If you used to religiously read the cereal box or milk carton at breakfast in the 70s/80s/90s

[KnewYearKnewMe]

or the air freshener can whilst on the toilet… are you neurodiverse?

i’ve been looking into why I have to read whilst I’m eating by myself, even at home, and thinking back to when there wasn’t many other options. I remember reading and re-reading whatever was available.

it seems there’s a link between the two and ADHD.

I’m sure many of us just read at the table because we were bored too.

Anyone got any thoughts?

I did and both my DC are autistic so I probably have some traits. It could also be there was nothing else to do though!

Everyone I know did this and I am sure most were not autistic. I think there were just a lot less distractions back then plus cereal packets were more interesting, competitions, games and free gifts etc.

@Dreamingohorses that is indeed very true.. I recall fighting my brother for the toy!!

I did and have autism and adhd although pretty sure my siblings would read them too and they are all NT.

I did (and do) and have asd. I could read at 2 and was reading books for the juniors in reception. No idea if there's a correlation though

I did, I’m autistic, but so did all my siblings who are not.

I was an early and advanced reader and did this but I am not neurodivergent thought one of my three children (who cannot read as an adult) is on the autistic spectrum

I read bloody everything in the 80’s so I didn’t have to look or talk to my brother at the table when eating.
also there was fuck all else to do 🙃

I did and I’m not.

Suspect you’ll get a lot of confirmation bias on this thread!

I did and i am absolutely NT.

I did and I'm not.
I just love reading. My mum would have said that I would read a sauce bottle and it was and still is true.

I’m NT and have always read packets and labels. Even when I was too young to realise what ‘Dilute to taste’ on squash bottles meant. Why on earth would you need to dilute it in order to taste it? How stupid could you get? 😂

We all read because there was nothing else to do!

I did (well, when I wasn't reading a book) and I am neurotypical.

I've always loved reading instructions, small print, dictionaries, and things like that. (I liked it more as a child, than having to do it out of necessity today!) To this day I can remember the wording of notices around my primary school, even if I didn't understand them. "The authority does not hold any responsibility for any item of property left by any person on these premises." I don't think it's related to neurodiversity, but then I'm biased because I get annoyed about every slight irregularity in somebody's behaviour being responded to with "it must be neurodiversity".

And some almost meaningless waffle from the Highway Code I remember, which probably sets a record for a long sentence: "A green arrow may be provided in addition to the full green signal if movement in a certain direction is allowed before or after the full green phase."

Have you read somewhere that there is a link OP or just speculating? I read everything as a kid as did my sisters. None of us ND. When you are a natural reader you can't not read when something readable is placed in front of you. This is why I often put subtitles on Netflix for my kids so they are reading while watching without even realising. I have 2 ND kids and 1 NT , one ND reads a lot, the other never reads and never really cared for it. NT child is probably the biggest reader and walks around with books in hand.

I think most people did this as a kid.

Yes I used to read whatever bottles or packets were available. May or may not be ND, I question it, but I suspect as others have said, it was a "nothing better to look at" thing in the 80s. I also used to sniff bottles of bubble bath or whatever there was while on the loo.

Yes to cereal boxes etc at table
And the toilet cleaner bottles from next to the loo if in the bathroom - I can remember being intrigued by an ionic surfactants

I can't remember which cereal it was now, but they once put some rhymes on their packet to help kids convert imperial to metric which I read then, and still use to this day...
A litre of water's a pint and a quarter
Two and a quarter pounds of jam weigh about a kilogram
A metre measures three foot three, it's longer than a yard you see

Brilliant!

I read everything, because I was nosey and there wasn’t much else to do. Cereal packets were relatively exciting then too!

I also remember reading the church newsletter during a sermon, one letter at a time, to pass the time as I was so desperately bored.

I think so too

im not neuro diverse, and I was that reader.

There’s no link. Kids who liked to read just read whatever was there. Remember how little else there was to do? No tablets, no computers, breakfast tv only started in 1983 and loads of people wouldn’t have dreamed of turning the telly on at that time anyway.

I was a cereal box reader ( still am) and not neuro diverse