Do ASD children tend to have more imaginary friends?

[hereidrawtheline]

DS (AS or ASD) has a lot of imaginary friends which is lovely and doesnt bother me at all. I remember really enjoying my imaginary friends when I was younger. But he does have an awful lot of them and today it sort of changed a little. He was sat on the floor crying and angry, wouldnt let me touch him etc because he had a row of imaginary cars lined up in front of him that he could not pick up, and he wanted to pick them up and play with them. I just found it strange that it was his imaginary friends and his game but he still had this problem. It was very upsetting & frustrating for both of us and lasted around 30 minutes.

My HV said he has difficulty distinguishing between reality and imagination but I would have thought most children did really? Also I have no idea if NT children and ASD children have a different type of imaginary friend? I dont know. Probably they use them for the same thing, all children are learning how to cope in the world. But perhaps there are subtle differences but I am not sure.

Interesting thread. My 8 yr old ds has HFA and he's had two imaginary friends for a number of years now, and like 5inthebeds ds they are also his hands, but fortunately they've never caused him any upset. His two little friends generally get on well but sometimes they do have the odd battle which is quite amusing to watch! They've been quite useful to have around(I'm almost believing they're real myself especially when they join in with our board games. Ds hates to lose but he is prepared to let one of his 'friends' lose. It also occupies him when he needs to sit down and keep quiet like in assemblies etc.

hereidrawtheline - I agree i think most younger children have some difficulty seperating the 2, and lots of non asd children have imaginary friends also. I think the difference being, the extent ASD go to. How much further do they take it, than another child without ASD.

My ds can sometimes use his pretend friends as a barrier, he hates disapproval of any kind, so its 'it wasnt me, it was 'George'

I also think most kids have realisty/fantasy confusions, esp as I said potential writers. For ASD kids, if it's classed as stimming it could be a form of self-hypnosis to lower adrenalin levels and block out sensory noise? But then that would suggest it happened more in times of stress. Dunno, just chucking theories about.