Imagination and autistic kids

Post Reply New Topic

Aspies don't lack imagination. If anything, they're better at it than NT's. Heck, I myself used to come up with extremely detailed imaginary worlds, with the details down to the patterns on lampshades. Almost always, my imagination games were solitary. The one I remember best consisted of me pacing around a playground gazebo at my preschool, and talking to myself about what my "house" looked like. The solitary aspect was magnified by my descriptions (to myself, no less) of multiple locks on doors, unbreakable windows, guard dogs around the perimeter, and a dry moat full of thorny plants. this changed when I got older and somewhat better at socializing (only to massively regress after starting school), and other kids at preschool started asking me to "help them build their boat/plane/spaceship", because word got around that I was good at coming up with stuff. Basically, creative imagination.

What they do lack in imagination in two things: social interaction and suspension of disbelief. Namely, delegating roles of captain/midshipman/sailor when pretending to be pirates, and playing one's role accordingly. I could never master the unwritten social rules that each role required. Also pretending to eat ping-pong balls or Play-Doh, and calling them "muffins". Each time I saw that, I'd think: "I knew other kids weren't as smart as me, but this just takes the cake!" And imagine my shock when my preschool teacher tried that. I could forgive fellow 4-year-olds for "mistaking" Play-Doh for food and even continue enjoying their company, but a full-grown woman entrusted to care for me? It knocked my trust of her down a few notches ever since, although I somehow knew better than to verbalize it to her.

Aspie1, your post reminded me of my daughter when she was younger. She has a fantastic imagination. Truly something to marvel at. But she didn't engage in "imaginative play" like feeding dolls, etc. I remember when she was around 3 or so, her therapist was trying to get her to give her doll a "drink" by putting an empty cup up to her lips. She did it once, and her therapist responded so enthusiastically that my daughter started walking around the room and putting the empty cup up to everything...her stuffed bear, the dump truck, the couch, the tv set. LOL! I had imagined her inner voice saying "Wow, is this lady easy to please. Who knew all I had to do to get all this attention was to put this cylinder next to stuff! Piece of cake!"

She never played with dolls or barbies. She always wanted to manipulate things or draw or line stuff up. But I have no doubt in my mind that her imagination is among the most active possible. She wants to be an author and illustrator when she grows up. If she continues with that goal, I think she will do quite well. As it stands, she has "invented" hundreds of her own Pokemon, each with their own powers and personalities. She has also developed and expanded upon her own "regions" and my son said that a lot of her stuff is better than the actual Pokemon stuff available. She has also created her own "offshoot" creature-type worlds. The stories she writes are imaginative, humorous, and show strong cohesiveness for her age.

IOW, at least MY autistic kid has an imagination, even though she never did engage in "imaginative play," except to appease others and with a clear lack of understanding of the representative nature of what she was doing.

Like others, I had an imagination but it wasn't a very social one. When I did play with others I only wanted to play a set role over and over or control the playing of other kids.

I would often line things up or pace but in my head was a whole world of things. I think the thoughts I had were atypical - such as Aspie1 describing having imagined the lamp shade covers. I thought of things others might not have, but I definitely had something going on in my head.

I'm pretty bad at creating scenarios overall, though, especially as I've aged. I'm terrible at story writing.

Okay. So basically when I was diagnosed at seven years old, my parents and teachers, were told that I "lacked imagination". I'm still angry about that today. Presumably, professionals had seen how I "played" in a confined and stressful environment without privacy, a therapist's office, and jumped to the conclusion that it meant that I lacked imagination. This was not true. At school I would play imagination-based games with friends. At home I would imagine complex scenarios with toys and paper aeroplanes. Had I been given sharp graphite pencils instead of broken, brightly-coloured ones, I would probably have drawn something creative. I had not. They had drawn conclusions from how their neurotypical minds perceived my play, in one narrow and unpleasant environment, which I believe was very unprofessional. I firmly believe that neurotypicals should not be the only ones to make judgements on these matters.

Lastly, I would like to show you this article written by Gavin Bollard, on his blog, Life with Aspergers, on his imaginative play, which was similar to mine.
http://life-with-aspergers.blogspot.co. ... ngage.html

My son, I would say, is very imaginative but they also said that he did not engage in "typical" imaginative play when he did the ADOS. Apparently, he had three objects and one was some sort of pretend doctor's needle, and one was a fire helmet. He made up some scenario where he said that the needle walked into a fire house (which was the helmet) and said: "Oops, I meant to go to the doctor." So, they said that since he didn't pretend the needle was something other than a needle, that he wasn't able to use an object to represent something else (or something). But, he makes up all sorts of stories at home, draws comics, makes legos into things and makes up stories about them. Most of the imaginary play he does is based off of cartoon characters or game characters, but I do not think he lacks any imagination. It just does not present itself in a "typical" fashion. He also makes up a lot of "What if" jokes.

I also feel my son is very imaginative, but he did poorly on that part of the ADOS. The ADOS has very specific criteria for what defines "typical" imaginative play, so by that standard, he was not typical. He also runs around like crazy, making sound effects and moving his hands around. He calls it "playing." He's 13. He came up with a secret language when the kids were little, and his NT siblings followed suit. I agree with others that it's an "atypical" type of imagination, but that doesn't mean it's not there. My son has a very vivid and rich imagination.

Pretty much all of my "imagination" is combining and modifying scenarios that already exist :/

It seems to me these days if a kid has a vivid imagination that must mean they have schizophrenia or they're dangerous and psychotic, which is sad. If a kid called a French fry Rapunzel most adults would correct them. "No, it's a French fry and you're supposed to eat it." They can't seem to tell when a kid is just pretending.

I was told I had a good imagination when I was a kid. Maybe because I loved to draw cartoons and didn't just copy off of TV or comic books like other kids. I used to love taking small dolls or tiny plastic figurines outdoors and then our back yard would become a forest or a pond would be the ocean. It's too bad it's not socially acceptable for an adult in public to take her Mario and Luigi figures and pretend they're jumping over the mushroom-shaped kiddie tables or have them whizz down the slides at the playground. Maybe if there's no one else around and I can hide them in my purse.

When I was a kid I used to camp with my parents a lot in the summer, and I'd notice how the campfire flames looked like orange people and that the sticks they were burning also looked like people. I was so fascinated by this I started drawing pictures of flame-people trying to burn the poor stick-people. It looked pretty cool but I'm sure these days they'd slap me with a pyromaniac label and wonder why I didn't burn my house down years ago. It's not like I ever played with real fire, I knew it wasn't safe. I was more into water, anyway.

Also I would save the old notebooks and textbook I had at the end of the school year and pretend to play school with my dolls, only I called it "dollygarden". I had both good and bad students and the bad ones would end up being punished for being bullies and such. It was all harmless fun, and I'm glad I have such pleasant childhood memories. It was when I became a teen and was supposed to give all that up that the really bad memories started...

When I was a kid I used to play with legos and always make the same scenario, wich usually ended by a huge duel and the bad guy winning and cutting the good guy's head off.

Kids naturally like to imagine like they are flying,role paying as super heroes etc.It is quite natural,if he does it fun way..

I never did social pretend play when I was a kid, and I am quite spontaneously imaginative, it is obvious to eberryone in person.