Autistic Children do not "Seem Adult"
People sometimes say that autistic children "seem older" than they are. When I was a kid, I supposedly seemed older than I was.
But, the more I think about it, the less I think this is what happened. I didn't seem older, I just seemed very unlike a little boy. A normal boy will be interested in cocomelon and violent video games. By contrast, a certain sort of autistic boy will be obsessed with bus routes or fire extinguishers. If shit really hits the fan, he may learn what "supralapsarianism" is.1 None of this is normal mannish behavior -- grown men are mostly interested in beer and sports betting. But, it is aggressively unchildlike. So, when people saw Six Year Old Dave gleefully inspecting a fire extinguisher, this read as unchildlike rather than just weird.
The malady this implies need not be permanent, and treatment is possible. There is always hope.↩