What's this I hear about imaginative play?

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I remember reading somewhere that autistic people can sometimes have trouble with imaginative play (especially children). Is this true, and if so- what part of it do they struggle with? Is it the actual imagination part, or more the playing pretend with other children part? Or something else? Also, what is tactile defensiveness?

How about you? Are you autistic, and if so- did you ever have any issues with imaginative play? If so, what were they?

With other children? Or alone?

I had no trouble with imaginative play when alone. My favourite was rockpools on the edge of the sea, and I would spend hours beside one turning it into an imaginary kingdom.

Also, although it was not play, at school I was often complimented for the imagination I showed in writing stories, and won prizes for that.

The area that I may have had challenges is shared imaginative play with other children - however as they rarely wanted to play with me, that wasn't a problem.

Some of these ideas - about not having imaginative play - may possibly in part stem from the misdiagnosis of other conditions which are diagnosed as ASD. (Like FXS, and intellectual handicap, which often occur together in FXS).

PS From website "sevencups":
Implications Of Fragile X When Misdiagnosed As LF Autism
This confusion is likely to affect misdiagnosis rates until there is a definitive test for AS, and there may never be a definitive test for AS. I have read that FXS is the major cause of inherited intellectual disability; so what are the implications of FX people misdiagnosed as LFA and for
- their families?
- the Autistic population?
- the Fragile X community?
- the autism curebies?
- the autism anti-curebies?
- researchers (especially AS researchers)?
-treatment providers?
-policy makers?
.........

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Autism/The ... how/699227
"Approximately 25-35% of cases are misdiagnosed as autism because they share many of the same behavioral issues". There seems to be little overall awareness of this in the diagnostic or autistic communities.

I didn't have too many issues with imaginative play, especially as I got older. When I was younger I would copy things that my dad had played with me, and I would also line up or group my toys sometimes. I wasn't really interested in toys for a while, because I was so enthralled by reading. I am quite imaginative today, though.

Tactile defensiveness is basically tactile sensory issues. This can manifest as disliking hugs or touch, disliking clothing (certain types or tags), or refusing to touch certain textures.

I don't think I played imaginatively until I was about 5 years old.

After that, I don't think I was as imaginative as other kids---though I did play "pretend," and I loved my "play" airport with the planes when I was 6 (I also went to an airport to watch the planes fly when I was 6). I also had cars that I would race. And I would pretend to be various sports figures.

I used to play "house." I always wanted to be the Dad, never the Mom, or the kids. We didn't do any hanky-panky, though, since we were all boys. I was lucky I was 2 years older than the rest of my friends--so I was always the Dad.

When we played Batman, I was so lazy that I wanted to be the Commissioner, rather than either Batman or Robin.

Before then, I was classically autistic, and really did not have much interest in things.

I'd say it probably depends on the type of imaginative play. If it's straight imagination, someone on the spectrum is probably just as good as anyone else. But if it's actually pretending you're someone someone else, that's probably where it's going to fall apart.

Worth noting that the last question on the AQ test is, "I find it very easy to play games with children that involve pretending." You get a point if you disagree.

I'm not too good at it. I play an online role playing game. But I have never been able to get into the role playing aspect the same as others describe or quite understand what it means to identify with one of my characters. Instead to me they are like comic book characters that I can control.

I loved imaginative play as a kid, and don't remember having any trouble doing it with others. In fact, I still love to do it, though I keep it in my head these days. I'd love to be an actor, if only I had the confidence and didn't have several physical things that would probably be undesirable in an actor. Oh, yeah, I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome when I was about nine.

I don't think I had any trouble with Imaginative play, when I was on my own I used to pretend i was playing with friends when no one would play with me, Sad isn't it,

When I was at the special school I had friends to play with though, so I didn't need to do that anymore.

I had no problems with it because I did reinacments with my dolls and I make them do things but my play was more concrete. I didn't really play like the other kids and I hated toys like fairy dolls and I preferred barbies or regular dolls not anything else. I even wanted a doll that were when you gave it s bottle because I was fascinated with wet diapers and changing them but my mom said no to that because she knew I would go through them fast. When I played with other kids I did parayl play and did my own thing. I did play school as a kid or house and made mud pies. My husband doesn't think mine was spontaneous if I was copying real life into my play but he is no psychiatrist. But I would put our rocks in the grass to pretend it was a creek and put fake crabs down.

I had huge issues with imaginative play, which resulted in other children not wanting to play with me.
As far as I'm aware there was a social aspect to it - the "pretending" was just acting out a social roleplay - just one different to the one I was expected to play in everyday life. It's just social interaction through objects. I cannot do this. I did not understand the point, nor the changing rules. What was fact in this "play" for another child was suddenly not the same for me.
I also had problems understanding the emotional part of "pretending" - you had to understand how to feel like someone else, and I cannot do that.
I don't know what it was exactly, but it was a whole bunch of non-compute. I remember a younger relative trying to "play" with me even as a teenager, handing me a doll and saying "now you can control her."
I had no idea what I was expected to do with this doll.
I have a serviceable imagination sure, but there is no social part of it that works enough for imaginative play.

If I made up a game, I'd take the game so seriously that other children had to play it my way or not at all. If someone else made up a game, I was less bossy and played quite easily along with their rules and ideas. I seemed OK at sharing the imaginative thinking with the other children during play.

I was good with playing with toys with other children too. In fact I enjoyed it, whether it was my toys or another child's toys.

The thing I was bad at was competitive games, like board games or physical games like hide and seek. I would fuss if I went last, or lost the game, and if someone decided to cheat or fool around, I would also fuss. In fact it would put me in a bad mood and I sometimes started sulking or crying, and mostly excessive whining.

I didn't have any problems with it. I liked to act out parts of my favourite TV shows.

I had no problems with imaginative play, in fact it was all I had as I was a naturally solitary child and I actually enjoyed being alone to make up my own games and scenarios, either just with myself or with my dolls. I had good imagination all-around since I was also into writing and drawing and making up music and lyrics.

As others have said, I used a lot of imagination in my creative writing, and I used to illustrate my stories with pictures I drew or painted. My whole creative side was fired by a very good imagination. I also liked to sing and I made up role-playing things I acted out alone, where I was a singer, or Julie Andrews performing "The Sound of Music." I used to write little plays and act them out for my mother.

It was only when it came to playing with others that - also like someone else said - I wasn't very good with give and take and compromise.

I would rather go off and play by myself.

How can play Not be imaginative?