I was in VRChat and we were talking about autism and I don’t remember how exactly it happened but I ended up calling my dad in VR and asking him if the reason I got taken for “physical therapy” at school for several years after I learned to write (originally it was because I’m left handed but didn’t have enough muscles and motor control to write well) and my dad confirmed that it was to help me develop and I never realized.
They had an inside swing, a big ol weighted blanket, a bean bag, putty of different thicknesses to strengthen hand muscles, fidget toys, and the “teacher” had a cool little glass sphere on her desk that had live coral in it. She said there used to be a shrimp but it died. tbh even as an adult I’d love to go back there and just mess around with all the different toys. I still have one she gave me at the end of the school year.
The person I was talking to in VRChat thought it was so funny I never noticed that he friended me and we became good friends for a while. I even visited him to go to formula drift together (drifting cars but a ranked competition)
I was tested when I was a child because it was pretty clear something was off. But this was DSM-III; autism spectrum disorder didn’t exist as a diagnosis until DSM-V, and Asperger’s Syndrome was DSM-IV, and didn’t come out until after I had graduated high school.
I wish this had happened to me…
I was tagged as ADHD in kindergarten. Knowing (what I suspect to be) the other half would have been immensely helpful.
It makes me so happy thinking back to adults in education helping out kids. It’s awesome you loved the coloring room.
For me my teacher taught me English herself in these on one one English assessments.
And it was really nice to step out and be with her for a couple mins (English was my 3rd language)
You guys get Autism tests?!
my dad practically had to fight the school and medical system to get it. Thankfully he was a pediatric nurse (for kids) and so he was very aware of the symptoms and treatments of things like autism. When he was just starting out after college he literally worked in the same psych ward I went to when I was 17 for… unrelated issues. The outline of the building I was in is literally sewn in his scrubs
(images taken from Internet)
Yeah lucky. Back in my day we were just dropped into a bs gifted and talented program and foisted with unrealistic expectations of prestigious university attendance. Not surprised if OP is 15+ years younger than I.
Well, now sure. In kindergarten I was put in a closet with a developmentally disabled kid while the rest of the class took a standardized test. Rural America baby! Hiding the problem kids for at least 40 years.
In 4th grade back in the mid late 90es, my teacher knew something was up, but i don’t think he knew exactly what. I was pretty good at hiding my quirks, knowingly or not. But i think the thing that stood out was when we went skiing or something and i had to fumble out my skipass while people were waiting, i had a lot of trouble with that. Same thing when you have to put the money away while other people were waiting. They thought i had problems with my fine motoric or whatever. Part of me was happy that they find out what was wrong with me, part of me was worried. I wrbt into a room witb a dude and he was like: can you clap your hands? I said yes. He asked can you clap really fast? I said yes. Ge said: can you show me? And i did. He said: eeh, he’s fine.
And that was it for me.
I didn’t find out til I was like 25 that it isn’t normal to go to the office every few weeks to fill out a form with questions like “do you feel safe at home?”
“That depends. Is the existence of this form going to be known to my family? If so, yep, totally safe.”
- my partner, not me
yeah i remember they asked something like that when i was in school. i knew that if i told them the truth, my mother would abuse me when i get home.
(because for some incomprehensible reason, whenever there’s any problem, the mother is the first who gets to know about it. doesn’t matter whether i explicitely tell them not to tell my mother.)
Same, except it was do you feel safe at school. It was around age 13 or so and by that point I had solidly learnt that telling anyone just adds punishment to the bruises.
I distinctly remember being like 12 and intentionally lying on the long general mental health screening form at the two questions that were screening for gender dysphoria. I couldn’t put into words why it mattered that I was lying about it, but I just had a strong suspicion it wouldn’t go well if I told the truth because my parents might find out. I consider that decision to be yet another instance of me using my intelligence to do something dumb.
Thankfully I never thought to tell the psychologists about how my parents’ fighting made me feel, because oh boy would that not have gone well
Ugh yeah. We had a bunch of cops come do an assembly at my junior school about ‘violence at home’ and then they spent playtime in one of the classrooms where students could come ask for help and whatnot.
I got all the way into the room in front of them before I chickened out at the thought of the never ending repercussions I was going to face if I brought cops to the house. I just mumbled some bullshit about ‘wrong room’ and left.
Interesting I didn’t get diagnosed until I turned 33. Also had physical therapy for my left handed writing and used to have lots of trouble tying my shoes.
Oh man I remember hiding the fact that I still couldn’t tie my shoes and feeling ashamed about it. I finally got it a year or so after everyone else.
Wow, that sounds like a dream… I wish I would have been helped like that when I was little. It cheers me up to know that somewhere they at least once did things like this… :)
Many (still a minority) schools have a room and assigned teacher for this,
Its definitely not just for autism but for any kid that needs a little extra help without the distraction of their usual class.
It even sounds like you did not go for autism either, but it is related.
Last year i learned about Dcd
Its a neurological disorder that makes it harder to learn certain motor and coordination skills like writing, riding a bike, using scissors (being a lefty really doesn’t help either).
