A bit of imaginative play. Hooray!

[mysonben]

Hello ladies, It seems ds is doing "pretend play" a little more lately.
It started at nursery when he and a couple of other children were sitting on chairs put in a line , pretending they were on a bus.

Then at home he took his own little chair put a cushion on it and said it was his motorbike.

And this morning, he got hold of the table mats and put them on the floor beside the table legs (car wheels), then got my round laundry basket (steering wheel), sat on a chair and said that's my car!"

Ok it does still revolve around cars but still that is pretend imaginative play!

I was amazed really , i didn't think he had it in him . I mean asd children struggle with imagination don't they!?

What do you think of that progress? Impressive or still too little?

To be honest what is going round my head is ,if he can do pretend play , maybe he will improve with his speech/understanding, and his socialising , ...and maybe it's not asd??? Maybe it's all a big mistake?

Oh dear i'm back on the rollercoaster again , it seems the minute i make my mind up and accept what the paed has said and the moutain of evidence, ds takes a step forward ( a good thing) and i'm back in the pits of undecision...

The pretend play is fab. and impressive, mysonben.

If you find the answers to those other questions, patent it - you'll make millions

even if he hasn't got ASD, his pretend play is coming in quite late (as with my lad) so keep working on it.

From what I've read on the NAS website...children with ASD/aspergers CAN be very imaginative - it is social imagination that they struggle with.

That said, though, I would say that pretending to be sitting on a bus with other children is, most definitely, socially imaginative play. So yay to your DS

My DS, too, was rather late in developing this - at 3 he was doing very little but now, at 5, does it a lot. And his play is both imaginative and socially interactive. He wanted to dress up as a doctor recently whilst playing with one of his close friends; she - typical girl - wanted him to dress as a princess (!) so DS compromised and came down in doctor's uniform complete with a pink sparkly princess hat and informed us all that he was a 'prince doctor'.

I mean, his father would probably be appalled at the sight but I was delighted

I made my poor child pretend to be his friend's dentist the other day - all went well till the other child bit his finger!

Yey, well done

Amberflower- the pretending to be on the bus wasn't ds 'idea unfortunately , and it only lasted a very short moment before ds decided he didn't want the chair he was sitting on. The thing is ds always end up trying to control the playing at nursery. Everything is always "no not that way! That way!" ...ds 's favourite words. What is actually meant by social imagination? For ds would that mean him being able to play his part actively and creatively when at play with others? Because ds merely copies what the others are doing or gets an idea in his head of how they should be playing and get upset if the others don't listen.

Lingle- i was knocked back down a peg or two earlier as he started lining up/standing up cushions behing his chair and dd's chair and he was just sitting there doing his humming noise for ages. When dd approached him to sit on HER chair he had a big tantrum.
Still every little step must be encouraged i suppose.

mysonben - yes, in a nutshell I guess your definition of 'playing his part actively and creatively when at play with others' is pretty accurate. I have read and re-read the NAS definition of 'social imagination' but sometimes it is hard to apply it to your own child's situation.

But even if he only participated in the game for a moment or two (and even if he didn't dream up the idea) that is progress, of a sort. I don't think my DS would have become involved in that sort of game at 3/4, but he certainly would now; it is difficult to tell at this stage what future progress your DS might make but it is certainly a possibility that he could learn to play more imaginatively. You are right, encourage every little step

"The thing is ds always end up trying to control the playing at nursery. Everything is always "no not that way! That way!" ...ds 's favourite words"

Ooh mysonben that was my eldest brother's big problem as well. Having a younger brother who delighted in teasing him for his inflexibility did not help.
But it was not an insoluble problem - he could have overcome it I believe had he had help - especially if he'd got used to seeing the funny non-threatening side of rule changes.