Is extremely early memory associated with Autism?

Post Reply New Topic

I ask this because I have always been told that it was impossible to remember events in infancy, well at least for a NT person.
I was told that often, events which we believe to remember from infancy are in fact reconstructed memories based on stories that family or friends have told us again and again.

In my case, I pretty much have a fairly complete and clear memory of around age 2 and up. Potty training (sadly...), every birthday, every vacation, every preschool I attended, etc.

However, I also have several mysterious memories which, based on evidence I believe to be much older.

One is a very clear memory of walking sideways awkwardly while holding on tightly to the seat-top cushons of our old couch. I never thought about it until I was older, but that was a very low couch, and it being up to my armpits would put me at less than two and a half feet tall, which is the average height of a 1-year-old. I have to wonder if that is a memory of trying to walk.

I also have another memory of listening to the sound of my parents' voices, but no memory of what they were saying. We were going outside I think because it became suddenly very bright. Meanwhile I was looking at what surrounded me, which seemed to be some white fabric with navy blue trim. I couldn't see anything else though. Most clear were the sounds of my parents and a funny metallic creaking sound. When I asked my parents about it, they told me I must have made it up because they had no idea what that was. My grandmother on the other hand told me many years later that I had a pram that was navy blue on the outside and white on the inside, and that it had a squeaky wheel that eventually froze up, which is why my parents had to get rid of it when I was around nine months old.

As I said earlier, I know that often childhood memories are reconstructed from stories, but both of these events are of such mundane activities that I can't imagine anyone told me a story about them. I highly doubt that the color of the inner lining of my pram or my grabbing onto a couch cushion would make good story time.

So do any of you guys find that you have similar experiences?

I have two mental "snapshots" of when I was at a very young age. They're like two pictures taken by someone who accidentally clicked the "snap photo" button, in that neither of them are remotely special or relevant. But I'm convinced they're real.

I'm pretty sure I'm NT, and I certainly don't have as detailed memories as you have from that early in life.

My earliest memories are from what I was 2 years old as well, but they only consist of bits and pieces and important events.

I can vividly remember being in the hospital when my brother was born when I was 2 1/2. I was sitting in a small room with blue and red walls with my grandmother when the news came that he had entered the world.

One day, when I was 3 years old, my brother was playing in a cupboard and out fell a food processor blade. I stepped on that blade. I vividly remember not only the layout of the apartment that I lived in, but the hospital treatment down to the face of the nurse and exactly what she said to me while she was treating the gash.

My memory got more and more vivid as I got older, which I assume is pretty normal.

I always thought I had a photographic memory until I started reading posts on this site. The details that some people can take in from everyday, normal instances and remember forever are just extraordinary!

I have very early memories of climbing a flight of stairs at the age of one and a half. I also have memories of still being in diapers for a little while after my sister was born. I was 3 at the time. I have memories of all the times that we had visitors when I was very little. I also remember this one time when some inlaws stayed at my house for a week the summer that I was three. I remember that one day that my aunt and uncle were playing old records and I was more interested in The Kinks than going to the bathroom. Just use your imagination to imagine what happened.

I also remember that day that my favourite colour went from pink to green and my cousins and I drew runners and Disney characters all over my pink bedroom walls, with crayons.

Last edited by CockneyRebel on 10 May 2011, 12:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

My earliest memory was very early too - young enough to be having a bath in my grandmother's kitchen sink, which was small in those days, so about 1? She was scrubbing my toes with a rough brush, blechhhh! Sensory nightmare. I told my mother about it years later and she said she had no idea. I'm quite sure my grandmother never told me about it either. It's mine.

My son also has autism and his memory is insane! Granted he is only 5, but he can remember vivid details of things we did 3+ years ago. We moved when he was just turning 3, and he knows all of the colors of the rooms of the old house still (and we don't talk about it or look at photos because it's a sore subject for both of us, we loved that house and didn't really want to move). I find that those vivid early memories are often centered around color.

Fern, that is an amazing story about the pram.

Unless I'm wrong about when we moved out of the house we lived in at that time, my earliest memories are from before I was 2.5 to 3. It's possible that some of these are recreated from stories and pictures, but not all. I have a very clear memory about sleeping on my stomach on top of a stuffed animal so that its hard nose nestled in just under my sternum.