Dcd is considered a separate disorder, but 80% of the people who are diagnosed autism also fit the criteria for dcd (some claim up to 90%)
(Edit: added a source )
The good thing is that with proper guidance kids can learn to perform these skills just as good as everyone else. So these special classes in the first years of elementary school are really important. I am glad you had them, I hadn’t and my handwriting shows it.
I knew half my family was autistic for years, but know i recognise many suffered dcd also.
Its definitely not just for autism but for any kid that needs a little extra help without the distraction of their usual class.
my dad on the call described it as a “we know this one is wonky” instead of a hard diagnosis as you could only get officially diagnosed at 10yo iirc (at least at the time)
Last year i learned about Dcd
that’s really cool and something I will look into but ngl my first reaction was “oh fuck not another acronym of a mental disorder to memorize” because I have so many already xD
I had the same acronym reaction, but DCD is also known as dyspraxia, which has been gaining awareness the last few years :)
Fuuuck is that why I’m so bad with handwriting, painting and chopsticks?? Given the amount of extra help classes I went to, that, and my general weirdness I’m frankly amazed I never got diagnosed with anything
Thaaaat’s why I had to spend time kicking a ball on an elastic band and playing with putty!
Also why I confuse left and right a lot and change dominant hands for different tasks!
Huh, the more you know.
Probably also explains why I am near insensate to a lot of pain but will actually kill anyone who splashes me with cold water.
Some kid pulled my hair at work last week. Straight up yanked my ponytail out and dug his fingers up to my scalp. It was an interesting moment to demonstrate my sensory differences, though, as it didn’t hurt - I was just shocked for a moment.
Meanwhile, somebody touches my side in the wrong way, and I yelp. I’m super ticklish and I hate it, because tickling feels like torture to me. I’d rather have my hair yanked out than get casually brushed by someone’s fingertip.
Since teaching about this, I’ve come to appreciate these kinds of rooms. Actually, I wish I had a low sensory room growing up (the type for sensory disorders); I was and still kinda am easily overstimulated so it’s the kind of thing I can get behind.
That said, IEPs and the stigma they bring can easily be a bad thing too depending on school, hence why it’s the “coloring room.” I was already ostracized by 2nd grade for being weird with the sand box, though, so kinda moot in my case (I spent all my time sorting out rocks from sand and dust).
I spent all my time sorting out rocks from sand and dust
this would have been super useful btw if you were an ancient farmer trying to clear up a patch of land for tilting btw!
Indeed - the trick was using the wind to blow dust and sand into a separate pit from the rocks that did not blow. Weirdos like me probably are why we have ancient methods of cultivation, lol.
Actually, I wish I had a low sensory room growing up (the type for sensory disorders); I was and still kinda am easily overstimulated so it’s the kind of thing I can get behind.
How much would an extra room have helped you, compared with things such as sunglasses and (partial) ear plugs?
Hard to say for sure. It’s not so much a light/sound sensitivity for me so much as the movement and activity and whatnot. Given I went to school before they really understood these things, I was never diagnosed with anything.
There’s a park that opened up near where I grew up that’s 100% for disabled people. It’s free and the only entrance requirement is their IEP upon registration (there might be different requirements for adults. I know it’s open to adults with disabilities as well as kids, but I’ve only gone there with child-clients so I don’t know.)
It’s so dope - it’s got an array of swings of all different types; a wheelchair-accessible zipline; a sensory garden (where you’re encouraged to touch the plants and explore); a soft-ground, wheelchair-accessible baseball diamond; and a “quiet zone” for when you need a break from all the stimulation. Although I wish such places existed when I was younger, I’m so glad the kids of today have somewhere so cool to play.
dude I’m so jealous of the kids that had the teachers with low light rooms, I had an English teacher do that for a semester in HS and it was awesome
I am glad that I don’t have a condition where I have to have lights like that though
Did you ride a short school bus? ;)
thankfully I’m high functioning enough to go to normal classes, but I have a friend that did! he’s pretty cool
last I talked to him he just bought a broken motorcycle to sell for scraphonestly I feel like he’s high functioning enough to have gone to regular school but he was raised in a pretty red state and wasn’t taught how to manage emotions that well as a kid, so they just lumped him in there instead of giving better support :(
That just made me remember the time I was taken to a room kind of like that in 1st grade with a few other disabled kids but I was only there for an hour and they never took me back and I didn’t understand why. I did see a professional about autism last year and I didn’t go for a full diagnosis because I don’t want it on my record, but I did get enough of a confirmation that I’m quite positive I’m autistic, but I guess I’m just not enough to get taken back to the fun room.
Schools actually don’t just check for autism, they also only offer diagnoses and treatment that they actually have on hand. It’s just as likely that you did test positive; they just didn’t have enough room for you compared to the more serious cases.
I don’t get it.
OP went through a functional assessment and/or rehab as a kid without being told what it was
I feel like the story explains it that OP was somewhat developmentally delayed and never realized it because they didn’t explain to them that they were having developmental issues.
Based on the art and everything else, seems like they caught up just fine, but now they’re just dealing with the realization of what events in their childhood meant.
yeah I wasn’t officially diagnosed at the time and a few years later once I was diagnosed I got it all explained but I never connected the dots between the special class and my disability
I feel like naming a kid Tate is just asking for autism
