re inactment of day does your child?
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| Tue, 04-03-2007 - 9:02pm |
Hi I have a question for you all. My dd just turned 7 and was PDD and has just last year been officially dx as AS. Every day when I pick her up from school she can barely recall her day in telling me about it after I ask. However, when she gets home she is able to pretend play but ONLY doing so as always being the "teacher". Like she will get dolls and she re-inacts her school day(s)as action/consequence. For instance earlier she had barbie dolls with her sis who is 6 and normal and sis wanted to play barbies with her. So, AS girl orders the barbies around saying things like "Since you can't stay in your seat then you are loosing your recess priveledge for five minutes", etc. Does anyone else's kid do this?
I'm glad she can "pretend" but there's always been a part of me that believes it isn't REAL. Does re inactment count as pretending?
Also, she is constant with animal noises. We have tried everything with this and I just have to say "tori enough stupid sounds". We call them "stupid" because I'm tired of her peers making fun of her. She isn't even aware they don't like her. She mostly plays by herself unless it is an organized game. Her principal at school said to me "she intiated a game of duck duck goose while other children were waiting with her. Everyone kept picking each other and finally someone picked her. She picked the only child who had not picked her. Wasn't that sweet that she thought of that other little girl?" I replied "no it wasn't sweet. See, to Tori she is sequential. She didn't do it because she understood the emotion that this other child was hurting because she wasn't picked; she did it because sequentially it made the most sense to her. Its the only way she can play".
I'm not upset or anything. I'm sick and tired of defending my daughter's differences to administrators that don't seem to think there is a problem sometimes, but when she is unable to communicate a problem like what happend last monday they called me for interpretation. I'm also sick of trying to convince other kids that she is really a nice friend. Face it. My dd is a terrible friend. She is a sucky friend. I am sick and tired of having to face the fact that she is never going to be normal. I have not been able to accept anything less than normal, but I have actually have been worn down. I am in the worst state for any type of help. I'm just blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Okay I really just had a question and I don't know how I got this far. Sorry. Jess

Hi Jess,
Welcome to the board. It sound to me like you are still processing a lot of this stuff. Many of us havd BTDT and we are glad to be there to help you through it.
My son is almost 9 and still cannot or will not relate his day.
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
(((Jess)))
Lots of us have been there. Weston (age 10, 5th grade, ASD) has only had two friends in his whole life, one was a little girl he's known since birth and the other was a little boy in all his classes when he was in preK, K 1st and 2nd grades. This little boy talked all the time and weston never talked, they loved hanging out together. Unfortunately we moved and he hasn't had a friend since. He has NO social graces, no reciprical conversation skills, he can't cooperatively play anything that isn't one of his obsessions. His anxieties and sensory issues and self stimulating behaviors(stims) make him seem VERY ODD. Mostly he has a couple boys that tolerate him because he's good at computer games or because he likes to play football. He will group play w/ other children if his siblings are with him. He has a few girls at school that "mother hen" him in class.
I think it's great that your DD has found a way to communicate her day. Weston NEVER tells me what happened at school. Occasionally he'll respond to specific questions about what happened, but more often 3-4 days later he'll spontaniously tell me an episode that happened but can't place it timewise.
Betsy
My dd used to do this when she was about 4-5yo. Ds was receiving speech therapy in the home, and when the therapist would leave, dd would want to play "speech therapy" with her brother. Although it's not true pretending, it was her attempt at play acting without someone else giving her directions on what to do. Although not using her own imagination, I figure it's a good attempt on her part to try to play something self-directed. I always welcomed it. It also gives good insight into how they experienced the day since the way they re-enact things is based on their interpretation of what occurred during the day.