Imaginative play

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Registered: 03-31-2003
Imaginative play
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Mon, 07-04-2005 - 4:20am

I notice that a lot of people on this board mention that their ASD kids don't play with toys or do much imaginative play, and I've read many times that this is a common feature of ASD's. But, do any of you have kids who are ALWAYS pretending?

My son is an avid reader, but REFUSES to read non-fiction. He won't read books about volcanoes or planets or anything unless it is fantasy. He almost always is pretending to be a character...usually a made-up friend of a Bionicle or a Lego mini-figure come to life, and he wants me to pretend to be himself. I spend more time climbing over pools of hot lava in my house that any other mom, I bet. He has a hard time getting through a 6.5 hour school day because his need to play/pretend is so strong. He often writes pretend names on his school work. He always has loved toys. Not board games, but "dolls" and stuffed animals mostly. He doesn't pick them up and move them around like puppets, as I did at that age, but he talks about them like imaginary friends. He'll pretend to be one of his stuffed animals coming to visit, for instance. He'll come up to me and say, "Pretend I'm Green Patch and I've just arrived at your (himself) house. 'Hi, David! ..." He doesn't make them interact with each other, but he does tell long scenarios about things they do, like their birthday parties and wild movies they watch.

He also loves Legos. He builds little vehicles for his imaginary people, and can't seem to transition to new things (school, bedtime) without having some little Lego thing to accompany him. He can't brush his teeth at night until he's made a little spaceship for whichever character he's latched onto that day.

He has reached a point, developmentally, where it is possible to get him out of pretend-mode for a while when necessary, but he's gets pretty impatient and unhappy if anyone tried to prevent him from pretending. I LOVE his great imagination, and don't want to change that really. But sometimes in life you have to spend some time in "the real world".

Just curious who else has a kid like this. I sometimes think this is odd for an ASD kid, like it's the polar opposite of what they usually do. What do you all think?

Evelyn
David 7
Nathan 3.5

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 07-04-2005 - 11:01am

Actually Evelyn,

I know some adults with AS on another board and was having a conversation with them about this very thing. They insist that people with AS do pretend, it is just different than NT imaginative play. And lots of the stuff I would often consider stimming is this very play. The difference is that it is solitary, not cooperative. Most NT kids will do the imaginative play with peers but our kids will be more solitary. Often lost in thier own fantasy world.

Having multiple AS kids and an NT is very productive to the imaginitive play stuff here. Mike will do that thing often where he gets lost in his own little fantasy world. Often re-enacting some movie or video game. But the kids will often pretend play together in thier own way. It is an aspie version though. I can't say they play together. They all get stuck on thier way that things should go and often don't get past the "set up" of the game (ie, Cait: "you be the Daddy dog and I'll be the puppy", Mike: "No I am kupaka and you are GAla", Cait: "How about if I am Kupaka's puppy", Mike (yelling) "Kupaka DOESN"T HAVE A PUPPY!!!!!! THere are no puppies on Metra Nui") There is an example I know you can relate to but they can do this for hours. The only time it can be remotely successful is if they let Emily kind of take charge.

Renee

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Registered: 02-24-2004
Mon, 07-04-2005 - 12:17pm

Evelyn,

Nathan does alot of the imaginary play..... by himself. He prefers it this way too. If Tyler interrupts or tries to play "with" him, he gets upset. Although, Nathan hasn't gone real extreme on his imagination yet. He still jumps from activity to activity.....always changing what he's doing. We don't really know what his interests are at this point, because of this.

Nathan also does alot of his imaginary play in his head. He'll set something up on the floor, or make something out of legos.....and then just sit there staring or moving his head and his eyes around the room (as though he's thinking). He makes noises, and sometimes says something out loud. But he does love to do this. If I ask him questions about what he's thinking about, he will tell me(but it's usually just pieces of what he's thinking about!) But I know that he enjoys his "thinking". I don't get too worried about him getting too involved or stuck on something, because we just haven't gotten to that point yet.

But I do know what you're talking about!!! I find it amazing how much they think about! Well, I gotta go...Nathan's getting worked up about something!!!