Haha! That's funny you mention it! I have loads of memories of being washed in my parents' bathroom sink! I loved it though! The edges were perfectly smooth and the faucet was very quiet when it was turned on (unlike our tub faucet which always scared me growing up)... Come to think of it, I guess being washed in the sink is something only infants experience huh? Gee, I wonder if that's another set of baby memories. I never realized it till you said that! Thanks!



Youch! I remember being two or three and running to tattle on my sister, though I can't remember why (funny how siblings are always involved though isn't it?). When I rounded the corner with my mom in tow I ran smack into my sister's metal desk corner and split my forehead open. I remember seeing red drops on my shoes, then down my clothes, then a small pool around my feet, and the whole time my older sister was laughing at me. I was really confused. I'm not sure if anyone explained blood to me at that point. I still have a scar, but thanks to Harry Potter everyone thinks it's kinda cool. I think traumatic events are really good at committing things to permanent memory.

My earliest memories are from around 9 months old. I think I have a vague one which might be older but I don't think it'd be much older than 8 months. I just developed a sense of self awareness very early for some reason and had a fixation with how far back I could remember.

You might be aware that such fixations have lead to the inability not to remember things in a small handful of people. I certainly don't have this gift/curse but I do think it's responsible for my ability to retain such early memories.

The events I remember are usually events which had some element that fascinated me.

Tony Attwood states very early memories are an autistic thing, I can remember being a baby, being changed, babbling and my first words easilly, there's a joke in my family that I can remember things from before I was born because I have such good early memory.

Yes, that's right - he's expressed this factoid in writing. I do have certain mundane memories (kind of like OP stated) that would not otherwise be notable. For instance, I remember the cobalt-blue rug with violet flowers and the background tract (Petula Clark) music when I had strep throat and I could hear my father speaking to the doctor by telephone. Lots of things like that. I remember my father's cane (the silver Pisces ring on it) when walking to the movie theatre, for another. The kind of plastic on a mask, for ex. Just stuff.

I have a very distinct memory of my uncle feeding me milk from a bottle. He pulled the teat out of my mouth and the milk went all over my face and up my nose. I must have been really young because it was definitely a baby bottle, not a training cup. My own daughter used training cups from 6 months - I think things were different in the 70s, but I must have been under 2yrs, as my mum says she'd definitely stopped using bottles by then.

I have clear memories from about age 4, and they're pretty much as clear as my recent memories. In fact they might be clearer, as I can remember the names of children and teachers from my first year of primary school, whereas I just can't recall many names of my co-workers from my last job!

My wife claims she can't remember anything from before the age of 10, which I find puzzling, and rather alarming. I can't imagine not having memories of childhood .

I also have what you call 'mysterious memories' from earlier on, and I like the way you phrase it. Elusive memories that seem have always been there, like standing stones looming out of the mists of your own prehistory. Mine tend to be places. A ruined castle, a stained glass window in some cathedral, an alleyway near our first house, a river flowing under an old stone bridge that I know must be in Scotland....my parents also could never pinpoint these either.

That was one of the things that made me not believe I have autism, 'cause I almost remember nothing from my childhood, actually I don't remember much that have been happening to me at all.

Me to, i remember not much important things when i was 1, 5 years old, walk near one river with my mother, little island in sea, for me island, i remember when we visited doctor and i look in stethoscope whole time and doctor gave me it, try put stethoscope in my mouth, but my mother do not remember what age, she thinks that happened when i was 6 month old, and it is strange for her how i can remember it, i also remember when my mother change hairstyle and my father said you have new mother now and i believed, i was around 2 years old, i remember when my father beck in solder clothes, when i was 2 years old and i scary of him, i remember many things, near whole childhood. My parents always are surprised when i ask them do they remember that situation, i ask them with reason to know when happen it, because i haven't time orientation for events when i was very little kid,.

I have several memories from play-school (around 1.5-3 yo), and they are not made-up memories. Memories of the playground, playing there, playing in the house, some toys, being surprised about a sliced up paprika on my plate, lying on a couch and rubbing my eye to see appearing the dark spot on the exact opposite side. I don't remember people well, I only remember a few from my group later in preschool.

My earliest memory is probably about a pram, I was lying on it. It had a square, white inside. Strangely, this memory does not include my twin sister.

My earliest memory is being in my crib (moved out at 13 months) and being in my cradle (got rid of when we moved at 13 months). I remember being toilet trained at 23 months, watching a video before age 2, all kinds of stuff.