Make believe

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I've read a lot that many children with autism do not pretend play and do make believe with dolls and toys, but when I was little I was really into that sort of thing and did it non-stop with my dolls and Barbies. I would make up and act out these really long and drawn-out stories with them that usually revolved around the Beauty and the Beast storyline (I was obsessed with Beauty and the Beast). I would do this non-stop for hours and get really involved in the story, but it always had to be some variation of Beauty and the Beast. I would sometimes do this with other kids my age if they included me and gave me clear directions for what it was that I was supposed to be pretending, but most of the time it was by myself.

Did anyone else really enjoy playing make believe when they were little?

When I was little, I had a large collection of stuffed animals and my brother and I played make believe with them. Each of the stuffed animals had a distinct personality and we made up an elaborate sitcom about them and their relationships.

I also had many imaginary friends, and I still do to a certain degree.

I still do

Aspies kids are supposed to pretend play and autistics do not. But that isn't entirely true.

I played with dolls growing up and my brothers' action figures and my brother's Mighty Max toys. I also played with match box cars and Brio trains and blocks. I also played house and school.

I would do this too- but not with other kids. I played all by myself, talking to myself. When I was in the bathtub I would do all kinds of make believe and even make my own shampoo commercials. I wouldn't think lack of imaginary play would be a major diagnostic in Autism since everyone is very different. I believe girls are also different in this respect- I have read this in online resources.

I played make-believe with toys when I was little. I still play make-believe, only I've since outgrown the use of toys.

I used to watch my brother and sister do it. I was a very literal 'pretend player'. If I was playing a serial killer that would be problematic. It was more mimicry than imagination though. I'd see scenes in a movie and want to act them out.
I remember when my brother wanted to play with racing formula cars with me. I didn't know what to do so after a few attempts to force me play I burst into tears.
I was more a collector of toys. If I saw little kids playing with my collections (my mum used to let other kids play with them) I'd go berserk.
I used to make my Lion King action figures talk, but that was more as I made their mouths moved when I talked or I held them up to the TV and when people talked I'd move the LK's characters mouth.
I was always following other kids directions with pretend play, so I guess I wasn't that good at it.

When I was a kid, every pen I owned was a rocket ship. I also loved street maps. I used them to pretend to travel through every city I could get a map for. My favorite map was for Tokyo.

ruveyn

I'd make my own toys

I guess what I used to do could qualify as make-believe; I would come up with these really elaborate stories and characters, but I wouldn't act them out and rarely told anyone about them. Now one of those stories is making it's way onto the page--I'm trying to write a book based on one of my old fantasies.

I have always had a vivid imagination.

Fixed fantasy. I kind of developed that when I was about 10. Now my mind always goes into that mode when I'm feeling a bit bored or when I'm on my own.

Er, well actually you did not make up the Beauty and the Beast storyline. When I read this information I made an immediate prediction, confirmed by your following comments.

Indeed. Your play in this instance was plausibly a manifestation of circumscribed (special) interest typical of AS, and particularly if there were elements of repetitiveness to the storylines that you scripted.

The inability to script for yourself in imaginative role play, even with your interest and probable knowledge of the characteristics and elements of the Beauty and the Beast characters and gestalt is indicative of the kind of imagination impairment associated with Aspergers Syndrome. Other children you played with in these circumstances probably did not need so much guidance and could probably proceed in their roles with more vague instruction and much less detailed structure.


Yes, but like you my ability to do so was compromised.

I could not get my head around playing mothers and fathers even with explicit instruction, although my peers easily intiated such play roles without need for instruction from others. I could invoke a character but could not imagine a "mind" for it, being able to easily talk like a mother (for instance) but only if I was told what the mother must communicate.

I myself obsessively enacted (in my head and with dolls or other objects for that matter) scenes from the books and movies/prorgames that I was obsessed with and would try to alter in my mind what had happened, first going over elements of the script directly from the book then trying to imagine the scene altered by my adjustments, but the game always ended here because I simply could not imagine what would happen subsequent to the change I had introduced. While I could if given a script, invoke characters I was familiar with, including enacting their idiosnycratic language use, unless someone told me what the character was to communicate, I was completely at a loss to imagine what they would say or do in response to the changed circumstances I was attempting to introduce into the "script".

I was actually very good (relative to my age peers) at ad-lib acting providing I was given an outline of my characters expected behaviours, attitudes and responses (to events in the "script"), but I was completely unable to imagine these things for myself.

Or put much more succinctly.....

Indeed, excellently summarized in under 8 words.

as a young'un, i used to love taking two broad chairs and covering them with a blanket and then take a flashlight underneath the blanket with me and pretend i was camping outside somewhere, in the great indoors. i used to like taking a playing card and sticking it on the fender of my bicycle so that it would flap against the spokes as the wheel turned, and pretend "VROOMVROOM!" that i was riding a real motorbike.

I played house and school with the other girls in my class when I was younger, but I preferred to make my dollies beat up the action figures. I also had a make believe superhero character, who was a Martian called Skippy, and I would often draw him and create adventures and storylines for him. One of the adventures he had was battling against the evil teachers and setting the children free from school (or "prison", as I used to call it).

I played a lot of pretend when I was a kid, I loved it. However, much of it was acting out movies that we had seen or involving characters from movies/TV shows.