• a long time without two-way communication, now he can adapt because it’s expected of him
• mostly uniform “social smile” with little variation
• generally a rather uniform and seemingly distant facial expression
• social chatting only with family members, not others
• little interest in other kids his age, rarely (if at all) being the one to initiate contact

Found this in some doctors notes from a few years back, not sure if it was specifically autism related but it seems close enough :P

It’s kinda funny now seeing my smile at the time being described with little variation and sometimes seeming sightly condescending. Makes me wonder how much of that was just me trying to smile at appropriate times

(copied over from the other post because I just saw it’s here as well :D)

He had a huge collection of toy cars and Lego’s. He was very into video games in which he designed and built things.

He could not stand when his foods touched.

His uncle, the last of this remaining relatives, points out that he was “not normal”.

He had difficulty sitting still, made noise, and was disruptive.

He has always talked to himself and would narrate what he was doing almost as though someone was in the room.

…Has liked to collect information about history and anything about science. He reports he “can be annoying” about it.

Though he is heterosexual, he would hang out with the gay kids because they were more accepting.

He joined the Marine Corps…it was a very intense and loud experience.

He had a very sensitive sense of smell, and would smell people as a child.

He is very sensitive to the texture of clothing and doesn’t tolerate tags. He is particular about his shoes.

He does not like to be interrupted at work and this offends other people. [He] becomes overwhelmed by unnecessary tasks such as work emails.

I dont think they had any quotes on my paper. but it probably would be something like:

“Likes doing one thing”

“Can’t focus on anything not in his interest”

“Has problems socializing”

Some selections from my report (I was diagnosed as an adult, but my mother was interviewed as part of the process):

• Sitting in small places/repetitive movements e.g., as a child sitting for hours under mums sewing machine playing with buttons
• Limited playing with toys but fixated areas of interests
• Not allowing foods to touch each other, noted issues with colour and texture of foods
• Very formal language even as a child no child talk