIal skills including understanding figures of speech (irony and sarcasm, mostly) and body language. Now, from reading books I can analyze body language at least fairly well, but I miss most of the actual conversation in the process, and I still struggle with eye contact. Also, I said my first “four-letter-word” at age four, and I only learned about the concept of lying sometime after my seventh birthday when my sister broke the cuckoo clock in the front hallway of my parents’ house and lied about it and my parents had to explain to me why she said that I broke it when I knew that I was in a different room at the time.
My sister (on the other hand) started reading books at age two (I was only reading individual words (and maybe some short phrases)) by age four. She said her first “four-letter-words” (and sentences containing them) by age two. My sister and I both both said our first words and started walking (but not necessarily well) around age one. My sister made her first friends by the end of Elementary School, but I was in College by the time my social skills reached that level. My sister and I were both late when it came to toilet training, but I took me two to three years longer. My sister’s toilet training delays were assumed to be medical even before she was diagnosed as being on the spectrum, but my toilet training delays were attributed to stubbornness. My sister’s symptoms fit the stereotypical idea of autism better at the time than mine did. For example, my sister can remember the day of the week of most events in her life from about age eight or nine on. Also, she could tell you the day of the week of any date for about eighty to a hundred years in either direction (which I cannot do). On the other hand, my skills seem to be limited to perfect pitch, remembering a piece of music after hearing it no more than two or three times (which my sister cannot do), and being able to remember a movie or TV Show episode after between one and three viewings (Including the characters’ voices (which my sister cannot do)).
My diagnosis probably took longer than my sister’s (even though my condition has more of an effect on my social skills and my ability to function) because back in the 1980s it didn’t fit the stereotype as well. For example, I had frequent sensory meltdowns (which my mother simply interpreted as temper tantrums) when I was in Marshalls (which back in the 1980s and 1990s had a very loud air conditioning/ventilation system that was running most of the year and that I could not tune out). I also had sensory meltdowns in the grocery store that my mother shopped in because I could not tune out the noise made by the refrigerators and freezers. I also had (and still have) some repetitive hand movements that today (in my late 40s) might worsen my existing issues with trigger finger/trigger thumb (especially on the left side). These hand movements were not yet recognized as autism symptoms back in 1984, but they are now. Also, if you watch the Arthur episode “When Carl Met George” I did virtually all of the things that he did. I was even interested in trains and then rocket ships just like he is. Back in the 1980s even an obvious case like Carl on Arthur likely would have been missed because the criteria were much more narrow back then.
I know two other people (now in the early years of Elementary School) who are confirmed to be on the spectrum but their symptoms are very different from my sister’s and mine because they had speech delays (they only started talking around age three) and they also started walking after their third birthdays. I could go into more detail, but this post is probably long enough already.
In short, as I mentioned above no two cases of autism are the same (Many are not even close to the same).
