anyone with lo with asd. - how is their imagination??

[emandjules]

My dd is 4 yrs old and has sensory processing disorder. After 2 yrs of assessment the ped and other health professionals have thought about an asd but have not given a diagnosis of one yet, It is in the back of their minds but they are not sure. Things is dd's imagination is unbelievable, some of the ideas she comes up with. how is yr lo's imagination cos I was always led to believe asd affected their imaginary skills/

I occasionally see a glimmer of imagination with ds but most of the time it's scenes replayed from Tv and film.

Saying that, his memory is farking amazing!!

My DS (3.10) does quite a lot of imaginary play now, but it's mostly centred round him pretending everything is a car or a boat in a race. He doesn't do much with little people toys or soft toys.

My DS (3.5) is getting dx (prob asd). He does not have much imaginary play. He can do cups of tea and food because done lots of times with me. Will hold a phone to his ear and babble but it is like a copy of what I do. Can't think of anything else. He doesn't have great language skills so wouldn't know if he has any ideas lurking there. Doesn't get dressing up but loves girly stuff and wearing blankets maybe due to sensory stuff. Really different to DS1 who is imaginative to the extreme.

Oh yes, forgot to say that DS likes to dress up but just likes to look at himself in the mirror, not really do much roleplay. I did have to be a dragon a few times and be hit with a foam sword when he was being a knight, and the latest thing is that I have to wear a sheet over my head and be a ghost when we play board games (no idea why!)

DS who is pre-diagnosis is 3.5, and very similar to Personal Clown and Spacegirl's boys. Limited imagination, and what there is I suspect is copied from me/TV. (except he does occasionally pretend random objects are racing cars )

Ds1 is now 7 and has never really done much in the way of imaginative play. However, now that he is finally able to write he absolutely loves writing stories. His teacher commented on how good his imagination is and how she can see him as a future author. IME imagination in ASD isn't necessarily the same as imaginative play IYKWIM. To ds1 a teddy bear was just a toy and so what was the point in putting a cup (and an empty one at that!) to its mouth and pretending to have parties/picnics with it?

coppertop I know just what you mean - there is a category difference between first person and third person imaginary play (spot the mother with a philosophy degree and a couple of glasses of wine!). DS imagines himself to be and do all sorts of stuff but indeed would not see the point of a teddy bears' picnic. When he has an imaginary picnic it is with real people and imaginary plates and food.

(Though he did tell me at bedtime that all the teddies he'd asked me to pile on his bed were having a party).

my DD's have no imagination at all, DS is quite good. his teacher showed me a fab story he wrote, as i was reading it i could see bits taken from , the twits starwars and mr bean.
but last week we had a picnic in the garden and i deliberatly looked the other way as i could see DS's hand moving towards my crisps, when i looked back all my crisps had gone, i couls hear DS giggling and i asked him if he knew where my crisps had gone and he said...you are not going to believe this mum but 10 pidgeons flew down from the sky and stole your crisps away!

My dd with mild asd has a fantastic imagination. She always has done. Dresses up, imaginative play, detailed drawings and stories.
She now goes to a drama group at the weekends and it brings a lump in my throat to see her role playing (even if she isn't giving the person who she is looking at eye contact ).

DS2 had no imaginative play at all until very recently - in fact he strenuously avoided it - but has just started playing a game where he pretends I am hurt - he makes me say 'ow', then says 'phew, phew', strokes my face, says 'ah...big hugs...thank you' and then starts the whole thing over again. Sometimes we have to do it the other way round where he's the one that's hurt. He also does it every time we sing a song or read a story that has someone falling over or getting hurt in it - which is quite often when your favourite thing is Thomas! He also likes to pretend to cry or be 'cross' (which involves growling 'croooosssss' in a guttural voice - v funny).

Thanks for input. em always involves other ppl in imaginative play and makes eye contact with no probs, that is what makes me think if she is asd they will come up with a dx of pdd-nos.

With autism the issue is more about social imagination, rather than imaginative play generally. Lots of children with ASDs can play imaginatively, the problem comes when they need to be flexible in that play and allow it to develop. Autism limits the ability to do this - our children tend to be very rigid in the way they play their imaginative games and need to stick to a particlar way of doing it (hence acting out word-for-word scenes from films and tv), but they have difficulties with other children suggesting that a game should develop in a particular way because that 'breaks the rule' that they've set for themselves.

My son, 8 with AS, can play fantastic imaginative games if they're on his terms but struggles massively if someone makes an alternative suggestion to the idea he has in his head. Having said that, it depends largely on his state of mind at the time - he can cope if he's calm and the suggestion is put to him gently and with explanation, but if it's sprung on him he'll freak.

Social imagination also includes Theory Of Mind, imagining outcomes and alternative scenarios, empathy etc. Quite a complex issue really.