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Question: What is the very earliest distinct memory that you can identify in your life history?
I've thought about this often and swear that, years ago, I could remember farther back than I can now. At 63, the earliest I can remember is being 3 years 10 months old, looking out of the car window up to a hospital window where my mother was holding up my baby brother. A neighbor lady was babysitting me in the car.
There's a lot I can barely remember - looking at my brother through the slats of his crib, being sick with measles and given my parents' enormous double bed to sleep in, a cute little wool plaid outfit I had with gold buttons, a boy playing the accordion at my 5th birthday party (1957) and I and my friends playing pin the tail on the donkey. Going to a day at Lake Winnepesaukah amusement park with my dad and the Exchange Club, which was hosting a day there for crippled children...somehow a bus with no top was involved.
I wish I could remember more!
I remember running around the house, butt naked, there was poop on the floor and my mom was mad at me and the dog was there. I'm not sure if the poop was mine but the dog was much more potty trained than I was. That had to be shortly after we moved to that house, I was about 2.5. My next earliest memory was my mom holding me in our big yellow rocking chair because the dog had died. I would have been around 3. That's the last time I remember my mom holding me.
After that I don't remember anything notable until I went to nursery school when I was 3.5ish. There are quite a few memories from that school, I went there for 2 years.
JFK's Funeral procession ( I can only recall the procession- nothing more ) and I was 1 year and 2 months.
I described my surroundings , where I was sitting and what TV I was watching it on to my mom who was rather disbelieving ..
My friends always have joked about me having the memory of an elephant though . I guess thats where it started .
I've thought about this often and swear that, years ago, I could remember farther back than I can now.
You could, it's not your imagination. Your earlier autobiographical memory does erode as your brain ages. You will continue to lose things from earlier in life the older you get.
I can well believe that you DID remember these events at 18 months of age, as you have much corroboration and your memories are very distinct and detailed. Yet the former neighbor of my family says that he comes out of the womb and then, a short time later, is slapped on the backside to get him to breathe his first full breaths of life independent of his mother. It is very very hard to conceive that a newborn even has a conscious-enough mind and awareness to form memories of such an event.
I agree about the neighbor; it is hard to conceive of that for me as well. I'm interested in what you said below (the bolded).
Quote:
Originally Posted by UsAll
I agree. And, as part of the BA in Psychology degree I had earned many years ago, we also studied neurobiology/neurosciences and, on my own, I've done enough readings in these areas. What this man claimed doesn't seem to be plausible. Heck, within hours (or even less than hours) of having come out of your mother's womb and being slapped on the backside by medical professionals, you don't even have a mind yet that can form coherent thoughts using the symbolic representation of thoughts which we call "language". That is, you can't even form words or sentences yet to help you organize your thoughts in a graspable, rememberable, retrievable form.
Even if a person (such as this referenced man) never studied neurobiology or the neurosciences at-large, you would think that he (or any other person) should be able to figure out, by common sense alone, that what he was claiming has a very high degree of improbability.
...Because I'm an ASD adult with a 12 year old son with Severe/Regressive ASD.
Although he can use words to communicate some now he is still considered "Non-Verbal" as he cannot do "reciprocal conversation" without alot of prompting.
He spoke 1 sentence, at age 5 then not again until he was about 8 years old. For 8 years his "communication" consisted of noises such as wails, shreiks & grunting.
At age 6 we moved out of the house he had lived in since birth; a bi-level white stucco house that for about 1 year had a block of stucco missing from where repairs had been done to the window in the front wall that exposed black insulation.
A few months ago out of the blue he said "Where is the black & white house?" And I almost fell over ...I suppose because he couldn't verbalize ANYTHING during that time period maybe I assumed he wasn't remembering anything.
I do have several memories from when I was 4. It's easy to date them because we moved to the another country that year, so things like the snow, certain parks, certain toys, neighbors, furniture and TV shows can't be confused with memories from following years.
I might remember something form when I was 3 and a half, but I would need to ask my mother what year we went to the mountains. I don't have pictures of that trip so I'm not rebuilding memories.
I do have pictures of the costumes we wore when I was 3, so those memories could be based more on the pictures than actual remembrances.
I agree about the neighbor; it is hard to conceive of that for me as well. I'm interested in what you said below (the bolded).
...Because I'm an ASD adult with a 12 year old son with Severe/Regressive ASD.
Although he can use words to communicate some now he is still considered "Non-Verbal" as he cannot do "reciprocal conversation" without alot of prompting.
He spoke 1 sentence, at age 5 then not again until he was about 8 years old. For 8 years his "communication" consisted of noises such as wails, shreiks & grunting.
At age 6 we moved out of the house he had lived in since birth; a bi-level white stucco house that for about 1 year had a block of stucco missing from where repairs had been done to the window in the front wall that exposed black insulation.
A few months ago out of the blue he said "Where is the black & white house?" And I almost fell over ...I suppose because he couldn't verbalize ANYTHING during that time period maybe I assumed he wasn't remembering anything.
So your son shows that, in all that time that he never spoke (over a stretch of years) but rather instead just made audible noises at times, he was still observing and learning and, at age 8, he came out with a complete coherent sentence that reflected understanding of the world as it is. He knew what a house was, could put decriptive labels (adjectives) on a house from the past (labeling it "black and white", as differs from the present house), and reflected that he knew and could describe that he was in a different abode from the past and even could describe HOW it was a different abode from his former abode (i.e., by its visual distinguishments).
About language acquisition: I've tending to say about language acquisition that we aren't taught, in an all-encompassing intentional way, HOW to learn and speak language when we are developing children. Rather, we pick it up by what we can call "osmosis" and hence, by age 2 or 3 (for most people . . . or otherwise somewhat later for others, such as age 4 and certainly by age 5, we are speaking in complete sentences and trains-of-thought without even thinking about it). We just rather absorb the capacity to engage in language simply by being immersed in an environment of language use all around us. I call it "osmosis". And your son reflects that he too was absorbing the capability to engage in use of spoken language even with being challenged by severe autism spectrum disorder.
Hi all. I just listened to an interesting podcast and they touched briefly on this. They were saying that few people can remember things before 2 but in the East some people can because of how parents interact with young children and they may develop a sense of self earlier. My earliest flash of memory I can verify a time on is 15 months. I am also an eldest child. I was wondering if anyone else who had early memories was an eldest or maybe a large gap in between siblings so your parents would have had extra time to interact with you.
I probably screwed up what they said so if anyone wants to verify...here ya go
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