Michelle

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Registered: 03-25-2003
Mon, 07-04-2005 - 12:30pm

I am glad this was brought u because my 3.5 yo dd(NT as far as I know may have some sensory issues) does imaganary play all the time. When ds(12 AS) sees this he gets very mad and aggitated-like he doesnt know what to think. If dd is playing and making things up as she goes it gets very stressful for ds and he totally freaks out. I would asy that his "imaganary" play takes place in his video games like he actually because the pokemon he is playing. He refuses to read fiction-he has a had time with fiction and lying-knowing the difference. An example of this would be last yr his english teacher ask him to write an essay on what he did over break-he told her nothing she said just make something up-his responce to her was wouldnt that be a lie? When it would only really be a fiction story about what he did over break. He loves books and shows about nature, space and history.

Liza

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Registered: 02-24-2005
Mon, 07-04-2005 - 3:02pm
My son loves to use his imagination when he plays. He creates worlds and people just like Renee's kids do and you'd better not change any rules or move anything that he has created or he becomes very sad. He is a reader too and at first only liked fact based books like atlases, books about trains and the solar system. He has recently discovered The Magic Treehouse series and it combines fantasy with history and facts and he loves them. He will play with his NT sister but he has a whole dialouge going in his head that she hears snippits of. Last week we went to one of those Mcdonald playplace's(I hate those things) and some little bitty guy was jumping into Chase(7) and pulling on his clothes. Chase doesn't like to get angry with people so he was just standing there, smile on face, taking it. I sent Ashley(6) up there telling her to "take care of that kid for Chase." It was so cute, she stomped up the steps ready to lay down the law but the kid had disappeared. It is nice to have a NT around to assist Chase but I know she won't always be able to do that. vicky
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Registered: 10-03-2004
Mon, 07-04-2005 - 9:30pm

It is one of the joys of my life that now Malcolm and his friends use imaginative play interactively, but then they have all been in years of therapy, including play and sports therapy. I have watched as Malcolm developed his imaginative play with his therapists, transferred that play to us and floortime, then as he and his friends took up that play and began to experiment. There is still a repetitive quality as they like to play out stories they know from books, movies, video games and sometimes they will play one scenario over and over. But then they vary those stories, change and improvise. There is enjoyment in their interchanges and I hear them surprising each other, changing the rules of the games and stories and discussing the changes cooperatively. I have even come running in thinking that the shouting I was hearing was a fight ---- only to find out that the CHARACTERS they were playing in their imaginative game were the ones fighting, MOM .... They are definitely learning.

It is hard for not to eavesdrop constantly.

CVCISSELL, Malcolm (8 yrs. old two days ago) loves Magic Treehouse, too.

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Registered: 10-24-2003
Tue, 07-05-2005 - 8:51am

I'm new here and will introduce myself in another post.

Pat

Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response. --

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Registered: 12-24-2004
Tue, 07-05-2005 - 10:35am

Yup! This is Cassian for sure. In fact, excessive dramatic play is on lists of ASD characteristics. I think that decades ago, these kids may have also been diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia, since the criteria used to be a little different for that disorder.

My hunch is that if you look at normal personality diffs and extrapolate to extremes with ASD children, you will see a correspondence. NT kids who are more into the arts, literature, and humanities tend to do more imaginative play. Gifted children who show such tendencies also tend to have more self-esteem, emotional sensitivity issues by adolescence. Then, there are the math/science types, who have more of the usual Asperger's traits. NT's with math/science gifts tend to have a "cooler" more anaytical way of perceiving the world with fewer emotional sensitivity and less far-fetched imaginative play at early ages. I think that on the Spectrum, we are seeing extremes of these types of kids. Of course, there will also be kids, who have strengths in both areas and show a mix.

Cassian is highly dramatic and imaginative. He goes from one fantasy to another and makes up his own stuff. He still has a tendency to repeat scripts. He loves to give DH and I rolls to play, and he likes to "direct," feeding us lines. His latest obsession is the Wombles, a British group of characters that he learned about in an old book I turned over to him from my childhood. I can usually get him interested in factual stuff, if I give it a dramatic bent (learning about the planets and then pretending to go into space).

Suzi