I haven't read the replies so sorry if I restate something that has already been said. I think "lack of imagination" refers to what is correctly called "lack of imaginative play" or "lack of pretend play". Over time things go through the grapevine and get twisted. Imaginative play becomes imagination, lack of empathy becomes emotionless, etc etc.. I don't think people with AS have a lack of imagination, many of us have too much for our own good. The other thing to remember about ASD in general is that it is not well understood and most of what we read about it comes from NT who may understand us pretty well but still can't personally experience ASD. Here is something you might find interesting. I'll paste part of it but you really should read the whole thing, it's not very long.
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/otarc/assets/downloads/Posters%20for%20web/CD_ISSBD06_Pretend_play_v2.pdf
Quote:
The children with high functioning AD engaged in pretend play and, with
the exception of Object Substitution, they showed similar levels and
frequencies of play as the TD children under both elicited and spontaneous
conditions. The children with AspD also readily engaged in elicited and
spontaneous pretend play. It is likely that previous findings (see review10) of
pretend play impairments in children with autism are attributable to specific
impairments in Object Substitution, which, as observed here, was the most
prevalent type of pretence shown by all children.
Object Substitution was the only play category to differentiate the children
with AD from the TD children. Like the children with AD, those with AspD
also engaged in lower levels of free-choice Object Substitution during the
elicited play scenario in comparison to the TD controls. However, unlike the
group with AD, the AspD group were not different from the TD children on
the frequency of Object Substitution during free play. Indeed, this was the
only behaviour to differentiate the two clinical groups, who were otherwise
remarkably similar in their pretence. The findings accord with much research
on the comparative abilities of individuals with AD and AspD11 and, together,
lend support to the view that these are not distinct diagnostic entities.
Leslie’s (1987)5 metarepresentation theory fails to adequately explain the
results. Although the children with AD had deficits in theory of mind
reasoning, with the exception of Object Substitution, they were not different
from the children with AspD or the TD children in their pretence abilities,
despite the capacity for theory of mind in the latter groups. Rather, the
results lend support to an executive functioning account12,13. The act of
substituting one object for another involves inhibition of the perceptual and
functional schemas associated with the real object. Given the deficits in the
inhibition of prepotent responses amongst children with autism14, this type
of pretence may be particularly difficult for them. The ‘real’ object may take
precedence over the ‘imagined’ object because the children with AD (and
perhaps also those with AspD) are unable to inhibit their responses to the
real object. We are currently testing this hypothesis.
Our failure to find pervasive deficits in pretence in the children with AD in
this study may be attributed to the fact that, firstly, these children were high
functioning, and were well matched with the TD control children. Studies
that have found pretence deficits have mostly used mixed ability samples of
children with autism10, and they have not always matched groups on both
verbal and overall mental age. Secondly, we studied pretence in an optimal
environment. The spontaneous play episode always followed elicited play in
order to facilitate engagement in pretence and, we studied pretend play in a
one-to-one setting with an attentive adult. In the noisy social environment of
a playground or playroom, it is unlikely that these children would engage in
such play, or share their play with peers. Nonetheless, the results from this
study indicate that children with high-functioning autism (and AspD) can
engage in pretend play, and thus highlight the need for appropriate play
intervention at the coalface of social interaction with their peers.
30 Jul 2012, 9:58 am
