Games to spark imagination in AS kids?

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I've been having a hard time trying to have imagination play with my 5 year old son with AS. I'm careful not to impose any activity he's not willing to play but the simplest of games can't get him to improvise. What has worked for you and your kids? I've mostly improvised myself like playing with his big collection of hot wheels cars and making up dialogues between the cars or when reading a book trying to let him finish off a sentence but he seems hopeless. Will this help or can it only be done by qualified therapists?

It can be done. It may take some patience. You can show him pictures and have him describe (make up a story) about what is happening in the pictures. There are cards that they sell at teacher stores for this, but any picture or group of pictures will do. You can model telling silly stories or jokes and encourage him to tell his own silly stories or jokes. "Knock Knock", "who's there", "rice cake!! !" is a favorite in our house. When reading him a story you can wonder aloud and eventually he may start to wonder as well. For example, "Why doesn't Rapunzel tell the Prince to go and get a ladder?" "Why is Grumpy always so Grumpy? Maybe he has a headache" Modelling is a great technique! Whenever he is engaged in something ask him to provide as many details as possible, eventually he will make something up! For full disclosure I am currently online as a way to procrastinate studying for my Literacy teacher certifciation exam, so all those ideas come from how to teach struggling students. Good Luck

I think modeling, as noted in the previous post, is a good idea at this age. Some AS kids have very natural imaginations, and others seem to be limited to mimicry. Still, not improvising isn't the same as lacking imagination. It just means they prefer things to be just "so." My son will structure things in accordance with visions in his head, and will want everyone else to buy into that vision, and has trouble when people want to make changes to it. That rigidity is very common with AS, and something your child will need to work on more when he is older.

I think "sparking imagination" isn't really the goal here. Aspies don't lack imagination; if anything, they have an exceptional one. But therein lies the rub. When it comes to creative imagination, like making up fantasy worlds and stories, aspies excel wonderfully. But when it comes to social imagination, like playing role-based games and visualizing people's interactions, that's where aspies oftentimes fall flat. When I made things up as a child, they almost never included people, and when they did, they were usually background characters.

Reading plays might help a lot in your case. (Yeah, there aren't many plays written for children, but you might be able to use some of the easier ones.) As you read each character's lines, ask your son what the character might be thinking, and ask him to describe it in detail. (You might be temped to ask what the character is feeling, but questions about feelings are very difficult, if not impossible, for aspies to answer.) Coming up with answers about what characters think but don't actually say may benefit him in developing the social imagination.

The notion that aspies lack imagination is a misconception. I am and always have been extremely imaginative, but some games (social ones) seem stupid, boring, uninteresting, etc to me. Even as a child, they seemed terribly transparent and pointless.

I mean, cars don't talk. Even a 5 year old knows that. My 3 yo aspie tells me I'm silly if I try that sort of thing. You could read him a story he is used to and ask him if he likes the way it is written, and if not, how would he end it instead. When you ask him to finish it, he may be feeling like you are asking him what exactly will be on the next page, and he is wondering how in the heck he is supposed to know that if he hasn't heard the story before? That is what I would think.....

I am one of the very imaginative ones (My dreams I've been having since I was 12 would be book worthy, and I could probably write a good few long novels based off of them, with of course, some modifications), however personally I would go for getting him video games such as Little Big Planet, or possibly get him a copy of the various source games on steam and a copy of Garry's mod, albeit you will have to watch the violence on that one. As far as other methods go, just expose him to as many different things as possible, you never know what he may be thinking up there, and in some cases, it's better you don't know.

Thanks all! I know aspies aren't lacking imagination. I am aspie myself and I had a vivid imagination when I was a kid, but I would keep it all in my mind and just dream off in social and non-social ocasions. I remember being praised by school teachers about my writing imagination. I'm just trying to get him to react with improvise and doing so with common games so he can feel more comfortable with other kids play. Video games are a great option and his just started to enjoy the arcade kind which is a great first step.
I agree that when I ask him to improvise he seems to think more on what I expect him to say than just say the first thing in his mind. In his quest to impress with the best response he can't come to terms with an answer. But it's also like he can't get passed his last thought and move on to something else.
I'm gonna try PenguinMom's aproach today. Thanks for the tips and I welcome some more.

It means he's developing social intuition (i.e. street smarts), a trouble spot for many aspies. I'm sure he ran into situations where the first thing on his mind was somehow "wrong" or got ridiculed by classmates. Oftentimes, when teachers ask students for a creative response, there are hidden expectations. According to some post on here from a while back, saying you want to be a firefighter gets you a roomful of applause, but saying you want to be an inventor makes people sit quietly in shock. So, your son is learning to edit himself in order to meet those hidden expectations, whatever they may be. True, he may not be as good at it as an NT kid, but he's learning. If anything, I'd say it's a good sign he's doing that. It's going help incredibly as he get older. Consider how psychs always say "there are no right or wrong answers", while in reality it's a lie; some answers will benefit you, and others may be used against you. You can help by teaching your son about different situations, such as those where he'll need to edit himself, and those where he doesn't have to.