Elaborate pretending as a child?

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I'm not officially diagnosed AS, I just strongly suspect I have it. So I'm posting this question about a strange part of my childhood to see if others relate.

When I was very young, maybe four years old, my father had to take a job 250 miles away for a brief time, maybe 5 or 6 months. During this time he was only able to come home to visit us once or twice. I guess this disruption in my routine upset me a lot. Anyway, after he'd been gone a week or two, I told my mother that I didn't want to be called by my real first name anymore and that she should now call me Dennis the Menace, like the cartoon character. Soon after I started calling her Mr. Wilson, after Dennis's neighbor in the cartoon. My baby sister I called either Joey or Margaret, after Dennis's two friends. I continued this "game" for several months. I'm not sure if I was going to preschool during this time or not, but I don't remember ever trying to make people call me Dennis there. I do remember a few adults, including a neighbor and the dentist, being a little alarmed by my behavior, but I think that was mostly because they were uncomfortable with a little girl pretending to be a boy.

Did anyone else try to assume the identity of a fictional character as a child? Like I said above, this might not have any connection to ASDs, and I might not even be AS, as I haven't been formally evaluated yet. However, in retrospect the whole thing seems so completely bizarre that I'm wondering if anyone here could help me figure out what the heck was going on in my little kid head!

When I was in elementary school I took on the identity of Agent Mulder in the X files, heh, but I was 11-12 or so... perhapse a little old for pretend.

Hi Dennis (or should I say Denise the Menace).

It's probably completely irrelevant but your story reminded me that my sister used to dress me up in her clothes when I was that age.

Then she made me go to the front of the house, knock on the front door and say I was Janet.

Then I asked my Mum if Tim (me) could come out to play.

No wonder I'm peculiar

I WAS Pinnochio. Not only did I dress like Pinnochio and act like Pinnochio and sing the songs that Pinnochio sang, but I would draw Pinnochio with his long nose with the birds nests on it over and over and over again.

I used to want to role-play all of the episodes of The Dukes of Hazard that I would see on television, when I was little.

Well, I was on a little league soccer team, but what the rest of my team didn't know was that I was definitely a ninja on a battlefield and they were my targets. Chasing that ball was so secondary to doing cool pretend sword swipes that it wasn't even a question why I was out there.

Hahahaha! Soccer ninja!

When I was young I made elaborate make believe worlds inside my head, with Ninja Turtles vs GI Joe, or Muppet Babies in the bath tub vs the epic squid monster. I wanted so badly to be a ghost buster, that I'd pretend to be part of their squad for a day, and run around the house with my plastic proton pack. What kid didn't have one of these in the late 80's early 90's?! Having an unlicensed proton accelerator was every kids dream. I'd throw the ghost trap under the couch and pretend that bad boy sucked it in.

I could jump in and out of character at will, from ninjas to a mercenary, from a spy to a dinosaur in the Land Before Time, I was them!

Yes, I had a very rich fantasy life as a child. Once, when I was 2, I decided that I wanted to be called Sharon. I stuck to it pretty well too, for while. We actually have part of that time on videotapes, so I uploaded a few bits from it so you guys could see:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge1DxnOmYuE[/youtube]

When I was 3, I had two "daughters," named Sandra and Alison. I've got a clip of this below, as well. Then when I was about seven or so, I made up this whole world for my stuffed animals, named Caninia. I made up some words in the Caninian language, and told lots of stories about their adventures. Around this age as well, my brother and I shared two imaginary "enemies", against whom we competed in everything we did.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG7idVYpsT4[/youtube]

I was Princess Lea ages 4-7. I worshiped her. This was the mid 80's so no one else (besides my cousins) ever wanted to play with me.

Not so bizarre. Most kids have active imaginations, especially during the pre-kindergarten years. Here's a quote from an article written by one of my professors:

"...the process of language learning that occurs from birth through the preschool years is a "magical" process that moves from preintentional, presymbolic interactions through the development of intentionality and the development of symbolic language to the point where children can use language in sophisticated ways to interact with others in imaginary play."

The point of the article was that children who use AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) have as much right to express their imaginative, inner worlds as children who communicate through speech, and that professionals needs to keep this in mind when they are developing communication systems and choosing vocabulary.

But anyway, my point is that young children do often live in a magical world of their own making, in which they can act out the joys and stresses of their lives, and there's nothing bizarre about that.

Lol this reminds me of how I pretended my family were the characters from Peter Pan when I was little.

I was just going to say. When i was little I pretended peter pan, Aladdin, and The body the the princess and the goblin were my brothers. or at least thats my real brother. actually I pretended they were my boyfriends.

I pretend played at primary school, while the other kids were talking to each other. Everyone though I was weird for it, and a few laughed at me. I didn't even need objects. I was oblivious to how odd I looked walking around and pretending things. I didn't do it past primary, though.

I just remeber how attached I was when watching some t.v ... to the point I cried when my favourites cartoons cried or being laughing of joy when something good happend to my favourite t.v characters, (both tv series like 'Knight Rider', I loved the car KITT or a 'Murder She Wrote' with Angela Lansbury and all kind of japanese anime cartoons )

And as for elaborate pretending, maybe once in front the t.v I tried to emulate to 'Sailor Moon' anime japanese, when nobody was watching me and then yelling loud 'in the name of the moon I'll punish you' while gesturing at the same time, I don't know it gave me pleasure to feel I was someone else for a while, LOL, ... but then I turned to be myself

Yeah!! ! When I was about 3 I practically had a nervous breakdown from learning cartoons were "not real". I thought they were sort of like a documentary of an alternate-universe. My first suspiciouns came while watching action packed cartoons and wondering how the camera men were so fast and accurate with their shots, while dodging bullets and lasers.

Last edited by Kalister1 on 09 Sep 2007, 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I expected that the Easter bunny would be a cartoon when he emerged from the jungle in the back yard where i would sit and wait for him...(even though it wasn't easter)

um...i think it was a while before I knew cartoons weren't real...i think any little kid would have trouble with that distinction.