AS and pretend play.

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I've heard people say AS could not be diagnosed in a child that is able to pretend play. Why don't the "experts" stop to think that maybe it's not that aspie children cannot play but rather that they choose not to? If aspie children could not pretend play, then why are there aspie actors (especially great ones!)?

From what I remember from my own childhood, I thought such things like playing "house" or pretend rolls using dolls made no sense.

I rationalized from observation that my parents seemed to being doing their roles as Mr. and Mrs. just fine. I never saw them play and so therefore concluded playing wasn't necessary. From my perspective as a child, being an adult didn't look like fun.

Dolls to me, were just dolls. I had no idea what to have one doll say to another. But . . . when it would come to horses, now that was a different matter! I could really get into "being" a horse! Why is that?

There is only one reason I could play "horse." I wanted to be a horse. If I didn't want to be something, I didn't pretend to play (be) it either.

What do others have to say on this?

I don't think the ability or inability to act is related to make believe and imaginary play as a child; the former is scripted, the latter is spontaneous and lacking a script.

I could participate in imaginary play if I knew how it all would play out (act), I couldn't otherwise.

I should clarify a little more. When I "played" horse, it was after watching either a program ("Fury" for those who are old enough to remember that show) or a movie about a horse. That was my script I carried over into my world.

I did pretend play all the time - my problem was that I never stopped until well into my teens!

But it consisted of creating an imaginary world & "acting out" stories about it with my mum.

(The nearest thing I can compare it to is the Brontes & their imaginary worlds "Angria" & "Gondal". But it was just me & my long-suffering mother.)

It was a school for chickens - or rather 2 next-door schools, a boys' & a girls' school.

It was all really elaborate, I used to write out form lists for all 20 forms (from 0-year-old chicks to their 20th birthday), draw plans of the school, have my dad draw pictures of the charatcers - because I can't draw in that way & he can.

Last edited by shopaholic on 26 Oct 2007, 6:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

WOW, I see a table here, and there are NO pens on it! I guess tables repel and can't have pens! THAT is what many psychiatrists do here. Checking to see if such a situation was attempted, or even possible would be a good idea.

I like the story someone recently suggested about a girl that ALWAYS draw here family in dark foreboding colors, and everyone thought she had something WRONG! It wasn't until they asked her that they found she was the last to get the box of crayons, and everyone else took all the colors before she got the box!

I never owned a doll until I was six, and when I did get one, I tried to dye her hair with food dye. I lost interest when the dye washed out in water. I don't know where that doll is now. Its probably being turned into methane in a landfill.
My Mum did buy me a lot of teddies, but I would lose interest in a teddy very quickly.
I didn't play very well with other kids. I was too violent and I would get overexcited very quickly.
When I was little, I would get extremely hyperactive when people other than my immediate family were around.

I watched Bambi 25 times in a month. My favourite pastime would be staring at my Dad's laptop while he used it, or walking around the park 5 or more times with my Mum. I loved repetition.

I had no problem with some pretend play when I was a kid. I and my brother used to pretend that we were criminals, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, cowboys etc. all the time. I never managed to play house, and therefore I hated it. When the teachers in pre-school forced me to play with dolls, the girls always complained about the way I played, so I guess I wasn't particularly good at that either...

I think this inability to pretended play is connected to playing a game of pretense with other children. I played scripts and was extremely creative in dreaming up dream worlds and adventurous scenarios, but I never knew how to play "Mother-Father-Child" (Note: This game may have a different name in English) together with other children, because I didn't know what the expectations were or what I should do.

I'm good at acting and I write imaginary and good short stories, but I can't imagine how to act the way someone wants me to. It just doesn't come natural to me today and when I was a child, children just played, while I thought the pretended play doesn't held any interest for me. When I was told 'well, just pretend that you're a bird!', I couldn't. What kind of bird? What's the bird I play to do? Why should I do this? What are you expecting the bird I play to do?

Other children just screamed hurray and run in a circle, the arms spread. I didn't got that I was expected to act silly and plan dumb and never creative and thoughtful. I needed/need to give what I did/do a meaning so that I can think up what to do and identify with my role to make it real.

Edit: Corrected a mistake.

Last edited by Sora on 26 Oct 2007, 10:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

As a child I didn't have a habit of pretending or at least, this habit wasn't very developed. I never could imagine how it's possible for children having their imaginary friends to talk to them aloud (and maybe even believe they are listened to) and generally behave as if they were real people with whom such children spend time. Since early childhood I used to create whole imaginary worlds in my head, making my own mind my best toy. I still do it. I based my internal worlds on movies seen by me and on books I had read. But everything was happening in my own head, externally I didn't show any signs of this.

What are the rules of this game? I can find nothing about this in Google.

I don't have an official diagnosis, and was able to do pretend play just fine. In fact I was probably more wrapped up in a fantasy world than most people. My brother (who we now think may have had AS) was that way even more so. He would kind of dictate to his friend how their fantasy world was playing out.

I played horse too. And hamster. And dragon. I was obsessed with animals so I would try to act like them. I wanted to be an animal.

For me, it had nothing to do with any tv shows or movies. It had to do with reading about animals or having them as pets.

I could never understand why other kids acted out tv shows. I didn't see the point in playing unless there was imagination involved.

I used to think I didn't have AS because I've always enjoyed pretending, but if you look at the DSM-IV criteria, it is clear that an imaginative person can be diagnosed with AS as long as they meet other criteria:
Diagnostic Criteria for AS "Made Easy"

Oops, it should have been 'I never knew how to play'. Ah, ADD, lovely.

Three or more children pretend they're a family, one the mother, one the child and one the father. The funny thing is that after the roles are given out nobody seems to do anything.

OK, This is called "playing house" in the US

http://childparenting.about.com/od/game ... yhouse.htm

I hated that game. All the girls played it at my school. They would spend of the time arguing over who got to be the baby. And no one wanted to be the dad. If they got it sorted out, I'd see them pretending to do chores, like sweeping.