Pretend play not possible for kids with asperger?

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I was pretend playing all the time when I was a kid. Mostly on my own, but sometimes with other kids as well. It would feel extremely awkward if I had to do so now though. I remember I had to perform a short play in high school a few times and it just felt incredibly unnatural to me.

It's such a completely artificial situation; I don't know how it could possibly pertain to the actual work environment.

^Exactly. Whoever thought this was a good idea obviously thinks that treating your employees like kindergarteners will increase productivity.

It's not that it's impossible for aspies to pretend play, but rather that it's a common trait/warning sign. Certainly I did not have difficulty with imaginative play, but I did have trouble playing with other children so it often led to me pretend playing by myself.

For a non-verbal child, the NVLD label is downright bizarre. You might want to switch neuropsychs because that one does not sound like he knows his backside from his elbow (not sure if this expression exists in the USA).

Am I the only one here who did engage in pretend imaginative play with other children as a child?

I personally never did pretend play when I was a child. I also never had a pretend friend. I thought it was silly.

Exactly the same for me, I would play make believe with others but I had to make a plot and it usually ended in tears. I hate role playing and usually end up playing the comedian.

pretend play is not an exclusion to AS diagnosis, and is actually fairly common in females with AS.

i spend my entire childhood in a fantasy world, in part probably because i found the real world too cruel to endure, and had no friends because i was "wierd" (and continued to be wierd because i was immersed in fantasy!)

I still play pretend, it helps me get on with reality in a strange kind of way.

Like for example when I go out running, I pretend I'm in a marathon.

When I'm on my bike I pretend I'm in a race.

When I'm cooking, I pretend I'm on a cookery show.

I pretend I'm on reality TV quite a lot.

I think my whole life has revolved around me playing pretend.

i had one or two close friends early on that i engaged in pretend play with. and my older sister, until she aged out of it and became a raging b***h.

i think the intensity of my play was a bit excessive, and i definitely immersed myself in it well past the age most children age out, and it became as much a causative factor in my social alienation as a way of coping/escaping from that alienation. so at a certain point i played exclusively alone.

i seem to remember in junior high gaining a best friend and we played "battlestar galactica" together sometimes. but we were both oddballs.

later in life i think it translated into D&D and then later still interactive cinema games, and then online RPGing, like everquest and wow.

I never had trouble with pretend play as a child. I also had no trouble with pretend play with other children either.

I never had a problem with it---if my brother didn't want to join me in playing with my action figures, I'd play all the roles myself (I still do play with figures from time to time, actually).

I think people interpert this wrong. I believe it means children with Aspergers have trouble engaging in pretend play with other children. I was incredibly imaginative as a child, but I didn't play with others and I kept to myself.

I have a very wild imagination still, but my imagination always has to so with reality, not completely made up.

I had no trouble in playing pretend when I was young. I still pretend to be certain things.

Actually, in one of the articles I just read about females and Asperger's it says that girl Aspergians actually do play like this often.