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MilliesMum
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02 Feb 2011, 1:08 pm

My daughter (now 16 and dx'd last year with Aspergers) had a selection of imaginary friends. The primary one was called Purple Billy, but Purple Billy had a friend called Marna who would also visit. Billy and Marna were constant companions from about the age of 2 until after Millie started school. Millie was a very precocious talker, and much prefered the company of adults, and couldnt' understand when other children did not want to play with Billy and Marna....

I wonder now if those little guys - who lived in a treehouse in a town a while away from us - were Millie's way of learning to communicate with other children. Maybe she was coming home from nursery and reliving situations and conversations that she had observed and needed to process and understand and these figments were her way of doing this.

As she started to be in contact with more children at a time so more playmates arrived - at one time Billy and Marna were joined but Clubba, Cheglare and Susie!

I don't think I'll ever really know because Millie doesn't like to share what is going on in her head, and claims not to remember anything from her childhood...so slightly off topic - Do other Aspies have memory problems like this?



DandelionFireworks
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02 Feb 2011, 4:43 pm

MilliesMum-- I actually wonder about that.

Anyway, re: the sibling theory, I'm an only child and I wished I had siblings. When I was six, one of my imaginary friends was twelve, though. But unless you consider twelve an adult (...and when I was ten, she ended up drafted into the military, but then befriended someone on the other side-- never mind, it's irrelevant, even though it is a pretty good story... but the point is she was rather mature for her age, but so have I always been, and she did like playing), mostly the only ones who were my friends were not adults, but also acted independently of parents and generally did very important things. Now you're reminding me of all this... well, before I get into any of this, do you guys actually want to know?


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liloleme
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03 Feb 2011, 8:50 am

Maddy is actually close with her brother. They clash sometimes because they tend to aggravate each other's sensory systems. They both tend to be loud and they both are upset by loud noises, so its a vicious circle. Most of the time they get a long very well and play together. My son Luc is very good at communicating with Maddy and he will repeat things over in different ways until he is certain she understands. I think he has picked this up from us. He even kisses her goodbye when we drop him off at school (she goes to a different school).
I do think that a lot of NT kids and even some Aspie/Auties may have imaginary friends due to lack of siblings. My Dad had an imaginary friend because he was an only child. He had a first, middle and last name, I cant remember it at the moment but I always thought that was funny.
It is interesting to know that there are other Auties who have imaginary friends. I dont think in Maddy's case it is because she is lacking friends or siblings (she actually has four siblings but my three older are adults and still live in the US). All the little girls love Maddy at school even though some of the time she runs away from them or pushes them away from her. They are still drawn to her and get very excited to see her.
Today she sent Jessa to a different school and Birthday is home sick in bed. Poor Birthday, just last week she broke her leg :lol: .